Success! Reusing Miller Home Draft systems

I brewed a less than perfect batch a few months ago and was anxious to get it out of the keg.  I happened to remeber by Miller Home Draft systems I saved from a prior post while I was at the brew store today, so I picked up  a few 16gram CO2 cartriges and decided to finaly put one to use.


When I first emptied the Miller Home Draft systems I gave them a good cleaning with Iodine.  Today, I got them out and did the same again to be sure they were clean and ready to go.  Unfortunatly, one of the dispencer heads was plugged and I was unable to get it open.  The second one took a little forced air, but it opened. 

The shutoff valve works in the dispencer head is made to clamp down on the flexible tube to create the seal.  It would seem that after some time, it made the tube seal together and not want to open anymore. 

From that experience, I think it would be best to leave the dispencers in the OPEN position when not in use.

After getting the second head cleaned out, I filled the bottle from the corny keg tap using a bottle filler to reduce the splashing and loss of CO2, then put the dispencing head on the bottle tightly.  It seems best to put the entire thing back in the box for stability if you have room for it.

After that, Be sure to put the valve in the closed position, crank down the CO2 cartrige and let it do it's magic.    I put it in the fridge and closed the door, just in case it would over pressure and blow.  It's been in there for an hour now and seems to be doing fine.

My stash

I poured my first beer from the tap of the Home Draft system and it seems to be a bit to pressurized.  I think if your beer were already carbonated, the 16 gram cartridge may be a little too much, but only time will tell..

Time to go start brewing my Sam Adam's clone!