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!

Hops are starting to flower

My cascade hops are starting to flower. The nugget hops are not growing nearly as fast. The cascade plant is about 6 ft tall and the nugget hops plant is only about 2 ft.

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Miller Lite Home Draft - Reusable for a home brewer?

I recently noticed the Miller Lite came out with a "Home Draft" system that looked very similar to the "Tap-a-draft" system my brewing buddy was interested in.  The tap a draft system seems like a nice idea, but I was a little unsure of it for the cost involved.  When I saw this, I had to get one and check it out.

Luckily, Ohio is part of a test market so you may not be able to get these yet but if you can, you should read on!

I purchased one for $20 from a local liquore store.  It was warm and I had to chill it.   Being that is was only miller lite, I had a few drinks out of it and then realized how horrible Miller Lite is after you have become acustom to home brews and better beers.  A few beers into it, I decided I had to jump to my origional plan and find out: "Can it be reused for home brewing?"

I took the Home Draft outside and twisted the entire top unit off slowly to release the pressure.  After releasing the presure, I poured out the miller and got to work.

The picture to the right shows the main system.  There is a dip tube with a weight, just like a model airplane gas tanks, a CO2 cartridge, and the tap.    My biggest concern was the CO2 cartridge. Miller put a mechanisim between the threds that made the cylinder only want to twist in to puncture the CO2 Cartridge, but it would not twist out.  I thought for sure the first Home Draft would be wasted in an effort to figure out how it worked..

I was wrong.  I thought I would try some pliers against the ring and twist against the one-way locks and I figured for sure I would break it.  Amazingly, I heard a snap.  It was the one-way pieces breaking loose.  I was able to unscrew the CO2 cylinder and disasemble and reasymble the enitre thing without any problem.

Knowing this now, I'll be sure to buy one when I have a poker party or friends over.  I know I'll be able to reuse it and save myself from the issues of bottling without the big Corny key that needs it's own Kegerator.

Conclusion:

The Draft Key is a reusable small kegging system that does not require a spereate refrigerator and can be reused.

Pros:

It's reusable

It Fits in a normal Fridge

It's Cheap

Cons:

(The Obvious one) It comes with Miller Lite!

You could break it and loose your investment if you are not carefull about tearing it down.

Happy Brewing!

How to get started - What you need to get and where to get it from

I'll cover the basics of Equipment you will need.  Many of the items are things you may already have around that house.

•  Brew kettle - The kettle should be Stainless Steel or Epoxy Coated and be at least 3-4 gallons.  You can use Aluminum, but some special concerns should be addressed.
•  Gas Stove or Turkey Deep Fryer - Just after ThanksGiving you can get a great deal on these.  Don't worry about BTU's.  You will use it at the very low end of it's abilities. 150-210 degrees.  Sometimes you can find one with a 5 gallon Stainless Pot and lid which can be used as your brew kettle.
• Primary Fermenter - This can be a 6 Gallon plastic bucket with a lid, or a 6 gallon Glass Carboy.  If you get a Carboy, get a brush to clean it too.   
• Wert Whip or long handled spoon.  
•  Digital cooking Thermometer with a remote probe  
• Cleaning Solutions - You will need some "One-Step" and a bottle of Iodine.  DO NOT USE CHLORINE BASED CLEANERS.  There are some acid based cleaners as well, but I am not familure with them.  I have heard good things about them.
• Funnel - if you are using a Glass Carboy 
• AirLock - This is a device that allows CO2 out, but does not let air in.  I prefer the 3 piece style airlock because they are easier to clean.  You will also need a drilled rubber stopper to fit the airlock to the glass carboy, or if you are using a plastic bucket, a lid with a hole and a gasket.
• 3 feet of clear hose 
• Racking cane or Auto Siphon. - The Autosiphon cost a little more, but it is worth it.  
• Bottle Capper, and Bottles 
• Bottling Bucket with Valve and Bottle Filler.
• (Optional) a Theif and a Hydrometer - These are used to measure "Specific Gravity" which can help you determin the alcohol content in your beer.  In brewing a Malt Extract, this is not required.

Some of these supplies you can find at your local stores, but some of the items you will need to get from a home brew shop.   Listermann's ( http://www.listermann.com/ ) is a great shop that is near me.  Thier brewing recipies are great and go the extra mile to make a great Malt Extract kit.

You can find whole kits that usualy come with the plastic buckets for around $80-$100 and you just need to get a brew kettle and a way to heat it.  I would highly recommend the AutoSiphon.

Go gather up your stuff and pick a good brew recipe to start with.  I have been very happy with the kits provided my Listermann's.  They include the Malt Extract, Hops, Yeast, Hop Bags, directions, and Grain.  They have been superior to some of the other kits I have seen.

I would recommend starting out with a Pale Ale or an IPA.  These are both fairly bitter and easy to brew.  The bitterness can help hide minor improfections.  Listermann's American Pale Ale is somewhat more bitter than a Bass, but not as bitter as a Siera Nevada.

Look for the next post when we start brewing an American Pale Ale!

Getting started - Rules for making your first Extract Beer.

Todays lesson is a quick overview you will need to brew your firstbrew using a process known as "Malt Extract Brewing".  In Malt Extract Brewing, we are using a extract created by someone else for us rather than using the lengthy "Whole Grain" process.  The Extract is a malt, almost like a honey or pancake syrup that has all the required sugars, saves us some money in extra equipment, some time, and many concerns about temperatures and Ph.

Why do we need Sugars in beer?  Let's cover the basics of what happens when brewing.

The very basics of brewing are:

1) a "Sugar water" (I use that term VERY loosly) is mixed with yeast to create wert.
2) The yeast eats the sugar in a process known as fermentation, leaving 2 byproducts, CO2 gas and Alcohol
3) Hops are added throughout the process to create flavors and aromas.

Sounds simple right?  It really is when you are Extract Brewing.  But theres a few rules to get you started:

RULES FOR BREWING

1) There is no such a thing as being too clean - Yeast makes a great starter for bacteria and bad things you dont want.  Make sure the yeast and wert dont find bacteria to help grow.  We always use "One-Step", a non-chlorinated, Oxygen based cleaner. This gets the bad stuff off anything we use to brew (Which we will talk about later).  After "One-step", we use Iodine to sanitise the things we brew with.  This process ensures the brewing things are clean, and steryle.  This is not the only process, but this works well for us.  What ever you do, DO NOT USE DISH OR HAND SOAP!!  I can't stress this enough.  Soaps leave behind a film that can negativly effect your brew process.

2) Follow the directions - The Directions in the kits are usulaly good.  Lay it all out on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet of what you need to do at each time interaval and have a digital timer around to be accurate.  Make sure you are clear on what the directions are. 

3) Don't guess - You can't recreate the same results if you dont know exactly what you did, and when.  Taking good notes is always a good idea.

4) Don't brew on an electric stove - I tried my first few batches on an electric stove and there is little or no temperature control.  The heat is ON or OFF.  I had a few good batches, but many failures and messes before giving up for several years.  When I got back into brewing, I got a Turkey Deep Fryer at Biggs for $40 just after thanksgiving.  It is worth it's weight in gold when it comes to brewing.

Look for the next post on the tools and suppliers you will need to get started.