1 - 2.5 Gallon Keg/Kegging system

https://www.kegco.com/draft-beer-equipment/beer-kegs/home-brew-beer-kegs/

I have a couple of 3.0 gal Kego-branded kegs (Italian made) and have been very pleased. They make them in 2.5/1.75/1.0 gal also.

My guess is you'll have to buy new (ouch), just about never see them on the used market. If you want to pinch some pennies you'll find 5 gal used corny's for $50'ish and there is nothing wrong with filling them to only one gallon. It'll take more than a lifetime to make up the cost of any extra CO2.

 

You can still find used kegs for a good price but not like before. If you do find a good used keg it wont be anything other than a 5 gallon, and it will likely need new o-rings all around. You can buy an o-ring kit for a few bucks and there is nothing particularly difficult about refurbishing a used keg.

The new Italian corney kegs available are really good. The price difference between 5, 2.5 and 1 is pretty small so think of where you might be in the future with your brewing. A 5 gallon keg is going to require significantly more storage space of course. And a proper keg beer system will have a dedicated fridge because maintaining the correct temp with little variations is much more important than most folks realize. Especially with a small batch of beer. You just do not want to be dumping 20% of every pint because of foam.

For your system, go with stainless steel. Faucets and shanks and anything beer contact, all of it should be stainless. It is a small price increase and worth the investment. After that if you have the budget forward seal faucets are nice.

And whatever you do avoid no-name off brand equipment. If the vendor does not specify the brand stay away. There is a lot of substandard made in China junk available and it just doesn't work. I can't stress this enough. Spend the extra $20 on the made in Italy keg and it will last a lifetime. Buy a chrome plated no-name faucet and you'll want to replace it after the first week.

Feel free to explore the homebar forum for lots of discussion.

Cheers.

 

I regularly brew small batch. I got all of my 3 gallon kegs used at adventuresinhomebrewing.com. They work great and are a nice bargain. There are 2.5 gallon kegs out there, but are generally more expensive. 3 gallons = roughly 24 pints.

 

homebrewing.org sells various sizes of new corny kegs, 1.75 gallons, 2.5 gallons, and 3 gallons for $75 each. I have been pleased. I haven't ever seen used kegs for sale that were not 5 gallons.

 

I've never seen the smaller ones for sale used either, probably because there was never a surplus left over from the soda industry. (AFAIK 5 gallons was the smallest used by coke/pepsi.) Used 10 gallons cornies pop up once in a while, and they are crazy expensive.

 

I keg 2-4 gallon batches in 5 gallon kegs without issue. You just have to waste a bit more CO2 on purging.

 

I've always brewed/kegged 2.5 gal batches. I got my kegs here...https://www.homebrewing.org/AIH-New-Double-Rubber-Handle-25-Gal-Keg_p_5101.html, and I ferment in a 3 gal keg that I got from the same place. I use picnic taps and a 2.5 lb co2 tank. I've recently started naturally carbonating and then just using a mini regulator from Williams brewing and 16gram cartridges to serve the beer.