Wondering why there isn't (that I know of) a 3rd post on some Cornelius kegs either at the top that dips down and attaches a carb stone or on the side that fits a carb stone. I find carbing up beers in the keg takes too long to get a good carb versus my experience with perfectly carbing multiple bbl of beer in brite tanks with step carbing via carb stones. Anyone ever modify their kegs with a carb stone? Thoughts on this?
I haven't used stones. But the lids I've seen that are fitted with carb stone and tubing are petty expensive IMO. Like 60-70$ on more beer I believe. I imagine you could assemble one quite easily tho with some tubing, hose clamps, and stone from the gas IN post inside the keg.
Corney kegs are/were made for soda. If Coke and Pepsi did not need a third post then there was no need for a third post. You can by a dip tune with a stone but it is not really necessary. Cut the end of your dip tube and clamp hose and the carb stone. Use oetiker clamps if you can, or at least high quality worm clamps. And keep it tight. The stone will blow off once you apply 30 psi. Cheers.
I have one of the lids with the carb stone on it. First few times I used it it worked well, carbed up in 24 hours. The last few times it took 3-4 days. I've been leaving a pint or 2 head space in the keg, set the normal CO2 to 30 psi, leave it for 24 hours, vent, turn back to serving psi, and its ready to go.
supposedly the micron size pores on the stone can be clogged very easily. I read that even oil from your skin is enough. Maybe a vodka soak?
I'll give that a try. The other huge issues with that device is that you have to do extra cleaning/sanitizing every keg, if you try to remove the lid and swap it for the original keg lid after carbing the beer turns to foam, they aren't made wide enough to fit snuggly in every keg, and you have to baby it every few hours to get it to carb right (starts at 3-4 psi for 2 hours, then 5-6 for 1 hour, 7-8 for an hour, 9-10 for an hour, then 11-12 for 24. Can't just set and forget.
I have been playing around with a home-rigged design to do an in-line Co2 diffusion chamber when kegging beers. Should help significantly cut down on carb time. Haven't gotten all the way there yet. Too much other stuff to do all the time. I've used the carbing keg lids from morebeer and while they work fairly well- they do have limitations as Jbakajust1 describes above. What I do with the morebeer cap is carb with it, then do a closed transfer to another keg when I get the right carb level in the beer. Closed transfer of the next beer to the carbing lid keg, repeat. You can clean in-between transfers for differing styles. It is time consuming, but works well for me.
