Hi fellow brewers and BA's I recently received a used keg for a retailer who made clear they are used and come with dents and scratches. Didn't mind at all until I received the keg and it has paint, yes paint and old stickers everywhere, so I'm thinking of sanding it down to make it look better, has anyone ever done this with no ill side effects? The keg it self is clean but the outside looks horrible, I just want it to look presentable to company that I try to show it off to. Thanks for any input
I kinda like the ghetto look. It has an unmistakable DIY charm. Most of mine had stickers and adhesive residue on them. I cleaned off the sticky stuff, but that's as far as I went with it. It's just not that important to me. You won't hurt it as long as you limit your efforts to the outside.
That's pretty normal. I've never sanded them, so don't know if it would hurt anything. I'd probably not use metal oxide type paper though. And no steel wool.
You could get them sandblasted. Not a shiny finish but clean. Make sure the blaster knows what he's doing and is aware that cornies are somewhat thin and fragile. But I'd just remove the sticky stuff and paint with a solvent then polish with Bar Keeper's Friend and a scrubby.
Don't judge a keg by it's cover...hopefully you did get an extra set of o-rings and poppets though...the really important stuff.
If you build yourself a nice keezer with built in taps, and there are some impressive ones out there, no one will ever need to know that the keg inside looks used.
Some of mine look like a girl you'd take home at closing time, but honestly, they sit inside my keezer, so no one gets to look at them. They hold beer, and pressure, and are clean and functioning. I'd leave them myself, unless you have an OCD that can't leave well enough alone.
May be me, but effort to "shine" a keg doesn't lead to a better beer of course. I'd leave it and put the energy to the beer production, but that's me.
This won't help you now, but if you decide to purchase used kegs in the future, there are vendors that charge slightly more for "reconditioned" kegs. At least at the link below, they pick the better kegs and clean them up further, then supply you with new o-rings and such. Not a bad deal for $13 extra, IMHO. http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Cornelius-Keg-Reconditioned-Ball-Lock-_p_963.html That said, I still had to soak the inside in OxiClean to remove the soda smell before use.
Thanks for the input, I jus scrubbed it with bar keepers friend and said to help with the rest thanks again.
