Goon bags for beer

[ciunas]

Okay, somewhere into the arduous task of cleaning out all those bottles of beer, I got the idea of using goon bags (the bladder out of a cask of wine) instead of bottles.

I went ahead and tried it, they seemed to clean up okay. The idea of using and cleaning only six bags was infinitely more appealing than the current situation.

The main problem that I've come across is the bags swelling up too much and breaking. I've tried to get around this by releasing some of the carbon dioxide from the bags which looked about to break, but I imagine that this is a bad idea. Next time I'll use substancially less priming sugar.

The one bag that I gave in and tried a taste or two of was okay, if not nearly flat, but I can attribute that to the (too) high alcohol content of the particular beer I made this time, and the fact that I released too much of the CO2. I suppose in theory that it's possible that the bags themselves are unable to take the pressure of expanding gasses on the inside, but it doesn't seem too likely.

But aside from aesthetics, is there any reason why this should not work?

[rwh]

I suppose in theory that it's possible that the bags themselves are unable to take the pressure of expanding gasses on the inside...

That's going to be the main problem. I doubt that they're able to maintain any appreciable pressure at all, hence virtually no carbonation. If you think about it, you can't buy sparkling wine in a bladder...

[earle]

I think you're going to have trouble getting properly carbonated beer. If the bags are strong enough the taps only push on and may pop off.

When we went camping we would use the empty goonie bladders blown up with air when we went swimming. Inevitably they would get water in them which suggests they don't have fantastic seals when put under pressure.

I think they're also going to be difficult to get thoroughly clean because of the seams in the sides.

You could always try 2L coke bottles to reduce your bottling effort. You can tell when they're carbonated by squeezing them and you can let some gas out if you think they're overcarbonated.

Goonie bladders are fantastic for making ice for the esky. Put about 3-3.5 L of water in and sit them ina 4l ice cream container to freeze. Make a good block of ice that lasts for days in the esky.

[Longwood-65]

you use to be able to buy "Decor " plastic cask wine holders, ( cast wine can be appealing on the table ) in which you pulled the goonie bag out of the box and placed in the container had a slot for the tap, if you can still buy them this may help prevent bursting bags as it would restrict the expansion, as for cleaning them no suggestions.

Cheers
Ron

[warra48]

Why not just use the 3 litre coke/soft drink bottles?
They are designed to take the pressure and will allow normal and full carbonation.

[ciunas]

Coke bottles are a good idea that I hadn't thought of.

However, goon bags do have the advantage of being collapsable, which makes storage and transport of the empty containers less of an annoyance.

I've been playing with the idea of removing the lids and sealing the bags with sillicone (or a food-grade sealant) and some sort of plastic stopper until they're ready to drink.

I'm fairly certain that the bags can handle a decent amount of pressure, simply by observing the amount of time it has taken for my overprimed bags to show damage. The outer plastic skin seems to be a lot less resilient than the internal plastic.

I also did an simplistic seal/pressure test before I started, filling the bag with air and then sitting a heavy object on it over night. At the time I was trying to figure out if the nozzle was going to leak air, but it didn't seem to. Perhaps I should have continued the test for a longer period of time.

There's also the advantage of the bags being opaque, which help my beer to avoid spoiling, but I guess I could just make certain that I stored it in a cupboard or something if I end up being forced to use soft-drink bottles.

[Danis]

Beer in goon bags would be incredibly cool. Yeah, I have nothing useful to add.

[lethaldog]

Beer in goon bags would be cool but physically impossible, they wont hold the pressure so im sorry ppl but unless you want to drink flat beer from a goon bag then dont bother cos if you try to carb them they will explode

[Kevnlis]

Beer in goon bags is on it's way. The beer is packed flat and carbonated on the fly as it is served in the pub. How far off is this? No idea, but it is a reality.

[lethaldog]

Not practical for the home brewer though

[Kevnlis]

Not practical for the home brewer though

I disagree. I think it is far more practical for the home brewer than a big clunky hard to use keg system. They may be aimed at the commercial market now, but I see a great future in marketing them to the homebrewer!

[ciunas]

Re: carbonated on the fly as it is served in the pub.

Out of curiousity, would something like Sodastream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodastream) suit for this purpose? I'm not sure if it would interere with the aging process. I've not had any experience with the product, so I am unsure.

[39Niner]

Google

Bag-in-Box

[Longwood-65]

To save doing the google


http://www.rapak.com/beer-commercial.asp

http://www.beerinbox.net/index_e.htm