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I've been homebrewing for a year and a half and have been bottling but I plan one day to get into kegging.

Anyway my wife found a keg near her work just lying in the park. It was still there 2 days later so I went and picked it up.

I know nothing about kegs and it appears to be a commercial style 50l keg at first glance. Does anyone know what this keg is and is it useful to a homebrewer.
If it is useful what sort of cash outlay would be required to get something setup to utilize this keg???

See the photos below.

I don't see photos......

Make a boiler out of it.

Check out ebay for keg couplers - they are not cheap. There is also the problem of cleaning - the megaswills have the right cleaning equipment for these kegs and it would be more difficult for an amateur to clean it properly.

+ 1 to cutting it down and making a boil kettle out of it....

Have a look around the top. That keg is probably marked as the property of Lion Nathan.

Cheers,
Greg

gregb wrote:Have a look around the top. That keg is probably marked as the property of Lion Nathan.

It is indeed marked as you suggested. I suppose it does beg the question 'what is Lion Nathan's property doing under my house?'

But seriously what does this mean? I figure there would normally be some sort of deposit on such things as I'm sure they arn't the cheapest of kegs...

Hey, you found it, fair and square...

Legally it's still Lion Nathan's, then again, most milk crates legally belong to someone, same for bread crates...

I was having a chat regarding these with the wife earlier today, I wanted one as part of a planned AG setup, she suggested swiping it from the back of a pub, as I know from my days working cellars that neither CUB or LN take notes on how many kegs are returned by the pub so the pub would be in the clear....

You have been lucky enough to find one in the park, make a boiler and in the oddest event that someone from LN comes to ask, say it was in the house when you moved in, you simply modified it.

I wish I found one in my/any park...

Bloody security cameras/lighting at venues that have these things out the back empty make it extremely hard to aqquire one..

Cheers

Clean Brewer wrote:I wish I found one in my/any park...

But why? It seems it is entirely useless for home brewing save for cutting the top off it and using it as a non flat bottomed awkward pot... Why do you want one?

Clearly seems to be a Lion Nathan keg, and thus is always their property.

Do what you like with it, bit I'd be nervous about keeping it, it is still not legal.

gibovski wrote:

Clean Brewer wrote:I wish I found one in my/any park...

But why? It seems it is entirely useless for home brewing save for cutting the top off it and using it as a non flat bottomed awkward pot... Why do you want one?

It is entirely useful for Home Brewing, and for exactly what you said, A flat bottom, 50ltr stainless steel boil pot..

Ask most brewers whether they would rather buy a 50ltr Stainless Steel Pot or find a 50ltr Stainless Steel Keg perfect for a brew pot in their local park? I know what the answer would be.....

And I know its illegal..

You can quite easily get couplers and everything you need to use these kegs. It is not very expensive (when you compare it to the cost of a full corny setup) but not very legal either.

It's easy enough to "make" it legal.

Cut the name off the top and destroy the evidence.

After that it's just a custom made barrell

Thats right, a small angle grinder will fix the legal issues with that one!

I bought both of mine but then I sleep easy at night. They make great HLT's and Boilers and a hell of a lot cheaper.

I think I would sleep easier knowing I paid nothing and got one over the big corps..

Just think of how much money you invested in them before brewing.

They owe you.