why is everyone afraid of sanke kegs for homebrew

[frink]

I'm brand new to homebrewing. Call me unconventional, but I skipped bottles/corny and went straight to sanke kegs. If you have a commercial kegerator system I don't see the point of corny kegs. If I had one I would use it as a reservoir help to clean the sanke. There's really no need to open sanke kegs and its not that hard to open them anyway(it's just a retaining ring). 180° Pbw and star san handle the cleaning. You can use co2, a garden sprayer, water pump, or vacuum pump to move the solutions in and out through a coupler with the one ways removed... Using as directed...Agitate them... Voila, clean/purged kegs. I use a two hole carboy cap with a ss racking cane in one hole and and plumb co2 to the other. Then I rack from the glass carboy directly into the keg, virtually eliminating any chance of contamination or oxygenation. I bought mine for $90 brand new for a 1/6bbl. And you can get 1/4, 1/3, or 1/2bbl for not much more. (Or $20 if you are a damn thief) The used corny was about $65 plus fittings. So really, why the corny?

Homebrew shop told me I would have to use a $10000 automatic commercial keg sanitizing system. I think this works just fine.

Thoughts?

[Effingbeer]

I think they are taboo because homebrewers are fairly honest people until they see a keg.
I use sanke kegs. They are great.

[Ozwald]

Corny's used to be much, much, much cheaper. 5 years ago the idea of a $65 Corny was insane - if you shopped around you could get 2 of them for that price. I think that was 90% of why they're popular in homebrewing. Also Sankey's used to be more pricey, especially for the 1/6bbls. 1/2bbls were cheaper than the 1/6th bbls. $90 brand new is a pretty good price. I seem to remember them being closer to the $120-130 range.

Remember that not all employees at the LHBS are even brewers or have a clue what they're talking about. They can help with the basics, but that's about it. Sankey's are pretty easy to clean as long as you keep up on them. Rinse them & clean them right away, wash them upside down & run the chemicals backwards at 2 different pressures.

I put QD's on my lines, so it really doesn't matter to me. I can swap between a Corny & a Sankey connector in seconds. I have a 1/2bbl & a 1/6bbl Sankey & all the rest are ball-locks.

[Bokonon]

I'm slowly switching to all sanke, much better vessel IMO. Easier to CIP, less O-rings and places to leak, builtin check valves on the couplers.

[frink]

Yeah I think it's all around a better package. Less risk of leaks, contamination and oxidation. They're stronger, travel better (more people have commercial keg systems). Plus they're much shorter with a low profile perlick coupler(my commercial countertop fridge is kinda short). I see no reason for cornies...other than how they *used* to be cheap.

[Adam]

Not afraid of them, just don't brew large enough batches to justify the volume because I can't afford the equipment to do so. I've got a single Corny keg I got for $20 a couple years ago and do fine with that. When it's "carbonation week", I just buy craft beer instead.

[Bad Goat Brewing]

If I were to start over today I'd go with sankey kegs, and will probably switch over in the future. 5 years ago you could buy corney kegs for $25 in excellent shape. Thats not the case anymore.

[Lewybrewing]

I think the spike in costs have people looking at alternatives. When I started brewing, Pepsi was giving them away for free or almost free. Easy to open and clean. In fact I picked up 35 Corny Kegs from a middle schools back lot for free in 2005. Since then the price has clicked up and up.

I've never heard anyone "Hating" on Sankey kegs or people that use them, maybe your confusing this with people taking them (stealing) for brewing?