f13.net

So I've obviously seen the mini kegs around, but never really considered them much more than a novelty.  Someone gave me a Heineken mini keg (5L) the other day however, and I'm here to say that they're awesome.  That shit rests easily on the top shelf of my fridge and provides reasonably priced and tasty draft beer at my convenience.  I'm drinking beer out of a wine glass right now.  LOOK INTO IT.

My stepfather used to keep a keg on tap in a kegerator (refrigerator dedicated to a keg with a tap through the front door) on our back porch. Growing up with a hick was beautiful.

How long does it stay fresh?

You've got an hour at best, drink up. Treat them like a big tin of beer that starts foamy and gets slower and slower to pour.

Yeh, 5L is a bit much for an hour.  Particularly because La Gallina doesn't drink much beer and we are antisocial, friendless pricks.

They stay fresh for 30 days.  I'm telling you, I have one (I can only vouch for Heineken) and everything about it is awesome, it's day 5 right now and the beer still tastes good and the tap flow is still strong.  I can't recommend this more highly.

I've never used one of these. Does it have some sort of vaccum tap?

Otherwise, I would think that, unless it has a nitrogen or CO2 replacement system, the air that replaces the beer as you go would make the beer stale rather quickly once you reached a certain point.

My dad did the same thing, only he ran the tap through the side of the old refrigerator.  It was pretty nice to have access to beer as a teenager (as long as I was discrete enough not to drink so much that he'd notice it missing), and fortunately, he bought good beer.

Beer is both a blessing and a curse.  It's truly the elixir of the gods, but on middle aged people it does unattractive things to their bellies and backsides no matter how much one exercises.  (There's a law that kicks in after 40, I believe.)

But I'd rather have a large backside than give up beer, yessirree.

Uh it's like a regular keg dude.  You can tap a reg keg and it'll be good days later, and they don't have vaccum taps.  I mean I don't know if the shit is hermetically sealed in a clean room but if you can't rely on my anecdotal evidence then what are you left with?  Don't do this to yourself man.  It's not worth  it.

Not really.  Most I remember getting for a full keg was about 3 days (maybe 4) and then it got pretty stale/flat.  But I would think a smaller keg would work better since it has less volume of air and less surface area for it to react with so I could see it lasting longer. 30 days seems like a stretch. That's why kegerator systems  and hombrew keg systems have nitrogen or CO2 tanks to keep them under pressure and replace the beer with something other than air.

True.  I haven't gone the distance with this thing, and I never will.  But if you can't finish 5 liters in 5 days or so, then a mini keg probably isn't for you anyway.  I can vouchsafe it being good after 4 days.

Cool. I wasn't questioning your experience, just talking about my favorite subject.  :-D

Just finished the 1st month of my no caffeine, no carbonation, no alcohol, no NSAIDS (ibuprofen, aleave, etc...) due to having 2 bleeding ulcers (needed 5 units of blood and had to stay in hospital for 5 days...that sucked).  I'm still a  :sad_panda:  but hopefully in 2 more months I can ease back into  an occasional beer like before.  I have a six pack of Heffeweizen (wheat beer) by Widmer Brothers with only one gone waiting on me...should keep till then.

We used to buy mini kegs of Warsteiner Lager Beer 5 Liter Keg, but we would usually drink it in one evening over in Germany.  I think I've had the Grolsh keg too (to many fuzzy nights to remember...but I know they were fun!). 

Wow, why didn't I think of this... BeerGeek sells imported beers and micro home brews to certain states.  http://beergeek.stores.yahoo.net/index.html

Hmm.. my uncle used to keep a Kegerator (Fridge you buy with a built-in beer-tap) in his kitchen.  Now that's some hardcore beer drinking.

Haven't seen mini kegs around here though. I'll have to look into it, thx.

Are this the mini-kegs you people are talking about ?

(http://www.altestramdepot.ch/img1/Dose_5_Liter_ausg.gif)

I had some of them with me during the first metal festival of the season and they went stale after an hour.

Over here, that is expected, they cost around 4-5 € per keg and usually they are gone in less then an hour anyway.

Just wondering.

That'd be them.  No idea how they'd stay around for several days, we used to get them way back when I was in college and they'd last maybe all night.

You people with stale beer obviously don't drink enough. N00bs.

It's Heineken, so... almost until they load it on the truck leaving the brewery.

I feel pretty good questioning a guy's taste in beer when his avatar has a beer bong and the closest thing to a hottie he's getting this lifetime.  Dude... it's *Heinekin*.  US Domestic "import" at that.  What does Heinekin and making love in a canoe have in common?  Right - they're both fucking close to water. :)

I believe these are the droids you are looking for:
(http://www.eurobeer.net/frigo/archives/img/urthel.jpg) (http://www.urthel.com/start.htm)

If not the Quadrium at least the Tripel.  Please... find a local distributor.  Of the many things I hate my current government for, all pale in comparison to the fact Belgans are reluctant to export real beer to the US.  Sally Struthers Needs You!

I hope you're joking.  That had to be one of the lamest attempts to out-hardcore somebody I've ever seen.  You even stressed (inaccurately) that I spelled http://www.heineken.com/usa/WOH/SplashPage/SplashPage.aspx?ReturnURL= (http://www.heineken.com/usa/WOH/SplashPage/SplashPage.aspx?ReturnURL=) wrong.  Heh.  I feel pretty good about calling someone a sucky douche who takes one look at my avatar and rips apart my entire life.  Burn in comic book guy hell.

Heh.  Yet the sophomore smack talk seems to have struck a nerve. ;)

Trust me Duse - I throw no real stones in my glass house.  Most of my college career was spent vacuuming off the floor what today I don't even notice.  My frat hazing involved me taking a shot everytime I got a question wrong, and that was drinking shots from the crap that was *leftover* from the previous year. Damn if I didn't miss every question.

In the meantime, again trust me - there will come a day when you snicker when you see some puke sipping his green bottle.  Just like I did when my millionaire old man used to drink a gallon jug of this gutrot every week.

(http://www.lanka.info/shops/liquorShop/productImages/images/wine11.jpg)

Ugh.

You managed to turn the corner and make yourself not look like an asshole, and I respect that.  Did you know that approximately every seven years a portion of your tastebuds die and your already subjective "tastes" change?  Food for thought.

Great. So I'm ignorant of tastebud physiology AND I fail Basic Asshole School.  How did I wrong you so!!

Heine-kin. As in related to. Brewed in White Plains, not Amsterdam. Ah well. The US brewed Heineken isn't as good as the Dutch stuff, which is itself quite ordinary lager.

I like it.  I also like Coca-Cola and Orange Crush.  So sue me. 

Hell there ain't nuthin' better than PBR cold as ice in a can on a day hotter than a popcorn fire!  :D  I luv good beer, but I still like ice cold american beer!

I was going to pull out the Frank Booth line early in the thread but it seemed a bit too cliche.