BrewKegTap's Corny Keg Sodastream Kit - Review

When I first started out homebrewing, I began with a simple 5 litre (1 gallon) kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. As I brewed more and more, my beers started to taste better and my passion for this great hobby really grew. Like many first time homebrewers, all of my beer was bottled as it was the easiest and most cost effective option at the time.

However, as I graudated to a 5 gallon kettle, my bottling woes quickly started to pile up. Sanitising a load of bottles is painful to say the least, not to mention the fact that you need to then manually bottle each one and cap it!

After a while, this started to become tedious and I knew that I needed to upgrade to a corny keg. I have to admit it, I was a little nervous about the idea of upgrading. Firstly, there was the price tag - was I able to justify this expense? Next, and probably my biggest concern, was the ability to get my hands on CO2 easily. Here in the U.K, you can't just buy CO2 over the counter from your average store. You need to get it from accredited places and in my experience, its not a simple process.

Introducing the Sodastream kit

After a little searching on the web, I came across BrewKegTap's Corny Keg Sodastream Kit. It has everything that you need to serve your beer from a keg using a sodastream cylinder. This seemed perfect for my needs.

It comes with an affordable reconditioned keg, gas lines, gas regulator and all the john guest fittings you need.

The great thing about this kit is that you can use a simple Sodastream gas bottle which is readily available over the counter in many stores and even online. I have two SodaStream bottles that I constantly rotate, and I get my refills over the counter from stores in the U.K. such as Lakeland and Robert Dyas.

Before I go any further, it's worth mentioning that I am not sponsored/affiliated in any way with BrewKegTap - this is just a great piece of kit that I wanted to share with you.

Assembly of the kit was quite easy and I was up and running in no time. The other great thing about this kit is that if you do decide to get a bigger CO2 canister, you can just use this same kit and unscrew the fitting.

My Kegging Routine

If you are new to kegging it can seem quite daunting at first. What's the correct pressure? When will it be ready? These are all questions that I asked when first getting set up. In this article, I could go into detail about my kegging routine, but I dont think I could do any better than this video below.

Summary

Making the move to kegs was the best decision I ever made. Compared to bottling, it takes no time and effort. I just wish I had done it earlier in my brewing career.

All in all, BrewKegTap's Corny Keg Sodastream Kit is a fantastic piece of kit. There are some points worth sharing though:

• I currently use about 1 bottle of SodaStream gas for every filled 2 kegs.
• I have noticed that the connections can be a little tricky sometimes and if you don't have a perfect seal, it can leak a little. Make sure that you have it tightened properly.

I can't recommend upgrading to kegging enough - you won't be dissapointed!