How To Fill Your iKegger
Filling Your Mini Keg
Probably the question we get asked most is: "How do I fill my mini keg?"
Closely followed by "Can I fill my keg from cans or bottles?" or "What can I fill my mini keg with?"
Well this page is designed to answer that question! We cover the various methods of filling, the best way to do it, how long the drink will last in the keg with each method and the best option for you.
In short, you can fill your mini keg with any drink you like! How you fill it , how you dispense it and how long it will last depend on the drink and the method you use to fill the keg.
To see a map of breweries that we know fill iKeggers scroll down the page.
Make sure you also google "breweries near me" too though as we have only contacted a small number of the over 1500 breweries, cideries and distilleries in Australia, with more opening every day!
See below this button for important HOW to fill your keg information!
Best Practise For All Filling Methods
Cleaning & Sanitising
Make sure your keg is clean and sanitised before filling but do not use dishwashing liquid (which will wreck the head on any beer you put in it afterwards).
See a video on sanitising your keg here
The best product to clean is sodium percarbonate which will remove any set on sediments / stickiness etc if you forget to rinse your keg out after it's empty.
The best sanitiser is a phosphoric acid based no-rinse sanitiserwhich takes 2min to kill any bacteria and doesn't leave any odour of flavour.
We also have a package that includes both of those plus spare o-rings and lubricant to maintain them here
Chill The Keg First
The fastest way to chill you keg is swirl ice water around inside it. It's always best to get the keg cold before filling, you can also put it into the fridge or freezer (with the lid off).
For any carbonated drink especially (beer, cider, kombucha, soda, G&T, rum and coke etc) it's best to chill the inside of your keg before filling. This will prevent foaming and loss of carbonation when the liquid hits warm metal.
For nitro drinks you MUST have the liquid as cold as possible, as nitrogen dissolves more easily into cold liquid and hardly at all into room temperature liquid. To aid this chill the ingredients and the keg first.
With an insulated keg it's always best to chill inside the keg before filling as otherwise you may warm your drink a bit and once it's in the keg it takes a long time in the fridge before the inside starts getting any colder again.
Gas Flushing The Keg
It's best to flush the inside of the keg with CO2 or nitrogen before filling it to avoid your drink touching oxygen (it's only really important for beer, but it's best practise for all drinks).
You can do this by injecting CO2 into the open mouth of the keg or though the gas post and pulling the gas release valve a few times. CO2 is heavier than air so imagine your keg is now filled with liquid, the heavier liquid (your drink) goes to the bottom and lifts the lighter liquid (CO2) on top of it as you fill. This prevents your drink touching oxygen while you fill.
See a video on gas flushing an open mouth keg here
See a video on flushing a mini keg with ball lock posts here
Filling From Bottles & Cans
Can You Fill From Bottles & Cans?
You can absolutely fill your keg from cans or bottles, it's not the main reason we designed the mini keg (we'd like to prevent as many cans and bottles being used in the first place as possible) and it's not the best method but there are good reasons why you might want to:
- Pour from a beer tap. Most people prefer a pub quality draft beer over a can or bottle, plus it looks cool!
- No chance of broken glass in the pool, on the beach, in the park etc.
- Stays cold all day without needing to cart around an esky and ice (when using an iKegger insulated keg)
- You can transfer straight to a keg while at the shops and get the money for the cans / bottles back straight away. No rubbish piling up at home.
- Don't need to bring alll the rubbish with you (great in limited space like a caravan).
- Don't need to bring the rubbish home with you (if you are going into a national park, camping, on a boat etc)
How To Fill From Bottles & Cans
- Chill the keg, with lid off for an insulated keg.
- Flush the keg with CO2
- Tilt the keg and pour slowly and with as little splashing as possible down the inside wall of the keg.
- Screw the lid on, attach your regulator to the gas post and put more CO2 in while pulling the release valve a couple of times to get rid of any air that did get in.
- Pressurise to the correct pressure for your drink (about 12-14psi for beer, 15-17psi for soda / mixed spirits).
- You can now disconnect your regulator till ready to drink.
- This method has the most chance of oxygen contact and you should be aware that craft beer may start to go bad within 48hours if you aren't careful (bulk breweries like Tooheys, XXXX, Carlton etc heat treat their beer and it will last longer).
- For canned and bottled sodas and RTDs (and making your own mixes) like G&T, Scotch & Dry, Rum & Coke etc a bit of oxygen contact will have no affect, just maintain the pressure in the keg and they will stay fresh and carbonated.
Filling From A Beer Tap
Can You Fill From Existing Taps (Bars, Breweries & Kegerators etc)
Of course, this was why we designed iKegger!
To take home delicious beverages from your local producers without the rubbish, as fresh as possble and with the money going directly to the local business instead of a middleman!
Basic Hose Fill Method
- Sanitise your keg
- Chill the inside of your keg (if at a brewery ask them to put it in their fridge or swirl some ice around in it before filling.
- Flush your keg with CO2 (many breweries will do this themselves but ask them beforehand and do it yourself with your regulator if they don't. Unless you plan on drinking the keg within the next 24-48 hours).
- Attach a hose to the tap that reaches the bottom of the keg so you are filling within the "cushion" of CO2 and with minimal splashing.
- Once filled (it will probably overflow with foam for a bit before it's liquid to the top) screw in your cap or even better screw in a spear and again flush the filled keg and pressurise to 13psi approx.
- You can now keep the keg in the fridge till you want to drink it, the more careful you were to have no oxygen contact the longer the beer will last. At worst 24 hours for an unsanitised, unflushed keg up to weeks for a properly sanisited and carefully filled flushed keg.
Counter Pressure Fill - The Best Method!
- Sanitise, chill and flush your keg with CO2.
- You will need to leave your spear on the flushed keg and pressurise the keg to approximately 12psi.
- Ideally flush the filling line with CO2 as well.
- Disconnect your regulator and attach the iKegger Auto-Filler to the gas post.
- Attach the liquid post or spout of the iKegger 2.0 to the filling tap via the included line.
- Turn on the filling tap and adjust the valve on the gas post till it is allowing a slow steady flow of gas to escape as the liquid fills the keg.
- The flow will stop automatically once the keg is full so simply turn off the tap and disconnect everything once done.
Filling From A Pressure Fermenter
Fill From A Source With Ball Lock Posts
- Sanitise, chill and flush your keg
- Pressurise the empty keg to just below the source keg or fermenter pressure.
- Connect the liquid posts together
- Attach the iKegger Auto-Stop filler to the gas post of the empty keg.
- Wait for the transfer to finish
Fill From A Commercial Keg & Coupler
Very similar to filling from a ball lock keg or fermenter, just that you add ball loock posts to the coupler so you can connect iKegger mini kegs easily.