A-Z of the Corny keg

The Corny or Cornelius keg was used by soft drink companies to distribute there products before the syrup in a box method become available. most cornies come from coca cola and Pepsi as these are the biggies soft drink companies. there are two main types of corny pin lock which where used by coca cola and ball lock that where used by Pepsi. Pin/ball lock refers to the way in which the gas in and the liquid out lines are connected to the keg. other then that the only real difference is the pin locks are slightly smaller and fatter than the ball locks but both hold 19ltrs (however other sizes have become available). I only have ball lock kegs at the moment so thats what we will be looking at in this section.

the featherers of the keg    

I case you haven't seen a corny before here it is.

The keg stands about 3ft high and is made out of stainless steal with rubber on the top and bottom. it has two rubber handles molded in to the top section with make it easy to move around.

This is a top view of the keg. There are two posts on the outer edge of the keg on marked in, this is were the gas goes in and the other marked out, this is where the liquid comes out. in the middle there is a large lid with a pressure release valve.

Here is the lid removed form the keg

The lid splits in to 3 parts. the main body of the lid, release valve and o-ring. the lid should be taken apart like this when cleaning to ensure a deep clean.

The posts on the keg can be removed with a spanner to reveal a dip tube. on the IN post of the keg it I a short tube (See pic bellow).

Here is what you end up with when the post is taken apart. the rubber o-rings can be removed for cleaning. the OUT side of the keg is the same apart from the size of the dip tube (see pic bellow).

This is the dip tube from the out side which reaches to the bottom of the keg.












And thats all for the keg itself but to make it work you will need some other bits and bobs.

This is my beer out line. this connects to the OUT post on the keg via the ball lock system and has the beer faucet on the other end.

The faucet I have brakes down in to small parts for easy cleaning.

The next thing you need is gas, normally Co2. now I don't live in a city and gas suppliers are few and far between. the ones I have found are unwilling to provide gas to a private residence. After a lot of looking around I went with theses disposable welding gas canisters as they are redly available.

This is the top of the keg when the in and out lines are connected.

the gas bottles I use have a rounded bottom so I use a strap around it and the keg to keep it upright.














all the remains is to fill it with beer and pure some out.

If you want any more picture of the keg or have any questions please as and I will do my best to answer them. failing that the is lots of information on line click here.