Northern Brewer - Tap-A-Draft System

tony b · Post by **tony b** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:06 pm

Does anyone have any experience with the TAP-A-DRAFT system?

I saw it in the latest catalogue and was curious. Seems like a cheap intro to kegging. Baby steps.

tb

Smed · Post by **Smed** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:50 am

Is That the one that uses the "pellet gun" CO2 cartridges?

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:27 pm

I have no experience with it. I figure, if you think you will end up kegging, might as well save the money and save it towards the end product. If you look into kegging, some stuff, especially taps and regulators, are much cheaper at Rapids in town. I got all my forward-sealing faucets there for $27.50 a piece and you can save on shipping by going to their place in Marion.

tony b · Post by **tony b** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:08 pm

Yes, Smed, it does.

Matt, my thoughts were if it was a decent system, then I'd be happy quitting there and not shelling out the major $$ to do regular kegging. By my back of the envelope, you're tossing down $300 - $400 just to buy in to a kegging system - kegs (even used ones), regulators, CO2 cylinder, taps, hoses, connectors, etc. Foturnately, we remodelled our kitchen a couple of years back and kept the old fridge and put it in the garage, so I don't have that expense, except to convert it to a keg fridge. But, if the Tap-A-Draft kegs fit on the regular fridge racks, then even better.

This could be an expensive hobby if you jump into the deep end of the pool.

tb

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:48 am

Definitely costly, but can be done closer to $200. My setup has four expensive forward sealing faucets, but for years I used the picnic taps at $5 a piece. My first set up with the taps was not too bad.

$40 regulator
$50 used 20lbs. CO2 tank
$12 ea. picnic tap, hose, ball lock
$10 ea. gas line, ball lock
$10 ea. used kegs
$2.50 ea. new seals

Cost for two taps, which is what I used for a long time and four kegs was under $200. The cool thing is I was able to grow into the setup I knew I wanted in the end. Just wanted to point out it costs a lot, but not as much as people may think to get pouring. One thing I really like about the Tap-A-Draft is the portability. A nice grab and go quality with out too much trouble. Anyway beer gets in your glass is fantastic.

JBPate · Post by **JBPate** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:40 am

After going through the bottling process, I've already started looking into kegging. It seems that due to a combination of scrap metal prices skyrocketing and falling inventories the price of cornys has been rising.

The cheapest kegs I've been able to find are 30 a peice from Midwest Supplies. Is anyone aware of cheaper kegs or is this probably the best deal that I'm going to get?

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:40 am

That's not too bad. Sometimes Northern Brewer or Midwest will offer a 4-pack discount to be closer to $25 each. Shipping probably isn't too cheap though. I bought mine about five years ago from a local guy that I found out about through THIRSTY. Mark and some of the other guys got some last year from a guy in Des Moines for around $15 a piece. I would talk to some more people in the club and see if we can locate some local cheap kegs like last year before paying $30 a piece.

Morebeer.com has 4 packs of used, unreconditioned kegs for $120 plus free shipping and reconditioned for $150. Same price but no shipping cost.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Tue May 06, 2008 10:34 am

Yes, actually I have the Tap-A-Draft system.
It is not a bad little kegging system.

The one big thing that they don't really mention is that if you do not want to force carbonate it (use an extra CO2 Cartridge, which gets expensive) you have to by special lids for the bottles so that it can blow off extra pressure.

But other then that it is not a bad little system. I do full kegging now so if your interested I would be willing to part with my system to you at a decent price.

Jeremy

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:11 pm

I saw an add for $19.99 kegs yesterday that claimed good rates on shipping in the new BYO.

http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Cor ... 21-70.html

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:56 am

I went to the site That Matt just posted and looked at ordering 5 kegs. The shipping rate was $23.48 for 5 kegs. Which is a fairly good rate. Plus they guarantee the tanks to hold pressure, which is nice.

However, if you are not ready to get into all of that let me know and we will work something out for the TAP-A-Draft system. I even have some bottled kegs if you wanted to see it in action.

Jeremy

tony b · Post by **tony b** » Wed May 07, 2008 2:57 pm

How about bringing it Saturday to Benz? We'll negotiate there.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Thu May 08, 2008 9:15 am

I could do that.
In fact I was thinking about that as soon as I saw your post.
As I mentioned I do have some beer for that, I will have to crack a couple and make sure they are still good, if so I will bring at least 2 for tasting on Sat.

Jeremy