Mr Beer: Replacing Your Spigot

You've already heard me expound on the virtues of the Mr. Beer keg. It's small, it fits in your fridge or in an icebox, it has a spigot for taking samples and easy racking, it has a wide opening on top so you can fit your hand in for cleaning, it's made of PET plastic like a Better Bottle, the bottom is shaped like a reservoir for collecting yeast & trub and it has one-way vents so you don't need an airlock.

However, it has one major flaw - the spigot it comes with sucks. Really bad.

One thing you could do is pick up a locking spigot. I have two, and you can use it for racking if you attach a bottling wand and hose to it. It isn't ideal though.

There are two types of spigot. You can find the standard Italian Spigot (left) at almost any homebrew shop. Example: here. I don't really like them, but they're better than nothing. The problem is that the entire valve turns when you switch it from on to off and vice versa. Also, they look cheap.

What you really want is one of these. They're basically a ball valve-style spigot, but made of plastic. You can get them in multiple sizes, and the hose doesn't turn when you turn it on and off.

The problem with both of these is that neither fits in the tiny hole in the Mr. Beer keg! I haven't checked recently, but I believe that the hole in the keg is 3/4" while these larger spigots require a 1" hole. Supposedly, the spigot on the right comes in a 'mini' version for a 3/4" hole, but I've never seen it for sale anywhere except for a homebrew shop in Canada that doesn't have an online store!

Solution? Sharp objects.

As I'm a pretty urban guy, I don't exactly have a ton of power tools sitting around. If you have a dremel though, this is easy. Use a coarse sanding attachment to widen the hole on your Mr. Beer keg. Widen it evenly, and stop as soon as the hole is large enough to fit your new spigot. Switch to a fine sanding attachment to smooth out the rough edges. Attach the spigot with the rubber washer on the outside and you're set! Racking from your keg can now be done by simply attaching a 3/8" ID hose directly to the barbed spout.

What if you're like me and don't have a rotary tool? Errr, well, time to cross your fingers. I used a utility knife. I slowly chopped away at the edges. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. I've done it to three kegs so far, and only one of them leaked. It was a very small leak of about two drops per minute, but I threw it out. To avoid leaks, don't cut too far down, and avoid deep, angular cuts. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle, but at least try to make your opening closer to an octagon than a square or star shape. Once you attach the spigot, the washer and nut will cover your grotesque cutting job, so it really doesn't need to be pretty.

Update: while I don't have a rotary tool like a Dremel, I do have a cheapo electric screwdriver/drill. I was able to find a sanding attachment that locked right into any standard drill. I used the coarse version and got a nice round, smooth hole in less than a minute. If you have literally no power tools, go ahead and try the utility knife version, but a power drill can cost less than twenty bucks and you will definitely use it again.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the very bottom of this spigot reaches exactly to the bottom of the keg. If you set the keg on a table, the keg will lie flat, but the spout will drag on the table's surface.

Another neat bit of trivia is that Mr. Beer is currently testing a new spigot that is designed quite a bit like this one. They haven't released it yet, though, but I believe it is essentially just the "mini" version of the spigot I use.