Stainless keg bulk storage
I would like to try bulk storing some syrup over the course of next summer. I purchased 4 clean sanke style s.s. beer kegs. 15.5 gallon. I see a few threads about people using kegs. I plan on hot packing them and using a 2" triclamp,stainless cap, and the special silicone gasket that is flat on the one side that seals to the keg fitting. The gasket is available from brewing websites. Being a small producer 15 gallons is alot to me. I'm a little worried the kegs would lose seal at some point and I wouldn't know it. Once I put them in my cellar I thought maybe taking the triclamp off and if it lost seal at some point at least then i'd know. Bad idea? How do those using any kind of barrel actually know its still sealed under vacuum? My wife cans food and takes the rings off the mason jars during storage which is where I got the idea to remove the clamp.
Depends where the Beer keg came from
So, unreturned beer kegs are illegal to keep. They are the property of the brewery. The deposit on a keg is typically $30 that doesn’t mean you have bought that keg. That is a deposit saying that you will return it to the distribution facility. As you are mentioning the “mark up” is because that is how much a stainless keg costs. So if you are keeping kegs from a small brewery you just stole that money from the brewery owner. Please consider this when using used beer kegs.