Homebrewing party with a pig

The Party-Pig (a registered trademark of Quoin Industrial in Golden, CO) is a self-contained beer packaging and dispensing system. The Pig uses an amber PET plastic bottle that holds 2.25 gallons, thus two pigs are about the right size for a five gallon batch of beer.

The Pig uses a patented pressure pouch that goes inside the bottle with the beer. A chemical reaction inside the pouch causes it to inflate, producing 15 to 20 psi of pressure. As beer is dispensed the pressure pouch continues to expand and eventually it completely fills the bottle. The magic pressure pouch developed by Quoin contains food grade chemicals that mix on demand to produce CO2 gas. It is important to remember that this gas is not in contact with the beer -- which can be both a plus and a minus.

Because the CO2 does not contact the beer, the carbonation of your homebrew must be achieved by some other mechanism. Generally this will mean priming the beer as it goes into the Pig and then waiting for three or four weeks while the carbonation develops. On the plus side, the driving pressure provided by the pouch won't introduce more carbonation into your beer during dispensing.

Now there is one other aspect of Pig procedure that is important. Once the pouch and beer have been put into the PET bottle, the pouch needs to be activated. This is done by pressurizing the bottle to rupture a seal inside the pouch. Apparently, this must be done at the time that the pig is filled.

For homebrewers, the maker sells a pump that attaches to the sealed bottle. Using this, you pump air into the Pig until the seal pops and the pouch begins to expand. Most homebrewers know that putting air into your beer at this stage of the process is not something you want to do. The ideal way to provide the pressure needed for activiation would be to use CO2 gas rather than air. Of course, purchase of a CO2 bottle and regulator tends to undermine the cost benefits of the Party Pig over buying a soda keg system.

The makers of the Party Pig point out that you can bleed off most of the air as soon as the pouch is activated and providing pressure. In addition, they mention that the yeast used to produce carbonation will scavenge much of the remaining oxygen. While these points seem valid, only first hand experience could tell whether these steps are practical and effective in avoiding stale beer.

The Party Pig is reusable if cared for properly and, according to the makers, can be used "for many years." Of course homebrewers are trained from an early age not to trust plastic in contact with beer and that could certainly be an issue here.

The instructions I have seen don't tell how to sanitize the pouch before use. Furthermore, the use of brushes or abrasives to clean the inside of the Party Pig could create bacteria-harboring scratches in the plastic. All of this would be less of an issue if the pig lived inside a refrigerator once it was filled. But because of the need for yeast-produced carbonation, these containers must be at room temperature for at least a couple of weeks for each batch. That would be plenty of time for bacteria to affect the flavor of the beer.

Although it may be perfect for some brewers, the Party Pig appears to move slowly in homebrew channels. It is used more widely by brewpubs who want a way to sell bulk beer for customers to take home. I talked with a couple of places that use the Party Pig and they reported a reasonable level of satisfaction with them. The big issue is the reliability of the expanding pouch.

"Sometimes, they start off really nice, and then taper down to a dribble," says Dan Cleveland of Blue Cat Brew Pub in Rock Island, IL. When that happens, the customer is often left with no way to get the beer out of the bottle. "Customers may be disappointed, but they won't necessarily come back and tell you about it," he says.

At Mishawaka Brewing in Indiana, they have been using the Party Pig for three or four years. Co-owner and head brewer, Thomas Schmidt says there were problems with the pouches in 1996, but that he hasn't had much trouble recently.

"They seem to have the pouch down pat now," says Schmidt. "We haven't had any returned in a long time."

One good reason to consider the Party Pig is its lower start-up cost compared to soda kegs. You can get 5 gallons of capacity, with all the bells and whistles for about $90 -- about one-third the cost of a brand new soda keg system.

This is an appreciable difference if 5 gallons is all you want to package at one time. But, if you want additional capacity, the Party Pig's price advantage begins to pale. Each 5 gallons of capacity will cost about $72, saving you just 30 percent on the cost of buying additional capacity for a soda keg system. But that is the cost for new kegs, and used or reconditioned ones can be less. Also, you have to remember that each 5 gallon batch in the Party Pig requires two of the magic pouches at $3.50 a pop -- an additional cost of $7 per batch.

System Cost Comparison: Soda Keg Versus Party Pig

	Party Pig	Soda Keg
Basic Start-up (5 gallons, new):	$ 90.90	$ 239.00
Total System Cost when Capacity Increased by:
5 gallons	$ 162.90	$ 338.00
10 gallons	$ 234.90	$ 437.00
15 gallons	$ 306.90	$ 536.00
20 gallons	$ 378.90	$ 635.00

In the final analysis, the Party Pig may be a good way for some brewers to escape bottling labor. Others will decide to save up just a bit more cash to go for the full-blown soda keg system.