You can bottle from the keg, That is what I am thinking about doing in the case of needing a keg for another batch or just to give bottles as gifts. I go through beer faster than I brew it, lol, so I am always searching for more beer to brew.
__________________ "Beer... Nutritious and Delicious!"
I may try this with my Fermenator... just plug the airlock hole. It has a pressure relief built in that used to do pressurized transfers. I believe the relief is only set at somewhere around 3 psi though (not sure). What pressures are you fermenting at?
Well, I start off with it completely open and then close once I smell the CO2 coming out. Then it is up to 15 psi until a few points from finish and then completely untapped and left to over-pressure a little more than 30 psi @ 65*F which is what I fermented at. After a week I crash cool and re-tap. At 33*F I counter-pressure transfer to my serving keg once a week of crash cooling has happened. Gives me clear beer that settles completely clear with another week of kegerator temperatures. I usually drink on it a little over the week just to see when it is clear and to keep removing the settled remaining sediment. The reason I am using a keg and tap is they can hold the pressures needed for carbonation. From what I have read, keeping the pressure below 15 psi is non harmful to the yeast. Pressure of ~5 psi is supposed to be good for yeast growth, and pressure above ~25 psi stresses the yeast. I figure the first day of fermentation I have about 2-3 psi in the keg at most while the oxygen is being used up and the yeast are growing, then by taking it up to 15 psi I start to inhibit yeast growth a little and slow down fermentation a little to allow the before stated benefits of pressurized fermentation. I am definitely not saying this is a "better way", it is just a lot easier for me. I also have the added relief that I am not possibly contaminating the beer with open air in any way. Contamination has never been a problem before though, and beer/wort is pretty resilient once the yeast is pitched.
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Appreciate the detailed response. I think I will try the slightly pressurized fermentor next time around and see if I notice anything different about the fermentation itself or the finished product. It sounds like 3 psi probably won't have much of an effect but it shouldn't hurt to try.
I think it would be a great experiment with a constantly brewed beer. I do it for simplicity not taste. I am going to try it on my first lager to see if it works on that the same as my ales.
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Hell with a corny at the same price as a carboy, why not just ferment in corny's? I mean no light to worry about, they wont shatter, clean easy, and now you can pressure ferment.
I think a 5 gallon corny would be to small unless you go with a bigger one, or you do a 4 gallon batch. I haven't done the head space test with pressurized fermentation yet, but when I do it will be 15 gallons in a 15.5 gallon keg. If that works then I will know, until then I am 12 gallons in 15.5 gallons space.
__________________ "Beer... Nutritious and Delicious!"
This is an interesting patent. It would mean I could only do 13.5 gallon batches in the keg. I am thinking up an "under-pressure, Burton-Union/wort recovery type of thingy". With that, I should be able to do full 15 gallon blended batches "pre-ferment", as opposed to post like the big boys do. I have been wanting to try this on my favorite recipe but haven't yet built the device to do so. Now, I am pressure fermenting . So, unless the device is under the same amount of pressure I'm up a creek with that idea .
I could re-tap the keg with a modified sanke tap. Then, just hook a 3 liter pop bottle as a collection only reservoir, and plumb in a pressure cooker vent pipe and multi-weight regulator. Hummm, that could handle 15 psi and collect the wort that would have been lost. Then, I could just un-tap the keg and let it self pressure up to 30 psi +/-, crash cool the keg and the device, and let it go a week. Finally, I guess I could carefully add back the beer in the device to the serving keg and pressure up the serving keg to the same pressure I have chosen to have the fermenting keg set at. Since the serving keg would be purged of O2 prior to filling with the beer from the device, and re-pressurizing before counter pressure transfer of the fermenter, any O2 would get pushed out once the keg was full of ready to age beer. This may work now that I have written it all out like this. Interesting idea to flirt with I guess anyways????
__________________ "Beer... Nutritious and Delicious!"
Wow, I need another lagerator. I literally can't brew fast enough, and even if I blended to get to 15.5 gallons a batch I would blow through the beer before I have another ready. Maybe I should just buy a brewery
__________________ "Beer... Nutritious and Delicious!"
I am very interested to find out how much head room we would need to leave in a standard corny. I just racked 2.5 gal of un-SMaSH into my last empty corny, hopefully that will work OK.
What will define our max volume? Why not a blowoff tube on the "gas in" port for a little while?
Last edited by Poindexter; 12-16-2007 at 11:09 PM.
. So, unless the device is under the same amount of pressure I'm up a creek with that idea
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