Primary Fermenting in a Corny Keg - Page 17

**Sherpa FE** · 02-25-2011, 11:37 AM

Rob,
thats exactly what happened to mine, I hooked the blow off on the out side and it purged all 5 gallons out. Someone suggested to remove the dip tube and thats what I have been doing. I remove the dip tube and hook the blow off there. When I go to transfer I just put the poppet and dip tube back in the post, and transfer using co2.
I also go through a filter into the serving keg, makes it nice and easy to clean up.

Jboggeye · 02-28-2012, 01:33 PM

Hi all, just got through reading the entire thread, and will be trying this soon. I just bought two kegs for my wedding, and this is just adding to the excitement.

Are any of you simply pulling the yeast out to serve directly from primary? Or lager in this primary?

My biggest question, though, is how to oxygenate without foaming all over the place? (I kept looking for bigger fermenters because of foaming while oxygenating with 02/stone)

**mredge73** · 02-28-2012, 01:48 PM

There is very little foam with fermcap.
I put it in right before the boil; there is no foam up during the boil, no foam during oxygenating, and no foam at fermentation. I fill mine to about 1" from the top. No changes to the keg.

It will still blow off some so I use a second keg; hook the OUT from the primary to the IN of the sacrifice keg (little bit of sterilized water on the bottom of the sacrifice keg). Insert a QD in the sacrifice keg IN so the gas can escape and now I have a yeast collector. I use this clean yeast for my next batch.
Moving forward; I plan on replacing the sacrifice keg with a clear water filter housing and using a spunding valve to do a pressurized fermentation.

**Yambor44** · 02-28-2012, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mredge73

There is very little foam with fermcap.
I put it in right before the boil; there is no foam up during the boil, no foam during oxygenating, and no foam at fermentation. I fill mine to about 1" from the top. No changes to the keg.

It will still blow off some so I use a second keg; hook the OUT from the primary to the IN of the sacrifice keg (little bit of sterilized water on the bottom of the sacrifice keg). Insert a QD in the sacrifice keg IN so the gas can escape and now I have a yeast collector. I use this clean yeast for my next batch.
Moving forward; I plan on replacing the sacrifice keg with a clear water filter housing and using a spunding valve to do a pressurized fermentation.

My results were different with the gas drops. I did use baby gas drops and not fermacap, but my batches (3 now with the drops) had 2.5" kruesen in each 5 gallon carboy. I read on a fermacap thread that you need to add more drops once the beer is in the fermenter as it drops out in the boil kettle during chilling. Not sure if using a plate chiller or dumping 100% of your chilled wort into your primary would make a difference as to whether the drops would continue to work or not.

**mredge73** · 02-28-2012, 02:07 PM

2.5" isn't that bad; so in that case I would fill 3" from the top instead of 1" from the top.
If my objective was to not have any blowoff whatsoever, I would add a few extra drops in the fermenter and not fill it so high. But I like to collect a little blowoff, I just don't want it to get out of hand.

**forceten** · 02-28-2012, 05:41 PM

My main fermentation vessel is one of the Morebeer heated and cooled conical fermenters, but it's for 10 gallon batches. Starting with the accidental acquisition of significant post-boil wort with a Bitter I made, I began doing experimental beers in a 5 gal corny each brew day. The current batch is a Fig Brown Ale that is going ape in a corny - pushed out krausen yeast wort/beer since it started to ferment. Today I made the dumb mistake of taking the bubbler airlock cap off to try to clean it because the pressure was building up significantly (I thought I released it all -- HA!) and it spewed lots of yeast slurry all over the top of the corny, the walls, etc. I'm sure there's still more yeast in, but wow. I do think I overfilled the corny this time because I got a ridiculous amount of extract.

Then I went into the brewery proper and noticed that the 10gal Conical had some overflow too.

London Ale III from Wyeast. The packets were near bursting when pitched.

But my experience with the Krausen issue is that if it's happening the pressure is outward and nasties aren't getting in. I've been spraying with IP alcohol.

My first ferment was simply attaching a long hose to the IN port (air port) and into a bucket of water. This is how it's done in a production brewery. Worked great. Lately I've been using a cap with a blowoff airlock. Might go back to the hose, to be honest.

**Yambor44** · 02-28-2012, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mredge73

2.5" isn't that bad; so in that case I would fill 3" from the top instead of 1" from the top.
If my objective was to not have any blowoff whatsoever, I would add a few extra drops in the fermenter and not fill it so high. But I like to collect a little blowoff, I just don't want it to get out of hand.

Mredge,

Is this a purpose for the collected blowoff or do you just like getting some out of the way?

**mredge73** · 02-28-2012, 06:27 PM

I collect it in a second corny with ~ 1 quart of sterilized water at the bottom. This allows me to automatically "top crop" my yeast for my next batch (or storage). I am essentially collecting a small amount of yeast rich krausen and dissolving it in water. This makes washing easy because I don't have to deal with trub (just a few hop partials).

**cmoon** · 04-04-2012, 03:32 PM

Wanted to thank all you guys for this long running thread. Recently made the transition to brewing in corny kegs and absolutely love it. Saves time (pre-carbonating), space, and overall more control.

So far I've been doing 9 gallon batches and splitting it between two 5 gallon cornys, but am finding I have what looks like a LOT of headspace. Not using fermcap or anything. Just blowoff tubes attached to the gas stem. I may mess around with 9.5 or 4.75 gallon batches and see how much I can get away with. Guess it depends on how vigorous the fermentation is.

On my first batch I removed the blow off tubes after 1 week (once the vigorous fermentation appeared to have stopped), replaced the poppet valves and have been letting it naturally carbonate. I choose to vent it down to the levels I wanted it carbonated at, but I'm wondering if I should have just let the pressure keep rising up to 30 or so? Probably doesn't matter.

Is there a safe maximum amount of psi I need to worry about in the cornies? Is it a good idea to keep constantly checking the psi, or is this something you can walk away from and not worry about?

**mredge73** · 04-04-2012, 05:27 PM

I have pressure tested mine with my air compressor set at 110psi. I have heard that they are good up to 160psi but if they are used I couldn't be 100% sure.
Keep in mind that soda is carbonated in the range of 35-50psi; you are using a soda keg right?

30psi at 70F should net you 2.23 volumes of carbonation.
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html
You should do some reading in this thread; it is long but informative:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/

Here is my new force carb system: