Fermenting in a cornie

**Brewing Clamper** · 08-16-2006, 04:33 AM

Have any of you tried fermenting a batch of beer in a cornie? How about secondary? Just curious.... I could fit more cornies in my fridge than carboys, so I can brew more

**kornkob** · 08-16-2006, 12:27 PM

I haven't doe it yet but... I have a plastic corney lid that I intend to drill out a bung hole in so I can put a stopper and airlock in. That would be the first thing you'd need to work out in order to ferment in a corney.

I don't intend to do primary fermentation in a corney-- not enough head space-- but secondary is what I wanted to do.

**david_42** · 08-16-2006, 02:17 PM

I almost always use cornies for settling, but not for fermenting. They are only 5 gallons, you'd lose too much of the batch to blowoff and trub. I guess if you had a tall enough fridge and could weld stainless, you could make 7 gallon cornies out of two kegs and use them. Weld the leftovers back together & you have 3 gallon party kegs!

**EdWort** · 08-16-2006, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_42

I almost always use cornies for settling, but not for fermenting.

So when do you usually rack to a corny? How long do you leave it?

Thanks.

**david_42** · 08-16-2006, 05:11 PM

I rack three or four days after fermentation is done. Most of the time, there is not much trub in the cornie and I don't rack it again. If you want to bottle give it the same amount of time you would normally. You could move it to a bottling bucket by applying a few psi and draining into a pitcher until it runs clear.

**EdWort** · 08-16-2006, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_42

I rack three or four days after fermentation is done. Most of the time, there is not much trub in the cornie and I don't rack it again. If you want to bottle give it the same amount of time you would normally. You could move it to a bottling bucket by applying a few psi and draining into a pitcher until it runs clear.

Is that straight from a primary or are you doing a secondary?

Todd · 08-16-2006, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdWort

Is that straight from a primary or are you doing a secondary?

sounds to me like he is going from primary to the Corny for secondary/ serving. This sounds a lot like the commercial breweries who are turning batches around every week or two. There is no real conditioning time involved.

**david_42** · 08-16-2006, 06:39 PM

I go straight from the primary into the cornie. Then it conditions for 4-8 weeks depending on how fast I'm drinking. I rarely rack a second time, but when I do I'm probably filtering the ale as well. Some ales just won't settle.

**Yuri_Rage** · 08-16-2006, 08:05 PM

I like the welding idea - you could easily purge the inside of the kegs with argon for backgassing and use some 309 rod with a TIG machine. I don't want to sacrifice my only two kegs for the experiment, but it might be fun to try sometime.

Todd · 08-16-2006, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_42

I go straight from the primary into the cornie. Then it conditions for 4-8 weeks depending on how fast I'm drinking. I rarely rack a second time, but when I do I'm probably filtering the ale as well. Some ales just won't settle.

David, you don't have any problems with sediment coming out of the corny? Do you give it a little longer in the primary?