Hugh_Jass

Recipes 

Question for those who ferment in corny kegs.

The past three beers brewed have been fermented in cornys using fermcap as foam control. Each beer has finished high. Nothing else in my process has changed except using foam control and fermenting in a keg. I pitch a proper amount of yeast - either dry (US-05) or liquid (1028 and Denny's fav.) have been used. Each beer has stopped around 1.02 with an OG of 1.050.

I'm struggling to explain why the yeast are pooping out early.

Any input would be appreciated.

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78kombi

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not enough aeration and too much c02?

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BrewBus

Hugh_Jass

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Not enough aeration - maybe. When I rack from BK, wort goes through a strainer and funnel. There's a bunch of foam on the wort. Looked similar to when I was using buckets. Might have to invest in an O2 canister and rig something up, though.


Too much CO2 - probably not. I put a blowoff on the gas in post. It works like a regular blow-off tube. There's very little, if any, pressure in the keg from off-gassing.

Has anyone else experienced poor attenuation when using a corny as a fermentation vessal?

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Pigs are fantastic creatures. They convert vegetables into bacon.

xxHelderxx

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I'm having a similar problem- I know this thread is crazy old- but were you able to fix this?

PT Ray

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Corny's are too narrow to make a good fermenter. You run into problems with fermentation. If I remember it has to do with the limited surface area and the length causes additional pressure on the yeast sitting on the bottom.

xxHelderxx

Recipes 

But people have fermented in them and some people swear by them. what are they doing that I'm not? I'm confused how some people can do it successfully.

PT Ray

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Check out the BrewStrong podcast about fermentors. I believe that's where they go into detail with the issues of using a corny. What exactly makes a corny attractive as a fermentor?

El_Exorcisto

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Bigger surface area makes for much happier top-fermenting yeast. There was a study done of hefeweizen breweries but I for the life of me can't find the address. They found long cylinders typically made for unhappy yeast. I also wonder about using fermcaps and knocking down the krausen, when that is where the majority of the work is done by ale yeasts... You could just be stacking too many sub-optimal practices on top of each other to the point where the yeast is going to sleep early.

xxHelderxx

Recipes 

There's a 14ish page thread on here about the benefits of using cornies as fermenters. Basicaly they work really well for me because I have limited space, can fit a bunch in my fermentation cooler, they're light proof, easy to transport with the handle on there, and I can reduce exposure to air and transfer it from primary/secondary/serving using CO2. I don't use fermcap, I take a poppet off and use a blow off tube. I dont know what I did differently from the others on here that have done it successfully but I've got 15 gallons of like 4% abv beer lol.

HoppedIPA

Recipes 

just throwing darts in the air.. but maybe your temps are too low?

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i got beer in the keg thats what matters!
OH and dont forget ..SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed, i.e. wife for me..