Quarter barrel "slim" Sankes... Are they rare?

I have been trying to retire the plastic fermentation buckets, but being a student, I can not justify the price tag of a conical. I have been looking at the Sanke conversion kit to turn a keg into a fermentation vessel, and this seems to be the logical choice for me.

My issue is that I will be doing mostly 5 or 6.5 gallon batches. My kegerator uses 4.8 gallon cornies, and I like to brew enough to rack some off into bottles. Anyway, the ideal keg size for me is the 1/4 (7.75 Gal) barrel "slim" Sanke. Has anyone turned one of these badboys into a fermentation vessel using one of the conversion kits available online? Is this a rare size keg like the 3 gal or 10 gal cornies? I don't get very much brewing related stuff on my local classifieds site (Halifax is relatively small, but still, very little equipment for sale in a city of about 400k+)

Cheers

Nope. Not rare at all. It's just that the breweries are still using them.

Any given day I can walk into my local bottle shop and find dozens of slim quarters filled with a variety of beers.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Nope. Not rare at all. It's just that the breweries are still using them.

Any given day I can walk into my local bottle shop and find dozens of slim quarters filled with a variety of beers.

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I'm not sure if it is better or worse to know this info!

Kegs are few and far between on my local classifieds website, but if they are on there, 99% of them are cornies, the rest are the short/fat Sankes.

What's wrong with cornies?

GilaMinumBeer said:

What's wrong with cornies?

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They are awesome, just a bit too small for what I want to use them for. I suppose I could split a bigger batch up into 2 corny fermenters, but as it stands I only have 2 cornies!

Around here, 1/6bbl sankes are quite common, but I cannot recall ever seeing a skinny 1/4bbl sanke.

Did you email the garrison yet? I think it was you i sent the link to, via your kijiji ad???

I would be concerned about doing primary fermentation in a keg. Unlike a carboy or a bucket it is very hard to see inside to make sure its clean. A hop protein ring can be difficult to remove especially if you cant see it or scrub it.
I personally think buckets are the best option for primary as you have access to the inside of the bucket to ensure that you have a clean fermenter.

JewBrew said:

I would be concerned about doing primary fermentation in a keg. Unlike a carboy or a bucket it is very hard to see inside to make sure its clean. A hop protein ring can be difficult to remove especially if you cant see it or scrub it.

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Well, then...Allow me to retort!

lamarguy said:

Well, then...Allow me to retort!

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I saw your thread awhile back. I am sure that your keg is sanitized and free of bacteria, but how can you assure that there is no foreign matter or congealed trub hanging out on the bottom or on the top lid. I do not doubt that with proper sanitation your beer will turn out ok, but I am concerned about flavors leaking through from batch to batch. Sure in your case its not a problem as you are brewing a 10 gallon batch and any foreign matter is grossly overpowered by beer, but in a 5 gallon batch it is very easy for an off flavor to appear.

JewBrew said:

I saw your thread awhile back. I am sure that your keg is sanitized and free of bacteria, but how can you assure that there is no foreign matter or congealed trub hanging out on the bottom or on the top lid?

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Proper cleaning procedures. In fact, I'd make a healthy wager that the keg I can't easily see inside of has less residual "foreign matter" than your clean bucket or carboy.

PBW + 160F water + agitation + 15 mins = super clean, pasteurized keg

Sanitization is just cheap insurance against an infection, the real value is in a proper cleaning procedure.

lamarguy said:

Sanitization is just cheap insurance against an infection, the real value is in a proper cleaning procedure.

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Touché

Can a quote you on that? It really is a beautiful saying.

JewBrew said:

Can a quote you on that? It really is a beautiful saying.

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It's the internet, you can quote anyone on anything at anytime. Ha!

I'm with lamarguy

I love fermnting in a Sanke. I've had more trouble cleaning better bottles! "Oh, Don't scratch it, get it too hot, look at it funny"

If I have to scrub a sanke I jam a carboy brush inside and go to town. Piece of cake!

Sanitizing is easy too - Just boil a couple gallons of water before your brew day. The steam will kill anything that survived the cleaning.

These links may be of interest to you...

http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=1544

http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=842

I have never fermented in a sanke, and have not seen them on hand in our liquor store, but I ordered a 1/4 of Killians recently and it came in a slim quarter, so they are still being used.