Sanke keg fermentor

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jcalisi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
176
Reaction score
3
Location
Mount Juliet, TN
I know this has been beat to death but is anyone using a regular sanke keg as a fermentor using the spear intact with a keg coupler attached with the check valved removed so it can breath. My thoughts were to do this for the first couple of days and then put the check valve in to naturally carbonate before moving it to my serving kegs. Also, seems like I would need to shorten the spear to leave the cake on the bottom.

Does this seem like a reasonable process? I have a pony for my 5 gl batches and a half for my 10 gl batches.
 
that's exactly what I had in mind. I guess I need to look into a spunding valve. So 3/4 off of the spear doesn't grab any of the yeast cake?

good write up.
 
so I have my pony keg setup and fermentation is going as planned. I'm using a blow off tube into a pint jar 3/4 full of starsan bubbling away. I check it on the third day and the jar is completely dry except for a few drops in in the corner. Any chance of the co2 drying out the liquid that fast in 50 degree weather? Or did it suck all of that back into the keg through the gas line.

because I'm an idiot I forgot to move my jar to the bottom of the freezer and instead its setting on the hump which is maybe 3/4 higher than the keg.

Its still fermenting though I closed the tap so I would start to self carb.
 
How much head space did you have before fermentation? Maybe you should check to see if the head space has been reduced by the amount of water that was in your jar. Might also be hard to tell if it was a small jar, but I'm wondering if it did get sucked in somehow.

Two things to learn from this experience: 1) put the jar as low as you can. 2) use a cheap vodka in the blowoff jar. If it does get sucked back in, the only thing that will happen to your beer is a higher alcohol level.

I'm not sure what Starsan will do to your beer, but it might be a good idea to google. How much was in the jar?
 
I have had starsan sucked back into the fermentor before happened when I went to crash it forgot to remove the blow off. If it was regular strength it wont do anything to the beer with less than a pint , I had about a quart sucked back. Putting it lower sometime helps sometimes not if the fermentor is air tight it will still suck back.
 
I'm thinking this one will be a "special run" beer never to be offered again....

So maybe it makes since to put a check valve in my blowoff tube. I really like using the keg as a fermie.
 
Back
Top