corny as fermenter

i'm thinking about using a corny as a primary does anyone have any pics using a corny as a fermenter? i think i might go eith a blowoff tube connected to the gas in disconnect. not sure how it would work due to clogging.

most people use them for secondaries. This is due to the massive amount of blow off you will have as there is no headspace for a 5 gal batch as well as the slender design causing higher foam then in a carboy. Some people use fercap for primaries though.

oh ok gotcha. what is fercap?

I think its a great idea. The challenge is fitting an air lock to the big opening. A sanke keg has a small opening that an air lock may be fitted if your handy.

After the beer is done fermenting close it up and hook it up to the CO2. Then draw off the trub at the bottom and throw out. Let the keg set and clear for another couple of days or what ever, then draw off the crap at the bottom again.

There, now your drinking great beer fermented in the same keg its being served from.

I use them as fermenters. Generally the easiest way I found was to take off the gas plug and take out the gas dip tube. I then just stretch a piece of 3/8" inner diameter silicone tube over the threads, and then push an airlock into that.

It is a lot easier than it sounds. I thought I had a pic around here somewhere hmmm

I'm getting ready to try it also. There is a brew shop locally that sells used cornies for $25 and new o-rings for $4. It's cheaper than a carboy and more useful too! I'd rather be collecting kegs than carboys. I like the idea of racking to another keg through a closed system. I'm thinking that I could clean several cornies at a time by soaking them in my bathtub with lots of oxyclean. How much easier could it get???

I believe byo had a article about using a corny as a fermenter.You would use a extra ball lock or pinlock connector depending on what style keg and run a line into a bottle of starsan or water like you would a blow off tube.

There are a lot when you search, but here is one thread. Here is a pic I put on another one



I do keep my blow off bottle in a bucket for the first day or two, to be safe. My Belgian Triple over flowed for 2 days, and is still bubbling after over a week in primary (going into day 10 now). Feel free to PM me if you have anything you're not sure about after searching (or post).

If you use a gas disconnect with a hose like the picture above, take the poppet out of the post and remove the spring and pin from the disconnect.

One thing I'm not clear on regarding using a cornie for primary, is temperature control. For lagers I see simply filling it up and tossing it in the kegerator... for ales, is it that simple? Do the stainless walls of the cornie hold in the heat more than plastic causing a higher fermentaion temp? Also, does using a plastic strip thermometer accurately reflect the wort temp? Thanks to all..........

Does anyone ferment under pressure? Is this even possible? Possitive or negative effect on beer???

Just curious...

Guess none of you listen to Basic Brewing, eh?

January 15, 2009 - Fermenting in a Keg
Chris Colby, editor of Brew Your Own magazine, tells us how to ferment in Corny kegs . . . and why.

clicky to listen

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And iirc these were mentioned in the podcast...he was a member on here....Keg Pasties...Ferment in Your Keg

Seen them, and they've been recommended on other 'corny fermentation' threads before (thanks though Michael!). As posted, you can remove poppet and spring/pin assembly for more through put, or if you have a bigger hose (I forget diameter), you can just remove the post and shove it on. The only concern is VIOLENT ferments, and wort that is dry hopped or has a lot of hops/trub in it.

The strip for the temp is fairly accurate, but the center of your wort during fermentation will be a couple degrees higher. Those darn yeasties just love going to town and create a lovely exothermic reaction, what can I say?

As far as under pressure, I don't bother with pressurizing the lid for primary. The fermentation process is going to create a nice blanket of CO2 over your wort, and will have excess (which is what will come out the airlock/blowoff). I did originally invest in a drilled out corny lid, that I used a drilled stopper and an S air lock. Used it once, and now stick with a blow off tube exclusively (rather safe then sorry). The nice thing with cornies though, is even if it gets clogged, it's not going to blow the lid off, or create over 130 PSI before I notice (max pressure on cornie according to all the imprinted ratings I've seen on them).

Hope this helps/makes sense... Still getting over a cold, but this winter warmer certainly is good....

MoRoToRiUm said:

Hope this helps/makes sense... Still getting over a cold, but this winter warmer certainly is good....

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Glad to see you are liking it

oh wow alright thanks for the replies looks like i'll be trying it out this weekend when i brew a bavarian bock and possibly a flanders brown ale if i want to make it a double brew day

thanks for all the replys

one more question on the subject. have any of you had any problems with the yeast cake clogging the dip tube when racking to secondary/ conditioning

I've discovered that dry hopping over 1 oz of pellets still causes clogging, but sure screens from northern brewer help a lot for cutting down yeast/trub. I plan on getting a tea infuser ball for future dry hopping (just moved my IPA over to a new keg after dry hopping shy of two weeks).

Actually cyberbackpacker, your bottle is sitting happily in my fridge along with a brown IPA from Steve- I still have a winter warmer and spiced ale on draft I brewed. Next supply order I really have to invest in a capper/caps... Thanks again!

I too am going to do primary fermentation in a corny for the first time. I have leftover braided stainless steel from my MLT build I am going to slip over the dip tube and secure with a SS hose clamp to filter yeast/trub when racking.

This has been of great interest to me. I have 6+ of the 8g beer buckets. I've had a couple of the buckets get contaminated with lacto and I've been unable to sterilize them properly. Earmarked as grain bins now... I'm going to transition to SS (cornies) soon. At least that is the cheap and easy plan!

I have some ideas about using cornies as primaries. Here are just a few:

1. I prefer open fermentation. How about leaving the lid off the cornie and placing a bucket upside down over the top? Then nothing could 'drift' down into the fermenter.

2. As far as a blow-off tube, how much yeast does one lose this way? Another preference is getting as close to 5g per keg as possible- I usually do 10g batches and dividing it up between 3 cornies seems awkward.

3. The comment of drawing off the cake several times- how well does this work in practice? Similar to a conical?

Thanks!

rad

1. I would just use foil. Easier to sanitize, likely sanitary off the roll anyway and disposable. There is a lot of evidence that open fermentation is optimal and I agree that covering the top is sanitary enough unless you have some wild drafts (or rats).

remilard said:

1. I would just use foil. Easier to sanitize, likely sanitary off the roll anyway and disposable. There is a lot of evidence that open fermentation is optimal and I agree that covering the top is sanitary enough unless you have some wild drafts (or rats).

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or cats (rhymes with rats too!)

2. I used the foam control drops and I did not need a blow-off tube, since I was controlling the temperature as well there were no explosive fermentations. I probably got 4.5 gallons in there, you could probably do 4.75. 5 is pushing it but maybe...

3. I re-used the yeast cake in a corny one time, I don't think you'd have an easy time of drawing off the cake through the small dip tube.