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Poindexter

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Creativity as in the working thread, bring it, share it, what have you got, what do you need?

Wortmonger and I have been trading some PMs that- they just don't need to be PMs. So this is the brainstorming thread for fermenting under pressure and running all kegs on the cold side.

Both of us are pitching yeast and cold wort into kegs, moving keg to keg as needed, pressurizing ferment here and there, no pails, no carboys, no siphons.

It isn't rocket science, we don't have anything to hide.

So if you have a questiopn or idea about using all kegs on the cold side, or ferementing under pressure, here is a place to talk about it.

The purpose of this thread is to make the information searchable and include other people with more ideas.

Here we go.
 
Here is a pic of the outside of my primary fermenter:

fermentout.jpg



Here is a pic of the inside of the same fermenter, just before I cleaned it:

ferementin.jpg


In this instance I got CO2 _only_ out the grey post of my primary fermenter. No bubbles, no yeast, nothing. I pitched Safale 05 onto 4.0 gallons of 1.050, set my spunding valve at 5psi, and controlled the temp to 62-68°F.
 
Current state of practice.

Wortmonger ran his last ferment at 15psi and I think he is going to try 5 psi next time, or not, that is up to him.

I ran 5psi for primary my first time through with the system, I am going to stick with that. I am going to make a few batches in a row of extract Munton's (English) Pale Ale just cause the hot side is quick and easy, it isn't crazy expensive, I will drink it, and I have made it enough times to know what it tastes like.

I am going to play with head space to see about harvesting yeast out of the krausen head. I am going to stick to ~5psi for ferment pressure while I dial in the rest of the technique.

Sooner or later I want to order a pair of not adjustable relief valves. One at 5ish (8ish?) psi for primary, and the other at 25ish (22ish?) for clearing.

I find the pressure ferment gets me good beer quick. I live in a college town. I live in the student 'ghetto'. Our basketball team is currently ranked top ten (cough, cough Prof Frink). If we go way far in the post season I am going to need a whole lot of beer in a hurry.

I find slimming down to kegs only after the brew kettle simplifies everything. I don't have to clean ale pails anymore. I don't have to carry heavy glass carboys. Everything is either little zip lock bags in the freezer, in the brew kettle or in a Cornelius, very nice.

I should mention: for now my AG batch size is 2.5-3.0 gallons depending on grain bill. I am doing 5.0 gallon extract batch sizes with high gravity ferments. When I am ready to take on 5.0 gal AG, I am going to need a 7.5g Sanke for a primary.

For now I am using regular, unmodified Cornelius as my primary - but I picked one with a straight spear under the black post. I'll post when I go modifying one,and I'll take pics of the bottom of the keg until I get something clear enough to post.
 
I finally got enough yeast out of a corny as primary to have harvested it. This setup is a bone stock not modified Cornelius keg filled with yer basic steep/ extract wit recipe, pitched with White Labs WLP400, Belgian Wit Beer.

Pictured is the second one gallon jug hanging off the grey post as airlock/ bubbler. Just in the first one I recovered enough yeast to fill two White Labs test tubes, plus most of a third in this one. If I had gone grey to black with a quart of starter in the second keg and airlock on the second keg I would be saving $2.99 (yeast expense) on my next wit for sure.

Red mark is approximate fill line. With the lid out, the keg was filled to where the weld line where the vertical side meets the arc roof of the keg. Temp controller was kitchen sink filled with water and occasional ice lobbed in.

WLP400.jpg
 
BEWARE

Scroll down before attempting




I will not be saving the $1.49 next time I need Nottingham Yellow, of all things. Same as the wit I filled the corny as primary fermenter up to the weld where vertical side meets curved roof. Temp control as before, ice/ water bath. The brew was a style correct English Pale Ale ~1.045, just an airlock, zero psig. I got some hop fragments is all. Bone stock Cornelius keg, I haven't cut any dip tubes under the grey posts yet.

To reiterate, at the end of the hose on the grey post was another one gallon jug, not shared with any other fermenter. I got nothing visible to the naked eye in the water in the jug that was the airlock. nada.

nottiyellow.jpg
 
Pulling a gravity sample out of a pressurized fermenter, without contaminating the fermenter, is pretty darn easy. This is Mosher's (PM) Rye Pale Ale recipe (Radical Brews, page p. 87), only I ran the primary at 25psig, then racked off the trub into another keg and up to 32psi for yeast cleanup with simultaneous carb on day 3. This should be cold, clear, carbed and ready to go on something like day 15-20.

[youtube]HjCy3ub5Enk[/youtube]

EDIT: I pitched that Roggenbier on 01-28-08 and I have been tearing it up since 02-09-08. If I had a counter pressure filler, which I don't, I would send this out, with pride, to members like Brewpastor and Yuri. I would probably learn something, but I wouldn't be embarrassed.
 
LOL, I love grabbing samples this easy. I cannot wait until my next beer done under pressure. Glad to see everything has been working out for you. We used to fill a corny up and do a 5 gallon starter for the brewpub I worked at. Hard to believe a 5 gallon corny can start so fast pitched into a 15 bbl fermenter, lol.

EDIT: Hey guys, thought I'd put a link to the Wiki spunding article.
 
Beware NottiYellow without temp control. This is a mockup, I was in too much of a hurry to take a pic of the real thing. I brewed an IPA Saturday evening, 1.060. I pitched dry Nottingham Yellow. Sunday AM, nothing, Sunday PM, nothing. Sunday bedtime, nothing. I decided to hold off on putting the fermenter in the ice water bath Sunday night.

Monday AM, oopsie:

HotandNotti.jpg
 
wortmonger said:
So, you not pressure fermenting anymore?

My spunding valve is still on the Roggen. I am going to a huge car show in San Antonio in late March, I am planning pressure ferment two more batches between now and then. I may have to replace the Roggen by then too, goes great with beef.

I am gonna do a Firestone Walker APA clone under pressure next, and then probably a basic English Bitter with some whole Fuggle I recently scored, also under pressure.

I am expecting to bottle both last w/e's IPA and the oat stout I have coming up. Just easier to prime and bottle the whole batch without needing a counter pressure filler.
 
I am home from the car show. Pressurized fermenters aren't just for production speed.

I took my Countdown Pale Ale.

And I took a wit.

I was telling folks the Countdown was my "amber ale" and the wit was "Like a hefeweizen, only with out the yeast clouds."

Reviews were uniformly neutral to positive. The BMC crowd found the amber too heavy and the wit too adventurous. So they can have their BMC.

The beer snobs just about kicked my cornie of the amber. Six guys. Everyone said it was very smooth- which I think is from the pressurized ferment.

The people who liked hefe-weizen already either missed the yeast component or were very happy with the wit.

Ferment technique was the same. I got my wort to pitching temp and into a cornelius. I pitched my yeast. I globbed a little extra keg lube on the big Oring. I sealed the keg.

I pushed in CO2 (grey post) to 10psi to seal the keg. I put a sample tap on the black post. I put my spunding valve (@15psi relief) on the grey post.

Within a few hours the CO2 was absorbed and the pressure valve would read zero for several hours - thus the extra lube on the big Oring.

Once ferment took off I let the yeast pressurize the keg themselves. Once they got it up to 15psi the ferment just ran unattended while the spunding valve vented pressure in excess of 15psi.

Temp control was nothing, these were both just a keg in the laundry room. Dry on the floor. Grab it by the handle and move it if you need to.

Starting about day five or so I would pull gravity samples out the sample tap on the black post.

When the gravity reading was within "about" 5 points of completion I removed the spunding valve and the pressure inside the keg go as high as the yeast wanted to go.

Hydro sample tastings confirm diacetyl climbs, dramatically, when yeast are making alcohol and the pressure inside the vessel is rising.

However,when the pressure plateaus and the yeast are done making alcohol, then the yeast go clean up the diacetyl.

So, ignore to five points from completion. Remove spunding valve, let pressure build. Sample.

What I did was let the primary fermenter keg just sit for 24 hours after there was no detectable diacetyl in the hydro sample. I don't know if diacetyl flavor will fade as the keg is cooled to lower pressure or get stronger. It might be possible to shave a couple days off the process by crash cooling when diacetyl flavor is "almost" gone instead of waiting 24 hours after diacetyl is undetectable.

In any event, after whatever for diacetyl rest, cool to drop the yeast (five days in my primary refrigerator is fine) and then rack to serving keg.

While the beer is cooling and they yeast are crashing, the CO2 in there is dissolving into solution.

What I do is pressurize the serving/ target keg to my target serving pressure, usually 12psi. Then I put my spunding valve on the grey post and twist the knob from 15psi down to when it just starts to hiss. Then I run black to black from fermenting keg to serving keg, and push 20psi of CO2 into the grey post on the primary fermenter keg.

Here is a link to the spunded ale I was calling an "amber":
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=56413

I don't really think of "Countdown" as a recipe. I think of it as a framework so I can experiment/ play with different grains, different hops, and always end up with decent beer. Marris Otter and Crystal 40 gave me a pretty dark product...relative to BMC.

The wit I made was this one:

http://www.brewsupply.com/HowTo/Recipes/witmen.html

I used buckwheat honey, sweet instead of bitter orange peel and only half an ounce of Coriander. But I did buy whole coriander and crush it in my coffee mill.
 
Great read and gets me excited about trying this out. I need to get a spunding valve but for now I think i can at least ferment in some cornies. I'm looking to do this since the freezer I have does not fit carboys and I should be able to temp control a lot easier in that than a tub of water and blocks of ice.

Have you looked into using foam control drops to help keep the krausen out of the blowoff tube (Or spunding valve)? Also did you ever have any trouble with quick disconnects clogging up either due to krausen or trub when transferring?

I am debating on cutting the gas tube down to bare minimum and cutting the dip tube off 2" above the bottom to avoid the trub when I transfer to my serving corny.
 
conpewter said:
I am debating on cutting the gas tube down to bare minimum and cutting the dip tube off 2" above the bottom to avoid the trub when I transfer to my serving corny.


Leave your spear tube stock when doing this with cornies. I did a something something with a huge pile of trub and yeast in the bottom of the primary, but when I racked all that got moved to the secondary was a little divot around the tip of the beer out tube, maybe the size of a golf ball. I served from the second keg on that one.
 
It looks like for the yeast harvesting you did about 5 gallons in the 5 gallon corny.

Have you tried 5 gallons under pressure or what was your experience if you have tried more than 4 gallons under pressure in the 5 gallon corny? I have searched for more info on this but have not found much other than what you (Poindexter) and wortmonger have posted.

I would like to experiment with this a little myself but just wanted to know what results you or others may have had with limiting headspace under pressure.
 
So, i've been posting now and then on Wortmongers original thread, but I think this thread could be better for the specifics of the process as developed by those using it (or those not using it, but comprehending it at least).

I just put my first batch into my keg for primarying under pressure :D I plan on keeping it at 5 psig until a few points to FG, like Wortmonger has described, then letting it carb itself.
altspundingvalve.jpg


It's an alt-bier from northernbrewer (2 extract kits combined for a 10g batch). OG was 1.052. Has developed 2 psig at 72* F in 24 hrs and remained there for another 24 hrs (current time).
spundingvalvecloseup.jpg


Using the sankey couplers and a co2 tank i pumped cleaner and sanitizer in and out of a few kegs today to clean and sanitize and man, that's so easy! just tap/untap and wait. so much better than all those (soon to be) obsolete buckets. I just wanna keep brewing and kegging now :rockin: and that was only my 4th brew! It's comforting to know that you guys are one step ahead of me and will most likely have answers or suggestions to problems i might come across.

wholeshabang.jpg
 
Preach on nbspindel! I love this method. I was curious what equipment you came up with, as we all know I am unhappy with the perfection in mine :(. I really like the look of your relief valve and wondered (part number and where to buy). How many psi does it control 0-?, as well as, did you just hook to the tap connector via a nipple and worm clamp? Please elaborate for everyone and I with pictures if possible.

I am curious why you only saw an increase and then stable at 2 psi. Did it ever ramp up to 5 psi? Sometimes I think the beer is absorbing it so you get an inaccurate reading for how much pressure is acually being created until it is at a great abundance. Keep us informed.

You are right about this thread being more than mine on acuallities. I think everyone should start thier own threads on how they do it to spread the word even faster of this alternate technique. Anyways, just wanted to say I'm watching and smiling like a proud papa, lol.
 
Wortmonger,
my parts are listed on your thread, post #202 (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/index21.html). I used a 1/4" tailpiece on the gas-in to connect to 1/4" gas tubing which connects to a 1/4" barb/1/4" MPT which then threads into the T. I used worm clamps on both ends.

The pressure relief valve goes from 0-100. Under 10 isn't marked, but it holds fine, it just has to be fine-tuned like any other. It's my first go at it, but i like both the valve and the gauge the way they are. I thought, too, that with the clear tubing being held in that loop by my clamp (or rubberband, or whatever one might want to use), any blow-off would: 1. be easily seen, and 2. stay at the low point in the tube and not climb up into my valve. I'd like to replace it with the tailpiece/MPT adapter, but can't find it anywhere.

It did increase to 2 psig. I think i had a small leak in the clamp/barb connection somewhere, cause i could smell the co2, but the gauge wasnt showing it. I took the tap off, tightened it all up really well, and it's now showing 4.5 psig. So i guess that was the issue. I bet that the co2 gets absorbed and that's why we don't see it though. That and there's so much more liquid and headspace (compared to 5 g carboy), that it might not produce so much pressure at the start. ???

How do you pitch yeast? I put it into the keggle after cooled to 70*F, then continued to pump it straight into the keg. I worry about the pump and the turbulence affecting the yeast though.

I can't wait to do another! I just made some sankey spear removal tools from butterknives (based on another thread i found), and am planning my fermentation/lagering cabinet as we speak! It will hold 2 kegs and my co2 tank, plus random bottled beers and maybe some supplies. Will eventually put some faucets on it, but one step at a time :) I'll see about drawing up a sketch for input on the cabinet plans.
dsc01520o.jpg

dsc01521uf.jpg
 
another reason the pressure may not show an increase: leaking orings on the coupler!

i traded an item for these couplers which were quite old. cleaned them up, lubed the orings (which looked fine), and put them to work. Well, the orings were apparently too compressed to hold a perfect seal. leaked just enough to show a little pressure on the gauge, but not hold it over 2 or 3 psig. should get some good feedback now.
 
Poindexter,

Jessica Simpson and I what to know if you have changed any of your 'current state of practice' since you lasted posted, got more cornys, winning lotto tickets or the turbo for your car?

I have completed my first corny fermentation with a blow off and am looking to kick this thing off soon using pressure per your write-up and Wortmonger's.
 
Poindexter,

I am curious if you got another corny for your spunding valve to ride on? I am going to try this method. I have an upright freezer with a hole drilled near the top on the door with a standard sized 4' gas hose passed through it (grey qd on empty corny and the spunding valve is strapped to my digital temp controller that's mounted on the door).

I am pressure testing a corny with it now.

Jessica says hi.

EDIT UPDATE: 9/19/11

Posted a photo of my spunding valve during its initial testing phase. See signature link.
 

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