Senke keg fermenter

Has anyone tried to make a fermenter out of a 1/2 barrel or senke keg? I'm planning ok doing this. Any tips would be appreciated.

This is the best way.

http://www.brewershardware.com/American-Sanke-Keg-Fermenter-Kit-with-Thermowell.html

I have two and LOVE them. I will give you the quick synopsis...you can search for all the details
-take the spear out
-put a #10 drilled stopper in and treat it like a giant carboy
-push out the beer either with CO2 or a large autosiphon
-make a cheap keg cleaner with a fountain pump to clean
-to sanitize boil 2-3 gallons of water with some foil covering the opening. Do this for 10 minutes. Steam will kill everything.

@phunhog, do you use a normal racking cane? Is it stainless? How you you tell how deep you are with the racking cane so not to pick up trub? if pushing w/ C02 do you just connect a short lead into the #10 stopper and pull the out from the racking cane just like you would do with a corny keg?

snaps10 said:

This is the best way.

http://www.brewershardware.com/American-Sanke-Keg-Fermenter-Kit-with-Thermowell.html

Click to expand...

I use this and love it.

Per Weizenheimer, this setup comes with a racking cane, and I usually hook up a blowoff tube to the port and have a fitting on the end of my blowoff tube to push beer with CO2.

When I'm pushing beer, I determine height of the racking cane based on what I see coming through the tube. I start it a bit on the high side, and as I start filling the second corny keg, I start moving it down slowly until I *just* start to see trub flowing through, then back it off to get it back to clear.

^^^ what he said

I've seen some that cut part of the top off and fit it with a plexiglass top with a gasket so you can see the ferm and makes for easy cleaning.

Weizenheimer said:

@phunhog, do you use a normal racking cane? Is it stainless? How you you tell how deep you are with the racking cane so not to pick up trub? if pushing w/ C02 do you just connect a short lead into the #10 stopper and pull the out from the racking cane just like you would do with a corny keg?

Click to expand...

Here is one way to do it with an orange carboy cap.https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/using-pressure-transfer-carboy-300691/
I do have one of those TC fittings from Brewers Hardware...BUT I only put it on when I am racking into the keg. Otherwise I just use a #10 stopper. As far as depth of the racking cane I just push it down until I see some trub passing through the tubing. Then I back it off until the beer runs clear. I love fermenting in my sankes and see no reason to get a conical. The ONLY advantage I could see is the ability to dump trub/yeast and for dry hopping. Of course for the same capacity as two sanke fermenters two conicals would set you back at least 1K.