When to Keg??

Long time homebrewer finally getting my shot at kegging. My question for those with some experience is: When do you normally keg, after primary, or should I perform a secondary? This is a batch of Northern German Altbier, and has been in primary for 2 weeks.

I never secondary. I do not brew big beers so not sure if that would play a roll.

orion7144 said:

I never secondary. I do not brew big beers so not sure if that would play a roll.

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This isn't a big beer, 1.055 OG. I want to cold condition it for at least a month as I will be pulling a few bottles from it for MCAB XV, which is in May (no specific date yet).

Like all things in brewing and law school: it depends.

It is totally fine to rack directly from primary to the keg, especially for a beer that should clear up fairly quickly like an Altbier. Like always just to try to keep the yeast/trub in the fermenter, not your keg.

For big messy IIPAs or oaked porters or whatnot I will often transfer to secondary for a few weeks and let everything really settle down before racking to the keg.

But it really doesn't matter- as long as the beer is donezo you can put 'er in the keg and start carbing up.

Congrats on your first foray into kegging- it is the freaking best.

The best thing about kegging is you can completely eliminate oxygen exposure. If you have an enough extra kegs, I recommend using one as a secondary. Make a hose with 2 "out" connectors so you can transfer to a clean keg off the slop once the beer is clear.

gbx said:

The best thing about kegging is you can completely eliminate oxygen exposure. If you have an enough extra kegs, I recommend using one as a secondary. Make a hose with 2 "out" connectors so you can transfer to a clean keg off the slop once the beer is clear.

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I remember listening to a brew strong episode about fermentation. Kegs were not recommended to ferment in because of the height to width ratio of kegs being higher than a bucket or carboy which could stress the yeast. I believe osmotic pressure was the term used. Have you had any similar problems with the keg as a secondary? I would imagine it would be more severe on the primary fermentation.

GrayTopBrewing said:

I remember listening to a brew strong episode about fermentation. Kegs were not recommended to ferment in because of the height to width ratio of kegs being higher than a bucket or carboy which could stress the yeast. I believe osmotic pressure was the term used. Have you had any similar problems with the keg as a secondary? I would imagine it would be more severe on the primary fermentation.

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I've never had any problems like that. Depending on the yeast and beer, I'll do a week or 2 primary in a bucket or carboy before putting it in my secondary keg. There really is nothing going on except clearing If I'm dry hopping I'll put the hops in a bag and rack the beer in on top. Its easy to pull samples off and see when its clear or when the hoping is right.

if you listen to jamil talk about no-secondary, he is actually doing a secondary in a keg. I can't remember what ep. I think it might be one of the lager shows.

When I walk through commercial breweries - and I mean every single one I've ever been in - the geometry of the fermentation tanks is way closer to that of a corny keg than a bucket or carboy.

Just sayin'...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

When I walk through commercial breweries - and I mean every single one I've ever been in - the geometry of the fermentation tanks is way closer to that of a corny keg than a bucket or carboy.

Just sayin'...

Cheers!

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Even if the geometry is similar, the cross-sectional area is not. That's what's important - not the general geometry of the fermentation tank.

spaceyaquarius said:

Even if the geometry is similar, the cross-sectional area is not. That's what's important - not the general geometry of the fermentation tank.

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I think this is another example of "over-sciencing" homebrewing. I would put "osmotic pressure" in the same category as "hot side aeration" (as in "maybe it has some effect but it is so small in 5gal batch that its not worth adding even 1 minute of effort to you brew day to avoid it") but I wouldn't use a keg for primary as my 5gal cornies are too small for a 5 gal batch.

I do all of my fermentation in kegs, cornie kegs, and since doing so have brewed my cleanest and best tasting beers. People here are successfully using sanke and cornies to ferment in and doing it quite well.

My own opinion...just because a couple guys say you can't/shouldn't do something, doesn't mean that it can't be done, and done well.

One set of opinions does NOT trump many successful batches of good beer.