Secondary in the Keg - Airlock or No Airlock?

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Chello

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I realized i have gotten a little ahead of my self and do not have any more carboys for secondaries, but i'v always heard cornies make great secondaries.

So when you secondary in the corny do you hook up an airlock? or do you just seal it like normal with a burst of co2?
 
You need an air lock for use as a fermenter but as a secondary you should be able to just seal it. I pump min up to 30psi, bleed it off, pump it up to 30 bleed it off, then up to 10 and let it sit.
 
yeah, in secondary, fermentation is over, so the only CO2 present is just what's falling out of solution.

plus a corny is rated to 130psi, and then it pop's its safety valve (if not sooner) to prevent an 'explosion'.

downside to secondary in keg is that you get more sediment...the first couple pints may be too yeasty to drink, and if you move the keg, it may kick up sediment.

I like a 'traditional' secondary for about 2 weeks at cooler temps, then I keg and force carb..or keg and condition in my basement.
 
I agree with malkore, the beer will drop some more sediment in 2°.

If you have enough cornies you can certainly secondary in one, then rack to a serving keg.

If I am not going to move a keg around a lot I am happy to secondary and serve from the same keg. I might primary for three weeks in whatever, then rack to a keg and secondary sealed for maybe two weeks, then move it to a fridge, hook up the CO2 and start the carb process. By the time it is carbed I will have pulled enough samples to be done worrying about sediment. I generally invest two weeks in force carbign a keg.

This is with primary through an airlock now, not that spunding valve stuff wortmonger and I are playing with.
 
Yeah, i think the plan is to move whens currently in secondary to a keg to get it off as much yeast as possible, then just rack the new brews to a normal secondary.

Yeehaw...

(i'v been drinking a few pints and sometimes you just need a good yeehaw)
 
I don't have a problem with yeast in my secondary kegs.

There are a couple of ways around the sediment on the bottom. You could simply take a torx screw driver or a phillips head that fits in snuggly and bent the tube upwards slightly to keep from pulling any sediment off the bottom and out of the beverage tube. Others cut some of the tube off.

I use these modified cornies to transfer to another corny for serving purposes but only if I plan on taking a corny for a road trip.

As far as a secondary corny that's going to stay inhouse there's no real need for a transfer even with a beverage tube that's not been modified. Yes, the first 8-12 oz. will have some sediment. Others have reported up to 32 oz. of beer with sediment, that's not been my experience so I can't say what's going on there.

But just moving the corny from the fermentation chamber to the refridgerator will not cause the sediment to resuspend unless you shake the crap out of it or turn the thing sideways or upside down.
 
I'm in the same boat here, and I'd like to rack from primary to lager in a keg.

Do I need to rack to another keg after aging is finished? My lagers have a lot of soluble gunk at the bottom when they are finished. Would this clog up the works? Should I run it through a filter straight from the lager keg? Or rack, then filter? Or like the above, just pour out the first couple pints?
 
So I am out of buckets, and I just bought kegs and a tank so I was planning to use a keg as a secondary. I have never used the tank before, why do I need to pressurize it for use as secondary? Just to seal and mitigate the need for an airlock? Couldn't I just dry hop in the keg and seal it?
 
I'm in the same boat here, and I'd like to rack from primary to lager in a keg.

Do I need to rack to another keg after aging is finished? My lagers have a lot of soluble gunk at the bottom when they are finished. Would this clog up the works? Should I run it through a filter straight from the lager keg? Or rack, then filter? Or like the above, just pour out the first couple pints?
i go straight from primary to kegs with my lagers, a nd then I serve from those same kegs. After sitting 3 weeks in primary and a couple-6 months lagering the sediment is a very thin, dense layer on the bottom of the keg. I don't modify my kegs. And most of my lagers are brewed for Oktoberfest so they get moved from the fridge in the garage to the ice bucket in the backyard and I've never had an issue with sediment after moving them.
 
Just seal it up, you may need pressure to get a seal. I would hook it up either way and gas it just enough to know it iisn't leaking.

I would love for the beer to make a little co2 in secondary. If it starts to carb itself that is just a bonus. Why use an airlock?
 
G'day, newbie here, been brewin' for 12 months now and am building my all grain system. Gonna be a bit like the braumeister but with a sparge setup (digressing straight away, sorry). My first all grain starts are pretty cloudy so I'm setting up a filter from "The Filter Store" and will use soda kegs as my secondary's, it'll save me a bit of work and reduce the handling and hopefully the chance of infections decanting to a keg from the plastic secondary's I use now. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for all the data on this threa, thought I needed to modify an airlock for the keg but now know it won't matter.

Cheers & beers
 
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