Corney Keg as Conditioning/Bright Tank...dispense from or move to fresh keg??

I didn't want to hijack FlyGuy's Poll and I'm going making a habit of using Yuri's terminology to describe what alot people call "Secondary Fermentation", which should be more aptly called Conditioning/Clearing instead...anyhoo...

Post title pretty much says it all. Say you rack your beer from primary into a corny keg for conditioning/clearing. From here do you:

1. Keep the keg at room temps or keep it in the fridge to condition?
2. After conditioning, do you dispense directly from that keg or do you transfer it to another keg, leaving any sort of sediment behind in the process?
3. Do you condition that beer under pressure?

Just wondering what everybody's procedure is...thanks!

+1

I want to know all these things.....

It depends on the beer. A smaller beer, say a British mild, doesn't need much conditioning so I might keg it and keep it at room temperature a week or two and then move it into the kegerator.

For my fizzy yellow beer, I kegged it for clearing/secondary and then kept it at room temperature a couple of weeks to age a little. Then, I put it in the kegerator to cold condition. Since I was taking it to a party, I then "jumped" the clear beer from that keg without moving it, to a new keg. The new keg was filled with conditioned and clear beer. It worked great! I usually don't go to all that trouble, though!

For most regular ales, I keep in primary 2-3 weeks or until pretty darn clear. Then, I keg them. If they need a bit of aging, I leave them at room temperature for a bit. Otherwise, they go into the kegerator. Only the first pint has sediment in it, if you let it sit 48 hours before tapping and don't move it around.

Whether it's under pressure or not doesn't affect aging, so if it's a beer that's good young, I'll force carb it while it's conditioning.

+1 on Yooper. The only thing I'll add is, I keg at 4 weeks generally and only one brew in ten needs to be moved again or filtered.

I was thinking about dry hopping the IPA I'm hopefully brewing this month, and was planning on putting it in a keg with a bag of hops, then when it was time to move connecting the beer out line to another beer out line, then connecting co2 and quietly (and effortlessly) siphoning from one keg to another. Though, thinking about it now, I guess I could just find a way to take the hop bag out or something...

But for normal beers, I've started primarying 3-4 weeks and then kegging.

If I'm going to drink it fairly soon (within 2-3 months) I'll just dispense right from the "secondary" keg. If I want to store it, I'll let it rest for a while then transfer to a clean keg. I keep it in the fermenter for at least a week after fermentation completes. If for some reason I need to move the beer from the fermenter before I let is sit for a few days, then I'll transfer it to another keg before dispensing. For example, I have a hefeweizen that I moved to kegs after 8 days. I'll probably transfer it to another keg before I dispense it.

Resurfacing an old thread. I've read through this and another thread on building a bright tank out of a corny: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-corny-bright-tank-187028/

If I cut 1/2" off the liquid dip tube in my corny, how do I get that last 1/2" of star san out of the bottom of the tank? Just leave it?

Also, I know in commercial operations they sometimes use an umbilical line between the BBT and fermenter to ensure the fermenter doesn't cave in. I'm sure at a smaller scale this won't be as much of an issue, liquid just won't flow. So, I was thinking of pressurizing the corny/BBT to 4-5psi (also to purge any O2). Then I would connect a gas ball lock to the BBT and the other side to the fermenter. The fermenter should be pressurized to about 5psi, but as the umbilical is attached, both systems will equalize pressure. Then, I'll connect liquid line and as liquid flows to bright tank, the CO2 replaces the liquid in the fermenter. Any thoughts on this?

laughingboysbrew said:

Resurfacing an old thread. I've read through this and another thread on building a bright tank out of a corny: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-corny-bright-tank-187028/ If I cut 1/2" off the liquid dip tube in my corny, how do I get that last 1/2" of star san out of the bottom of the tank? Just leave it? Also, I know in commercial operations they sometimes use an umbilical line between the BBT and fermenter to ensure the fermenter doesn't cave in. I'm sure at a smaller scale this won't be as much of an issue, liquid just won't flow. So, I was thinking of pressurizing the corny/BBT to 4-5psi (also to purge any O2). Then I would connect a gas ball lock to the BBT and the other side to the fermenter. The fermenter should be pressurized to about 5psi, but as the umbilical is attached, both systems will equalize pressure. Then, I'll connect liquid line and as liquid flows to bright tank, the CO2 replaces the liquid in the fermenter. Any thoughts on this?

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I'm confused. The BBT is your bright tank? And your fermenter is a corny??

Having to open the keg to pour out the star san is the part I didn't like about cutting the dip tube. Now I use a full length dip tube until the beer is kegged and then I swap it out with a shortened one.

reuliss said:

I'm confused. The BBT is your bright tank? And your fermenter is a corny??

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Clarification: I have a conical fermenter. BBT = Bright Beer Tank, which will be a converted corny keg. Not sure if I will serve out of the BBT yet, so there may be an additional serving corny "keg" as well.

I'll be testing the system after my current batch completes, but just curious if others have done this (umbilical/counter-pressure line) with corny. Biggest challenge is dip tube gap. Closed system goal, but might have to swap the tubes like shelly_belly mentioned.

Anyone that bottles use a corny for conditioning instead of adding sugar in a bucket? I bought a Blichman counter-pressure bottle filler, but the little rubber plug on the bottom never stays on and beer sprays everywhere. Counter-pressure might be ideal, but curious if others just use a regular bottle filler tube out of a keg with good results...

I try and bottle all my beer after it has been kegged, conditioned and force carbonated. The BMBF works so well for me that I have yet to try anything else. I'm also still using picnic taps.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

laughingboysbrew said:

Anyone that bottles use a corny for conditioning instead of adding sugar in a bucket? I bought a Blichman counter-pressure bottle filler, but the little rubber plug on the bottom never stays on and beer sprays everywhere. Counter-pressure might be ideal, but curious if others just use a regular bottle filler tube out of a keg with good results...

Click to expand...

Reduce your keg pressure when using the beer gun!!!!!!! The spring that pulls the plug back to stop beer flow can only resist so much pressure. Made that mistake once.

This is what I do and use. Condition in a keg, and then bottle from that with a beer gun (usually just for comps, or the occasional give away.)

pjj2ba said:

Reduce your keg pressure when using the beer gun!!!!!!! The spring that pulls the plug back to stop beer flow can only resist so much pressure. Made that mistake once.

This is what I do and use. Condition in a keg, and then bottle from that with a beer gun (usually just for comps, or the occasional give away.)

Click to expand...

I don't think it's a pressure issue. It's the rubber stopper itself being too loose. I purge the keg of all CO2 and slowly add pressure back until the beer barely starts flowing. The rubber stopper will come off if I lift the beer gun trigger without any CO2 or liquid. I got a replacement stopper ($4.50!!!) So we'll see.