Ok, you've got a ton of stuff here. I'll give my opinions and then I'm sure there will be 4.9 million differing views but... here's what I got...
First question, what is the normal primary fermentation time for a hefe?
It depends on a few variables but I would feel safe with a hefe being done after a total of about three weeks. If it goes a week or so longer, it's not going to be a problem but with hefes, I don't see the benefit of an extended fermentation schedule.
Secondly, (appreciate the irony here) should I rack from my primary to my secondary to finish off and clear? I know that some say that a hefe should be cloudy, but my thought is that with a corny keg (which is what I will be kegging into), the pickupp tube goes to the bottom, so wouldn't most of the "cloudyness" or sedement be purged in the first few pints?
You'll probably get some differing opinions on this but I don't see the need to rack to a secondary for a hefe. Again, it has a relatively short fermentation time and given that short schedule, I don't see the real benefit of racking. Is it going to hurt? No. You can if you want... and if you do, I would do something like two weeks primary and a week in the secondary. And you're done.
I don't get what you're asking about the purging of cloudyness. Yeah, you might get a little sediment at the bottom of the keg (but it shouldn't be that much) but that won't have much at all to do with the cloudyness of the beer. If you keg it, and then store it refridgerated, eventually, it will fall clear but that won't have anything to do with the keg itself or any kind of "purging". Again... not sure what you really mean there.
Third, do you really force carbonate by putting CO2 into the beer out side to let it bubble up through the beer? I would think that a lot of people had problems with the ball locks on corney kegs since i have heard that if you switch the adapters, you can't get them off without breaking them (I.E.-if you accidentally put the gas adapter on the beer out side of the keg)
You can... but I don't see the benefit. There are a couple basic ways to force-carb a keg. 1) put it under "normal" pressure (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 psi) and let it sit for two weeks. or 2) jack it up to about 30-35 psi, shake the everluvinhell outta the keg, let it sit for a day or two, release the pressure and bring it up to serving PSI... and be done with it. Under both scenarios, I don't see the big benefit of gassing in through the liquid "out" as a big benefit. If you want to "bubble" the CO2 through the keg, just shake it.
And I would never put the gas connector on the liquid post.... if you really want to go that route for some reason, just hook your hose coming off the CO2 tank to a liquid connector.... and then use the liquid post on the keg.
Finally, once I carbonate my hefe (2.5-3 volumes I'm assuming) how long should I let it sit before tapping it? Thanks and sorry for all the questions. Later yall!
Depends on which method you go with out of the two I mentioned above.
