Ferment underpressure in sanke keg

[bloke]

Hi,

The last few brews I did ferment under pressure in 0.4 bar or 5.8psi. In the end of the fermentation after about a week depending on the mash temp and FG I adjust the pressure to around 1.5. Let it sit and build pressure and when stable I chill the beer and move it to corny. The beer never get to see any daylight or oxygen.
I use a 15.5 Gallon sanke and a spunding valve on a the ballock fittings that I welded on a tri clamp endpiece that is clamped to the corny. The perfect fermenter If you ask me. I am really happy with the result.

Anyne else using the same setup?

I thought I could get some off flavors using the co2 from fermentation to carbonize the beer, but I dont seem to find any. Maybe using a lager yeast with same method could give a bit of sulphur?

Thoughts?

 

[bloke]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1478886982.617629.jpg

 

[Toga]

Nice setup! The larger commercial breweries ferment under pressure. Applying your logic, it would explain why I pick up sulfur in some lagers like budweiser.

 

[Terence]

I ferment under pressure in a 100L s/s conical. I do get a rotten egg smell (leaking from the lid seal) on my high gravity beers but pressure stays high enough to assist in dumping trub after primary ferment and carbonating beer at same time. Have not had any off flavors yet.

 

[bloke]

Terence are you able to carbonize in the s/s conical? How much pressure does he lid seal stand?

 

[Terence]

G'day Bloke, I don't force carbonate in the conical, I just capture the CO2 the yeasties let go of. When I decant into kegs I pressurize the kegs but because the beer has absorbed a lot of CO2 during its ferment the amount of CO2 required for carbonating and serving the beer is now minimal.

I have blown the lid off my conical a couple of times when cleaning (never when fermenting) as I use a large pond pump connected to the conical with a spray ball in the lid to clean. I wouldn't trust the cheap build on the fermenters to hold much pressure and would be scared of blowing the welded seam out if I added extra pressure but for what CO2 90l of wort puts out when fermenting.......it has worked well so far

Picture is of cleaning process

 

[bloke]

Cheers for the feedback Terence! Yeah i guess the conical is not built to deal with that much pressure. I would like to weld a cone on my half barrel sanke because i love that i can sample carbonized beer directly from fermenter.

 

[clarkpadgett]

I have a double IPA fermenting under pressure right now.