Sanke Keg fermenter

[JuanMoore]

Ouch! sounds like a dangerous weekend.

I read somewhere that someone cut the sanke dip tube short, put a sank coupler on top without the gas check valve and fermented, chilled, carbonated and served all out of the same keg. Sounds easy enough but I would be worried that I'd pull trub every pint. You would have to be pretty accurate with your dip tube cutting.

When you chill to serving temps the yeast cake solidifies pretty well. As long as you don't wrestle with the keg too much you'll only get yeast/trub on the first pour, and everything after is crystal clear. No need to cut accurately since every yeast cake is different. I cut ~1/2"-5/8" off of my diptubes, and it works pretty well. I honestly think it would be fine left even longer.

 

[Hugh_Jass]

Some photos of me transferring sanke to corney

 

[vonZwicky]

Going back to the earlier discussion of exploding kegs- I came across this obviously overpressurized keg yesterday. I have no idea how many psi were pumped into this thing to dome up the top so much. The bottom is in the same condition- so much so that the keg no longer rests on it's bottom chime. Be careful out there, guys!

 

[Zamial]

I have and am moving to all sanke kegs because it only makes sense to me. I brew either 6 or 12ish gallons at a time in my keggles. This allows for plenty of head room inside the fermenter. The kegs are near indestructible and a snap to clean. I am VERY happy with my results. I have not tried Wortmonger's pressurized fermentation yet and may or may not, so I have no input on that.(Sorry WM I just have to many pokers in the fire ATM)

I ferment in 1/2 and short 1/4 bbls depending on batch size. I transfer to tall 1/4 and 1/6 bbls for serving. I force carb all my beer now and even bottle off of the sanke/kegerator, so I have very little "stuff" in the bottom of my bottles or even my kegs! I never had a cornie keg and my kegerator (an old Kenmore) was all set up for sankes. I have 4 hand taps/picnic taps as well for that "keg party" if I need them.

I just bought an industrial shelving unit that is now my fermentation rack. The rack will easily hold 4-1/2 bbls per shelf and there are 2 shelves! (That's a lot of hootch!) I also used part of it to make a weldless brew stand. Pics and my own thread to come soon on all this...

FYI these are REALLY easy to clean and I have made 2 great batches of beer in them. I am ramping up for an EPIC brew day(s) this weekend/early next week 1-12 gallon batch, 3-6 gallon batches then to the stove for 2-3 gallon batches!!!(I have a 3 gallon carboy and montana jar. Thxs to Passedpawn for posting up the jars.) I reuse the Miller Home Draft systems for the mini batches unless I need to bottle them.

My current keg count:
1 - 1/2 bbl
3 - short 1/4 bbls
2 - tall 1/4 bbls
1 - 1/6th bbl
My MIL will be giving me 2 more 1/2 bbls soon and I have a friend whose grandfather passed awhile ago that homebrewed and she told me she "saw some kegs but has no idea what they are beyond that" and will be giving them to me for free! Not to mention my near daily search of CL for them. In my mind I want 4-1/2 and 4-1/4 bbls to ferment in and many tall 1/4 and 1/6 bbls.

Should I ever decide to stop making my own beer I can still buy beer in bbls and have no equipment to change.