Secondary Fermentation into Corny Keg

[gishua]

Hey guys,
Just had a quick question. I have read on the forum already about using a corny as the secondary fermenter and serving keg, but my questions is this:

Once I move it over to the corny/secondary after reaching the gravity needed, what is the process after that?

Do I put straight in fridge?
Do I put CO2 on it to seal and leave in fridge disconnected from gas?
Do I put CO2 to seal it and put in regular temp area?

Thanks in advance
Josh

 

[Natdavis777]

Is it a beer that needs to be secondaried? If not, you can go ahead and start the carbing process.
If it is a beer that you plan to dry hop, add coffee or vanilla beans to, etc, then transfer to a corny and leave it at room temp while you complete this process. Once completed, you can either remove those items or transfer to a serving keg and carb from there.
If it is a beer that you simply just want to clear up and plan on using a fining agent such as gelatin, you can follow those processes and either pour the first few pints off of the sludge from the bottom, or again, transfer to a serving keg.
If you do move a beer to a corny, its always good to hook up the gas side and purge the 02 from the head space, whether it be dry hopping or just clearing the beer.

It all depends on what you want to do with the beer. Different beers require different situations.

For example, I am getting ready to move a black ipa from the primary to a corny and will dry hop for about 10 days in a bag. I will leave it around 68F and after the dry hop I will pull the dry hops out (bagged) and throw it in the fridge and eventually force carb it. Also, in the next week I will transfer a cream ale from the primary to a corny and mix in some gelatin and then cold crash the beer for a week or so, then pull off the sludge from the bottom, force carb, and enjoy...

 

[gishua]

Thanks for the info. pretty involved.

I basically just want to move the beer from primary to the corny as secondary. I have beer in primary two weeks. So wanted to secondary for two weeks.

Should it be 2 weeks in fridge or outside?

When should I pressurize.

 

[Natdavis777]

If you just want to throw it in a secondary but not do anything to it, I dont see why you wouldnt go ahead and throw it in the fridge. I advise against dry hopping in cold beer because it takes longer for oil extraction. If you arent dry hopping but just want to secondary, that is fine as well, you wont do any harm letting it sit at room temp. As soon as you move the beer to the corny, throw the gas on and pull the release valve to purge any o2 in the head space. This will prevent oxidation while it sits.

If it were me, I would move the beer to the corny, get it cold, force carb, and let it sit for a week or so before serving. In my past experience, it has taken a few weeks to get rid of the green beer flavor.

 

[gishua]

Ok great. Thanks!

I put in corny and removed o2. Put in fridge. I will put on 10 psi next week after it has a chance to sit a while

Thanks again!

 

[dcp27]

why not just put it on 10psi now? it's gunna take a week or so to carb at that pressure anyway so may as well kill 2 birds. sitting without CO2 isnt gaining any benefit over with CO2

 

[gishua]

I think the beer is too green? Needs a couple more weeks...guess it doesn't matter?

Thanks for the response.

 

[Natdavis777]

It will still age out with it on CO2.

 

[azmark]

You would usually "Secondary" in a temp similar to what you fermented. So warmer than a fridge. At the fridge temp you are stopping the yeast and causing them to stop cleaning up after themselves.

 

[Natdavis777]

Transferring from the primary leaves all the yeast behind in the first place. If you transfer to the primary while the beer is still fermenting, you are transferring too early


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[BigFloyd]

You would usually "Secondary" in a temp similar to what you fermented. So warmer than a fridge. At the fridge temp you are stopping the yeast and causing them to stop cleaning up after themselves.

That's not what happens as much in a secondary as it does simply leaving the beer alone in the primary at upper fermentation temp for about 4 days after it reaches a stable FG.

To the OP, if you can cold crash the primary 5-7 days in the mid 30's, do that first. Then rack to keg, put it on 10 psi and let it sit two weeks. The flavor really does improve at fridge temps during that period.