Secondary in corny keg

[bmathews]

So I've been thinking about secondary in cornies. I have seen different was to put an airlock on them. Which got me thinking why not much c02 is produced at this point, kegs are meant to handle pressure and the is a relief. So am I missing something here is it OK to secondary ferment in a keg with out an airlock if you know the blowoff works?

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[tpitman]

Just remove the pressure relief valve and put in an appropriately-sized drilled stopper and an airlock. Easy enough.

 

[bmathews]

Ya but why even put in an airlock

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[snowtires]

Secondary in the keg would be like cask ale. The only thing that could happen is over carbed if it fermented out too much. If u knew the fg would be and the gravity when you rack it you could know the exact carb level.

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[bmathews]

So that's my only real worry is be a bit to carbonated. So if I just pull the relief every now and again it should be fine

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[jglazer]

I secondary in kegs. I close the keg up completely and even put about 10 psi of CO2 in there to purge the O2. But the important factor is I make sure fermentation is completely done before putting it into the keg. If fermentation isn't done then you are not giving your yeast time to clean up after themselves!

 

[mtyquinn]

I plan on doing a secondary in kegs with some Munich Helles that is just about done. It still is bubbling about once every two minutes, but I need the carboy's and yeast cake for another brew. I'm thinking it should be good, but time will tell.

 

[kombat]

I have used Corny kegs as a secondary before. I rigged up a special blowoff tube connected to a gas ball-lock QD and draped the end of the tube into a pail of Starsan. Stupid thing sucked back over a quart of StarSan into the beer.

If I were to do it again (and I no doubt will), I would instead do as you've described and just seal it up like any other Corny keg. I'd pull the PRV every few days, but since I allow my beers to primary for 3 weeks, I don't expect much more off-gassing to occur, especially at the lower lagering temperatures. The yeast will hibernate at the near freezing temperature, and there'll be virtually no sugars left for them to work on anyway. And as you note, the keg is built to handle quite a bit of pressure anyway.

 

[scottvin]

For what it's worth - I now primary in kegs. I attach a blow-off hose to a gas disconnect and drop it in a growler filled with sanitizer. Granted, I can only brew a 4.25 gallon batch of beer but I would say it was the best beer I brewed. I am trying to source a 10 gallon corny tank so I can have full 5 gallon batches.

 

[bmathews]

See that's what I figured thanks for the replies

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