Any use cornys for a secondary?

[rdwj]

I was thinking about using some of my cornys as secondary or Tertiary vessels. I think that using a jumper and CO2 to push beer is a nice advantage and the space savings would be helpful too.

Does anyone here use them for this purpose? If so, do you clip the out tube so that it doesn't pick up the stuff on the very bottom of the keg? I wa also thinking that some sort of course filter might be a nice addition.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I recently did a poor man's version of this...just went from primary to the keg with my IPA and let it "secondary" in the kegerator. The first few pints were cloudy and now it's fine. It's not really optimal, but I needed to "fasttrack" some homebrew.

I've definitely seen websites with people doing exactly what you're talking about. Seems like you need an extra fitting or two so that you go from the "out" post to the "out" post, but that's about it.

 

[the_bird]

I've thought about getting some cheap, used cornies and using them to replace my 5-gallon carboys as secondaries. Not worrying about pushing the beer out with CO2, just siphon out as usual (I don't keg now, I won't be kegging for a while). Seems like it would be safer than dealing with glass, no worries about the beer becoming lightstruck, they are more compact than carboys (smaller footprint), easier to carry.

Anything wrong with doing this?

 

[david_42]

I go straight to cornies in almost all cases. I have one keg with a screen on the tube that I use for berry ciders, but none of the other kegs have been modified. Most of the time, drawing off a gravity sample is enough to clear the area around the tube.

I'm planning on using a cornie to lager my schwartzbier, since a bucket won't fit in the kegger.

 

[sonvolt]

This is a common practice. There are even products on the market that convert corny kegs to fermenters. It is unecessary to buy such a product, but they do look effective.

If you are planning to let fermentation happen in the corny, you will need to attach an airlock to one of the posts. I've seen this done a couple of ways. Some folks attach a post fitting with a length of tubing going to an airlock. Others take the post all the way off and attach the tubing/w airlock directly onto the threaded area where the post attaches.

Here is what I wonder - what would it be like to ferment under pressure? What if primary fermentation occured in a pressurized vessel? One would have to be very careful to vent the keg on a regular basis for the initial violent fermentation, but I wonder if it would have an impact on yeast flavors, etc.?

 

[dougjones31]

Just unhook your cobra tap and line from a liquid out disconnect and put it on a gas in disconnect. Then lock the tap open and dunk it in a container of water. It will act just like an air lock.

Or just remove the pickup tube from the liquid out post and replace it with the gas in short tube. This will allow you to use a normal cobra tap setup as an airlock.

 

[david_42]

I wouldn't bother with any kind of airlock for secondary, you can just pull the relief valve once in a while. Even when I don't bother burping the cornies, I haven't had one build up enough pressure to be a problem. Many of the relief valves rings can be pulled and rotated 90 degrees into an always open position.

 

[Todd]

I wouldn't bother with any kind of airlock for secondary, you can just pull the relief valve once in a while. Even when I don't bother burping the cornies, I haven't had one build up enough pressure to be a problem. Many of the relief valves rings can be pulled and rotated 90 degrees into an always open position.

I'm wondering if during the conditioning phase how much co2 is produced and if the added pressure would screw things up if you were to let the keg sealed up. The end result should be cask conditioned ale. right?

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I'm wondering if during the conditioning phase how much co2 is produced and if the added pressure would screw things up if you were to let the keg sealed up. The end result should be cask conditioned ale. right?

The blowoff pressure on a standard keg blowoff valve is way too high, but there are products to facilitate exactly what you're talking about. Basically you replace the blowoff valve with one that's been modified to blowoff at whatever pressure you dial in which allows your beer to carbonate to a certain point and then start blowing off. I'm pretty sure morebeer carries them.

 

[Todd]

The blowoff pressure on a standard keg blowoff valve is way too high, but there are products to facilitate exactly what you're talking about. Basically you replace the blowoff valve with one that's been modified to blowoff at whatever pressure you dial in which allows your beer to carbonate to a certain point and then start blowing off. I'm pretty sure morebeer carries them.

Would the carbanation cause some ill effect to the conditioning process?

 

[rdwj]

....I'm pretty sure morebeer carries them.

Poked around and didn't see anything.

 

[Todd]

Poked around and didn't see anything.

if you did this after primary there should not be much concern with over carbing right? If anything you might need to add some co2 to finish.

 

[rdwj]

if you did this after primary there should not be much concern with over carbing right? If anything you might need to add some co2 to finish.

I just racked a wit on some cherries and sparked up some fermentation. I think I'd probably go with a blow-off tube in the gas In to take care of that, but a nice gizmo is always fun to have.

 

[Capt. Awesomest]

I got this from more beer for coney fermenting, i attach a blow off from this port

Being in az its tough to keep temperatures low enough for even ale temps, so i use some converted danby kegerators for fermentation lockers. The smaller foot print allows me to do alot more brewing.

heres the more beer link, they aren't cheap, but my welding skills are less then sub par:

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=18211

 

[rdwj]

... they aren't cheap, but my welding skills are less then sub par:

Holy cow - $42! seems like you could pull a post and do something similar for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Todd]

I got this from more beer for coney fermenting, i attach a blow off from this port

Being in az its tough to keep temperatures low enough for even ale temps, so i use some converted danby kegerators for fermentation lockers. The smaller foot print allows me to do alot more brewing.

heres the more beer link, they aren't cheap, but my welding skills are less then sub par:

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=18211

how are you using these? Can you describe your process?

 

[dougjones31]

You could drill a hole in your own lid and add a piece of threaded pipe through the hole.....peen the bottom end to flare it and put a rubber washer on the bottom and a nut on top that pulls the flare upward and seals it with the rubber washer....voila! The same damned thing for $5!

But it you pull off a post and remove the tube then you can just push a 3/4 ID hose onto that post stud and you have a nice blowoff tube for nothing $.

 

[Capt. Awesomest]

I needed a replacement lid anyway so i went with one of these for ease. I match this too a stainless - 1/2'' mpt x 1/2'' barb to a 1/2 id blow off house into sanitizer. can use a plug when not being used. I like the larger size that you just cant get from the pop-it hole and it gives me lots of other option as well. Im sure it can be done for alot cheaper, but in this instance, time was not something i had alot of

 

[anthrobe]

The quick, cheap, and easy solution is to run a blowoff tube from the In port. Just connect a hose on the quick disco fitting and then run it to a jar filled with sanitizer. You can even go down to 3/16" I.D. hose if you like. I just might have to try this fermenting in keg stuff. Seems like it would be a snap to move from one keg to another with CO2.

 

[Capt. Awesomest]

The downside is you don't get to see whats going on inside, but id say its the way to go, deffinately if you want to get into filtering.