cornies for fermenters?

[marosell]

anyone here used cornies for fermenters before? I figured it was a pretty easy and cheap solution, you can just put the 3-piece lock on a small piece of tub on one of the air posts, blow off on the other.

but i can't imagine drilling it and putting a stainless ball faucet on the outside is very easy....

 

[Brewer3401]

When I first started brewing, I had 3 perfect coke cornies cut so I could put a spigor in the bottom - wanted them for brite tanks.

duh - big mistake. I'm using 7.50 gallon primary and brite tanks in s/s now (and very cheap to make). Sooooooo, now I have 3 cornies with holes in them.

Oops - real answer is they're kind of small to ferment in. I think the 5 gallon mark is around the top weld - unless you are doing under 5 gallon batches.

Still, a bucket or modified 7.50 gallon s/s turkey fryer pot gives you a huge amount of head space for a fermenter.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

5 gallon mark is not near the top weld. I put 20L in them and have several inches of space between the beer and the weld.

 

[marosell]

you use cornies for primary and secondary both?

 

[abracadabra]

anyone here used cornies for fermenters before? I figured it was a pretty easy and cheap solution, you can just put the 3-piece lock on a small piece of tub on one of the air posts, blow off on the other.

but i can't imagine drilling it and putting a stainless ball faucet on the outside is very easy....

You only have 1 gas post the other is liquid out.

Unless you are talking about putting something on the pressure relief valve that's on the lid.

You might want to consider removing the popette on the gas post and putting a blow off tube there. Then put an airlock on once the fermentation has slowed.

I think a cornie is a great secondary but could see problems because of the trub trying to use 1 as a primary. The trub and yeast cake can get pretty thick. I'd think the liquid out tube and post could easily become clogged. The krausen could clog up the gas post and pressure relief valve preventing the pressure from escaping.

I second the notion that drilling a cornie out to put a ball valve is a bad idea. Why ruin a perfectly good cornie?
There are too many cheap, or free alternatives for a primary to ruin a good cornie.

It looks like from your post that you are an extract brewer so the trub might not be a problem for you. I don't know having never done an extract brew. But if and when you make the jump to All grain brewing I'd think the cornie (as a primary) could present problems for you.

Edit: As long as you use an autoshipon or some kind of siphon to get the beer out instead of the liquid out post you should be ok.

Summer time is a great time to get free primary fermenters. If you know someone that has a pool or you have a community pool the 45 lb chlorine buckets make great primaries. They are basically the same 7 gal. #2 HDPE buckets the Local Home Brew Stores sell if you bore a hole in the top put a grommet and airlock in it. And get a plastic weather strip from the hardware store and put that in the top to create a seal.

 

[Brewer3401]

5 gallon mark is not near the top weld. I put 20L in them and have several inches of space between the beer and the weld.

What is the capacity to the top weld ?

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

What is the capacity to the top weld ?

Haven't figured that out yet. Definatley more th 5g (18.9L) I just put 20L in one and the beer is about 6 inches below the line.

I just realised I can fill up my HLT wich has a sight tube then filcorny and find out. Duh.. should have thought of that months ago.