Corny Keg As Secondary Fermenter

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Monsterc

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Have any of you guys ever used a corney keg as you secondary.
Would it be ok to carbonate slightly while it's still fermenting?
 
You will have some sediment in the bottom of your keg if you secondary in it... also, youd have to really put the pressure to the beer to carbonate it much at all at fermentation temps. What would be the purpose of carbonating it in the keg while it is being secondaried? I have also read that fermenting under pressure will inhibit fermentation, not to mention if you are driving CO2 into solution, there will probably not be much inthe way of O2 left for the yeast to even be active. Again, what are you trying to gain?

If you want to secondary in the keg, to save a transfer, and sediment doesnt bother you, go ahead and do it. Pull the pressure relief valve once a day to relieve the pressure in the keg. When you are ready to carb, chill the keg, turn the PSI to 30psi for 24 hours, then dial it down to your serving pressure and bleed off the extra pressure. It will be fully carbed in 24 hours.

____________________________________
Primary- Orange Cascade APA
Secondary- AIR
Keg1- Centennial Blonde
Keg2- Oktoberfest
Keg3- Christmas Spice
Keg4- Fire In The Hole
Keg5- AIR
Keg6- AIR
Keg7- AIR
Keg8- AIR
 
I have a lager in secondary fermentation in a corny as we speak- Gas in connection has a tube going to gatorade (clean/sanitized) bottle with water in it. I am probably just going to slow carb this in the corny when it is ready, and let the sediment sit and waste my first pint.

The dry Irish stout is the same, with one addition- I have a stainless steel filter at the end of the beverage dip tube. This should help with any stray hops/grains that are still lingering. This one I am going to force/bleed into another corny before finishing it, just to ensure I don't end up with a nice carbonated tasty beer that won't come out because the dip tube is clogged.
 
The Pol said:
You will have some sediment in the bottom of your keg if you secondary in it... also, youd have to really put the pressure to the beer to carbonate it much at all at fermentation temps. What would be the purpose of carbonating it in the keg while it is being secondaried? I have also read that fermenting under pressure will inhibit fermentation, not to mention if you are driving CO2 into solution, there will probably not be much inthe way of O2 left for the yeast to even be active. Again, what are you trying to gain?

If you want to secondary in the keg, to save a transfer, and sediment doesnt bother you, go ahead and do it. Pull the pressure relief valve once a day to relieve the pressure in the keg. When you are ready to carb, chill the keg, turn the PSI to 30psi for 24 hours, then dial it down to your serving pressure and bleed off the extra pressure. It will be fully carbed in 24 hours.

____________________________________
Primary- Orange Cascade APA
Secondary- AIR
Keg1- Centennial Blonde
Keg2- Oktoberfest
Keg3- Christmas Spice
Keg4- Fire In The Hole
Keg5- AIR
Keg6- AIR
Keg7- AIR
Keg8- AIR
Click to expand...


I thought I read somewhere that if you time it right you can naturally carbonate in the keg without adding corn sugar. Maybe as the CO2 builds up in the beer it slowly kills off certain yeast while still letting others do their thing into the conditioning phase.
 
Why try to naturally carbonate in the keg... again you wont be able to control the volumes of CO2 and you will have to use your CO2 cylinder to properly carbonate it. Just trying to figure out what you are gaining by doing so.

That is the beauty of kegs, precise carbonation.

EDIT: Why would you be using corn sugar to carbonate in a keg??
 
I believe that this is similar to Edworts method. Primary in a carboy (or soon enough, his SS conical), no secondary. Just straight to a corny where he cold crashes for several days to a couple weeks. Then once it is all hooked up to his kegerator and carbed, his first pull is cloudy, then the rest is all clear.
 
This is not that similar, he is talking about using the keg as a true secondary and allowing the beer to naturally carbonate in the keg while it finishes.
 
If you have plenty of kegs secondaring in a keg is fine and allows you to transfer to a serving keg with CO2, reducing O2 contact. This seems to be a small benefit considering you are tying up a keg that could be conditioning. If I plan on taking a keg to a party I transfer from the conditioning keg to another just so moving the keg doesn't stir up the sediment and give me cloudy beer at the party.
 
I've been using sanke kegs as primaries and corneys as clearing tanks and moving everything with CO2. Works like a dream. Even without cutting down my dip tube I get very little sediment and crash cooling the corneys for a couple days really brightens up the beer. I'm somewhat illogically wedded to cask/bottle conditioning and rack the beer out of the clearing tanks to a primed serving keg or bottling bucket.

If you want to check out carbonating your beer in keg and with the CO2 from the fermentation, search for "closed system fermentation" or click on Wortmonger's signature link. There's also a Wiki on it. I haven't gone there yet, but it definitely set me on the path to fermenting in sankes.

Gordie
 
I am also thinking about conditioning in a corny. I dont have a free Carboy.

I have a Russian imperial stout that I want to sit in secondary for a few months, would the corny idea work for this? I'm not looking to naturally carbonate. And I will cold crash it and force carbonate or bottle when the time has come.

Sound like a sufficient process for what I am looking for?
 
I'm doing a secondary in a corny right now with an Altbier. I fermented it down to 1.010 in primary for 2 weeks, then racked to the corny, chilled it overnight and added gelatin to clear it. I'm going to "lager" it in my kegerator for a month or so, then rack it to another corny for serving.
 
you can also use an inline filter when racking from the secondary to the conditioning or serving keg.
 
It sounds like a lot of people do what I do also, which is to rack straight from primary to a corny, cold crash it, pull the trub that settles out during cold crashing in your first half pint, and then you have a full keg of bright beer. I like this method because 1) fewer transfers means less oxygenation, and 2) less to clean.

If you do want to allow your corny to secondary at all, just make sure you seat your lid with a little CO2 at first to keep it closed. If you're worried about overcarbonating, you can bleed off some pressure every few days, though if you let your gravity drop far enough (near terminal), it's unlikely that you'll run into issues overcarbonating.
 
poley said:
It sounds like a lot of people do what I do also, which is to rack straight from primary to a corny, cold crash it, pull the trub that settles out during cold crashing in your first half pint, and then you have a full keg of bright beer. I like this method because 1) fewer transfers means less oxygenation, and 2) less to clean.

If you do want to allow your corny to secondary at all, just make sure you seat your lid with a little CO2 at first to keep it closed. If you're worried about overcarbonating, you can bleed off some pressure every few days, though if you let your gravity drop far enough (near terminal), it's unlikely that you'll run into issues overcarbonating.
Click to expand...

No need to worry about oxygenation if you transfer with gas...

I rack from Primary to a corny, and let it sit. If I have to dry hop, I'll add the hop bag to a clean corny and transfer the beer with an "Out to Out" jumper. No oxygen, no worries, and all the trub from secondary stays in the first corny ;)
 
I always leave the trub behind, there just seems to be some that settles out on cold crashing (likely yeast dropping out of solution). I'm not really worried about oxygenation, especially since I flush my carboy with CO2 before racking into it, it's just nice to have fewer transfers.

That said, the last 2 batches, I've cold crashed my primary before transferring, and I can't recall much coming out at all in that first pull. Then again, I'm not trying to secondary in my keg, I'm skipping that whole step, and if I want to dry-hop, I'm now doing that in the keg with excellent results.
 
SweetSounds - I have my oktoberfest in a corny for a secondary right now. This is the first time I have ever done this (used a corny as a secondary). Is it worth it to cut the dip tube to leave behind more yeast sediment OR is that just ruining a dip tube? I wouldn't want to have a dedicated lagering corny at this point in time. I just want to be sure that when I rack "out to out" via a jumper I'm not going to transfer all the yeast sediment with it (negating the main purpose of lagering......)
 
funkswing said:
SweetSounds - I have my oktoberfest in a corny for a secondary right now. This is the first time I have ever done this (used a corny as a secondary). Is it worth it to cut the dip tube to leave behind more yeast sediment OR is that just ruining a dip tube? I wouldn't want to have a dedicated lagering corny at this point in time. I just want to be sure that when I rack "out to out" via a jumper I'm not going to transfer all the yeast sediment with it (negating the main purpose of lagering......)
Click to expand...

My opinion is no - I use my cornys for fermenting and serving, so I don't want to have to worry about which one I grab when.
Others here bend them or cut them, with good results. It's really up to you.

My experience is this: When you primary in a corny, the crap settles. Then you transfer to secondary and you get some of the sediment transferred too. Then When you transfer to a serving keg after secondary, you get even less.
But by the time the serving keg crashes and settles I usually have a glass or 2 that are cloudy. The rest is good to go.
 
I'd second that. Alternatively, you could pull off a pint of yeast/trub before you rack to your serving keg.
 
Sounds good. I think I may pull a pint or so first, just to see where to beer is at, then jumper it to the serving keg.

The main purpose for using the corny as a secondary is the small footprint compared to a 5-gal carboy, which fits nice in the keezer. Plus you get to take advantage of the closed system transfer.

Question: can the jumper line just be regular vinyl tubing, or does it need to be a Bevlex (that's what my picnic taps are connected with) or similar beverage line?
 
funkswing said:
Sounds good. I think I may pull a pint or so first, just to see where to beer is at, then jumper it to the serving keg.

The main purpose for using the corny as a secondary is the small footprint compared to a 5-gal carboy, which fits nice in the keezer. Plus you get to take advantage of the closed system transfer.

Question: can the jumper line just be regular vinyl tubing, or does it need to be a Bevlex (that's what my picnic taps are connected with) or similar beverage line?
Click to expand...

The key to getting clear beer (In any transfer!) Is NEVER MOVE THE DONOR KEG! Keep that crap settled and very little will transfer. Move the keg and you kick it all up again, and it transfers. Keep the keg still, and it's gravy :rockin:

I'm sure bev line is best. But OTOH, the beer is going to spend VERY little time in the transfer hose, so it shouldn't have much opportunity to contaminate anything.
I rack from better bottles using Lowes vinyl. All of the rest of my tubing is 3/16 bev line (Including gas tubing!)
 
Is there a reason why you use the bev line for gas? Just cause you had extra, or does it have something to do with gas exchange thru the gas line? Just wondering......(the bev line is over-priced at my LHBS; I have been using the braided vinyl (for gas), I think that's what its called, it has the fibers braided in the line and is not quite as flexible as the reg. vinyl.)

Thanks for confidence in doing the keg-to-keg transfer! I will NOT move that keg! :mug:
 
funkswing said:
Is there a reason why you use the bev line for gas? Just cause you had extra, or does it have something to do with gas exchange thru the gas line? Just wondering......(the bev line is over-priced at my LHBS; I have been using the braided vinyl (for gas), I think that's what its called, it has the fibers braided in the line and is not quite as flexible as the reg. vinyl.)

Thanks for confidence in doing the keg-to-keg transfer! I will NOT move that keg! :mug:
Click to expand...

The reason I use bev line for everything is so I can use any hose anywhere. All of my disconnects, distributors, and other stuff are MFL disconnects and bev line. I have a ton of lines of various lengths from 1' to 15', and any of them can be a beer line, gas line, transfer line, etc etc etc.

It's just handy to have 1 size hose and 1 type of fitting (MFL) for anything on my serving and fermenting/transfer processes.
 
I like your style. I was thinking about the MFL quick-disconnects and I couldn't really figure out why you would want them. Mostly b/c you would have to take off the QD any time you wanted to un-screw the line, so it didn't make sense to me how it was convenient. But your way of "any hose anywhere" makes sense. I'm a poor-ass graduate student, so I couldn't justify the extra expense of the flare barb fitting for each QD. Its something to think about in the future, tho.

Any other benefits of MFL QD?
 
funkswing said:
I like your style. I was thinking about the MFL quick-disconnects and I couldn't really figure out why you would want them. Mostly b/c you would have to take off the QD any time you wanted to un-screw the line, so it didn't make sense to me how it was convenient. But your way of "any hose anywhere" makes sense. I'm a poor-ass graduate student, so I couldn't justify the extra expense of the flare barb fitting for each QD. Its something to think about in the future, tho.

Any other benefits of MFL QD?
Click to expand...

I think it makes it easier to clean a QD - When you take it apart it's easier without a hose attached permanently to the barb. But that just personal preference.
 
Hopefully I can revive this thread for a quick question that I haven't found an exact answer for (though a couple on this thread are close). I have my first lager in primary now and I was planning on racking to a corny this weekend (two weeks of primary) and then letting it lager for two months. The lagering (and primary) is actually going on at a neighbor's house who has a fridge in the garage, but the keg will be served at our Oktoberfest party at our house a few houses away and down a serious hill. I don't want to kick up the sediment transfering the keg to my house for the party in two months. Cutting the dip tube is not an option because the keg is borrowed. So my solution was going to be to pull a pint or two before moving the keg and that's it. Will that work? Is there any benefit to transfering to a serving keg if I've already pulled off the trub in those first couple of pints? Obviously, I would like to limit the number of steps and transfers (especially because closed transfers may be above my pay grade at this point, and I would rather not ruin my first lager and the source of my beer for the party).

Thanks in advance
 
Couple questions:

If I have an ale that I just want to move off the primary, can I rack it to a corny and stick it in the fridge until I'm ready to tap it?

What if I want to actually ferment it longer... same situation.. after I move it from the primary to the corny, can I leave it in the fridge to age or does it have to be in warmer temps to make any difference?

Just trying to maximize my carboys by using my kegs.. ideally tapping the keg once it's done and tossing the trub after the first pint or two.
 
I just made a dunkelweizen, fermented it in the primary with an open ferment for three days, closed it up then kept fermenting for a total of two weeks in the primary. I then racked it to the corny keg for a week of secondary. I plan on bleeding through the check valve twice a day. I will cold crash it after a week in secondary and slow carb for a week. I will update this to see how much sediment comes out on the first pour and remaining pours. I'm thinking with wheat beers the sediment on the bottom of the secondary will not matter since you want a little anyways :)
 
newtobrew5 said:
Hopefully I can revive this thread for a quick question that I haven't found an exact answer for (though a couple on this thread are close). I have my first lager in primary now and I was planning on racking to a corny this weekend (two weeks of primary) and then letting it lager for two months. The lagering (and primary) is actually going on at a neighbor's house who has a fridge in the garage, but the keg will be served at our Oktoberfest party at our house a few houses away and down a serious hill. I don't want to kick up the sediment transfering the keg to my house for the party in two months. Cutting the dip tube is not an option because the keg is borrowed. So my solution was going to be to pull a pint or two before moving the keg and that's it. Will that work? Is there any benefit to transfering to a serving keg if I've already pulled off the trub in those first couple of pints? Obviously, I would like to limit the number of steps and transfers (especially because closed transfers may be above my pay grade at this point, and I would rather not ruin my first lager and the source of my beer for the party).

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Been reading the forum for years but haven't actually posted anything until now so I appreciate any help you feel like giving a noob like me.

I'm actually wondering the same thing as the above poster.
I currently have 2 free kegs and plan on using one for the secondary fermentation/serving keg of an APA and the other as a secondary/serving keg of a Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale.

I intend to do as the quoted poster, as well as dry hopping in the secondary.

My questions are:

1. Can I use the 2ndary keg for serving purposes as well? That is let it clear up, draw out enough sediment/beer til the liquid is clear and then just use it as a serving keg? Is there any reason why this wouldn't be a good idea?

2. If I wanted to dry hop in the keg, in its 2ndary ferm step, would it be better to let it stay in room temperature for about a week and then crash cool a few days before drawing out sediment as well as taking out the hop bag with the dry hopping hops.

Notes:
My primary is 2 weeks for both beers and I don't intend to carb the kegs during the 2ndary ferm except just to purge out air.
 
1. Yes, you can definitely use the secondary keg as a serving keg. Did you leave the beer in primary until it was at final gravity? If so, you won't have a tremendous amount of sediment. You'll have sediment in the keg pretty much every time, so use it to serve!
2. Let it sit room temp, definitely pull the hop bag out before serving. Crash cooling before or after dry hopping is up to you and your tastes.

In response to the guy last year with his Ofest, I hope he transferred it to a new keg. Even drawing off the first few pints, it'll still have sediment that'll get stirred up when moving a keg. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to move kegs, transfer them to a clean keg before doing so, whether you draw off the first few or not. There's still sediment in the keg outside of the draw of the dip tube.
 
stonehands said:
1. Yes, you can definitely use the secondary keg as a serving keg. Did you leave the beer in primary until it was at final gravity? If so, you won't have a tremendous amount of sediment. You'll have sediment in the keg pretty much every time, so use it to serve!
2. Let it sit room temp, definitely pull the hop bag out before serving. Crash cooling before or after dry hopping is up to you and your tastes.

In response to the guy last year with his ofest, i hope he transferred it to a new keg. Even drawing off the first few pints, it'll still have sediment that'll get stirred up when moving a keg. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to move kegs, transfer them to a clean keg before doing so, whether you draw off the first few or not. There's still sediment in the keg outside of the draw of the dip tube.
Click to expand...

+1
 
StoneHands said:
In response to the guy last year with his Ofest, I hope he transferred it to a new keg. Even drawing off the first few pints, it'll still have sediment that'll get stirred up when moving a keg. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to move kegs, transfer them to a clean keg before doing so, whether you draw off the first few or not. There's still sediment in the keg outside of the draw of the dip tube.
Click to expand...


True, but if he just waits another 2-3 days it should settle out again. I guess it depends how urgently you want to start drinking off it again.
 
Great, thanks for the quick response. Seems logical to transfer to a new keg after secondary ferm in a keg if moving around the keg.

Would it not also be pretty wise to add gelatine or similar during secondary ferm?
 
FuzzeWuzze said:
True, but if he just waits another 2-3 days it should settle out again. I guess it depends how urgently you want to start drinking off it again.
Click to expand...

True, very true. I got the impression he was dragging the keg down the hill and hooking it up immediately to drink. Recipe for cloudy beer unless you transfer.
 
Joakgust said:
Would it not also be pretty wise to add gelatine or similar during secondary ferm?
Click to expand...

I think gelatine works best when the beer is cold, but I also only use it as a last resort when a beer just won't clear. I've used gelatine in an undisturbed, already chilled keg (carbed already too). As long as you're not moving the keg, use it there - or transfer to a clean keg.
 
That's what I'm thinking as well.

Gotta love them kegs! Really versatile even though I'm not intending to give up on regular plastic buckets for primary fermentation.

We got better bottles here in Sweden, using a five gallon one for secondary/aging of a cider atm, though those nice clear glass carboys are hard to come by over here.
 
Can we explore this topic again? I just racked my first beer to a corny keg after a two week primary. I have it set at 3psi.... Is this a good idea? Should I cold crash it or let it sit in secondary for two more weeks.

I made a hefeweizen.
 
I have a robust porter that is likely ready for secondary, i brewed it almost two weeks ago and it has been sitting in my kegerator temp controlled to 67 degrees. This is my first solo all grain batch. I have brewed three all grain batches with a buddy using his materials and techniques. Now that I have my own gear, it is time for me to experiment to get the best beer I can.

Everyone likes pics, so... here it is the day after brewing:


The next day, I was starting to get krausen passing through the airlock, so I rigged up a blow off tube. If you would like to see lots of co2 burping out of a growler: http://vid210.photobucket.com/album...rew stuff/VID_20160111_184345_zpstfdqtnkn.mp4

Anyways, here is my dilemma:
I have bourbon barrel oak chips that have been sitting in Bulleit rye bourbon. The plan was to put them in secondary but then remove them when the beer was kegged.

I brewed with a few buddies at my house yesterday. I should have moved my porter over to my 5 gallon carboy for secondary and put my sculpin grapefruit clone into the 6.5 gallon carboy that currently holds my porter. I don't have any more carboys, but I have three corney kegs that are not yet holding beer.

Should I let the oak chips float around in the keg I am using for secondary, and once the beer is properly oaked, just use co2 and push the beer to another keg to serve. I imagine I will dump the first pint or so as I transfer because there will likely be some yeast, etc.

Does this sound reasonable, or should I save a step and keep the oak cubes in a hop bag and just remove them when I am happy with the taste, then pour off the junk from that keg and serve?
 
Well, I said f-it and racked to a corney keg for secondary fermentation! The porter tasted awesome so I added 4 oz. of bulleit rye soaked oak chips to the keg and will let is sit for a few days to see how it tastes. Everything I have read online tells me that the oak chips bring a ton of flavor very quickly so once the oak and bourbon level is good, I will likely use co2 to push the beer over to another empty keg and let it mature a bit before drinking

The porter is in the keg and the sculpin clone I brewed yesterday is in the carboy! I am very happy that they both fit in my kegerator because my basement is too cold to keep them at 67-70 degrees. I picked up a temp controller to turn on either the carboy heater or the kegerator fridge if temp starts to fluctuate.


It probably doesn't need a blow off, but I put one together anyways. I removed the poppet from the gas post on the keg and ran a blow off tube down to a growler filled with sanitizer. This is the same line I used during primary fermentation, so I just rinsed and sanitized it.
 

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