Fermenting and serving from a keg

[RyPA]

I know this has been discussed in the past, but I am looking for feedback from those that may have been doing this for a while.

I was about to place an order for parts to do a closed transfer, but then realized I have an extra corny keg that I can use for fermenting and serving. I think this is as oxygen-free as you can get and eliminates the money spent on new hardware, and time spent on doing oxygen-free transferring.

My only hesitation is I am the only beer drinker in my house, so a keg lasts 2-3 months. Will the beer get off flavors from sitting on the yeast cake at the bottom of the keg? I do plan to use a floating dip tube.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Could always do closed transfer to clean and sanitized keg after fermenting.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Plus use the fermentation co2 to push the sanitizer out of the other keg

 

[RyPA]

Could always do closed transfer to clean and sanitized keg after fermenting.

Yeah, as I mentioned in my above post, I was preparing to order stuff for that. But then realized this may be better, and could save me $100.

This is what I am planning, if I do not ferment in the keg.

 

[hopjuice_71]

I now ferment exclusively in kegs equipped with floating dip tubes. Typically 10 gallon kegs. I always do so with the intention of closed transferring to a purged serving keg. However, I would guess that ~25% of the time I get lazy and just leave the beer in the fermenting keg, even with a heavy dry hop. The kegs are typically drained within 2-3 months but they always stay fresh and great tasting until then.

 

[RyPA]

I now ferment exclusively in kegs equipped with floating dip tubes. Typically 10 gallon kegs. I always do so with the intention of closed transferring to a purged serving keg. However, I would guess that ~25% of the time I get lazy and just leave the beer in the fermenting keg, even with a heavy dry hop. The kegs are typically drained within 2-3 months but they always stay fresh and great tasting until then.

Thanks for the feedback, hopjuice. Every IPA I have brewed I think were ruined by oxygen, as I never took avoiding oxygen exposure into consideration. I am confident this is the issue as my most recent batch tasted and looked 100% perfect straight out of the fermenter, but went downhill by the time it was carbed.

I am planning to ferment and serve out of the same keg as I think this is the easiest, as long as the beer sitting on trub for 2-3 months won't turn it into garbage. Based on your comments, this shouldn't be an issue. Do you just transfer from kettle to sanitized keg, pitch, close lid, and put a CO2 fitting on the keg and put the hose into a bucket of sanitizer?

For dry hopping, I was thinking of using a really strong magnet on the side or roof of the keg and drop the hops when needed.

 

[RyPA]

Also, any issues/concerns with the CO2 outlet clogging and your keg exploding? Assuming this would take a ton of pressure, literally.

 

[hopjuice_71]

As with most things related to homebrew process, you'll never find out if it works for you until you try it. There is a whole thread on fermenting and serving from kegs and many people swear by it, so I don't think you run much risk trying it.

I go straight from my kettle (Grainfather) into the sanitized fermenter keg - wort is chilled by a counterflow chiller on the way. Pitch yeast and seal. For venting CO2 during fermentation I have a gas QD on the out post with the tubing going into a jug with starsan in it. By using 10 gallon kegs for 6-7 gallon batches I never have problems with gunky blowoff clogging the gas port. In a regular keg, however, one has to be mindful of not filling to much - probably wouldn't go more than 4-4.5 gallons (depending on the yeast) - and a bit of antifoam doesn't hurt either. When the fermentation is winding down I replace the blowoff with a spunding valve to naturally carbonate. When its all done, I cold crash my already carbonated beer (I have actually found I much prefer this naturally carbonated beer). The nice thing about this is that even if I plan to transfer into a serving keg, I can start stealing servings from the fermenter, and I always do

Re dry hopping, all my fermenting kegs have floating dip tubes that have little stainless steel mesh cones covering the intake. This prevents clogging, particularly when dry hopping. To dry hop, I connect CO2 to the gas in, crack the lid, turn on the gas, quickly pull the lid and dump hops in, seat the lid quickly (immediately seals because of flowing CO2), then vent several times to ensure the headspace is purged. This has worked very well for me so I haven't tried anything fancier. Your idea might work well if you have enough headspace in the fermenting keg to accommodate the hop package.

 

[RyPA]

I only have 2 corny kegs so I'll need to make them work. I will take a look at other threads to see how others do with these kegs. Maybe sticking with a yeast like SO5 will be safe, with the addition of anti-foam.

Awesome idea swapping in a spunding valve, but this will not support my no oxygen plan. Though, I recently bought a keg lid that has a fitting on it for a carb stone. I may use this without the carb stone attached and put the spunding valve on that, while also using the kegs gas fitting for my blow off. When fermentation winds down, I can just remove the blow off QD, leaving the spunding valve as the only gas port connected.

 

[hopjuice_71]

I only have 2 corny kegs so I'll need to make them work. I will take a look at other threads to see how others do with these kegs. Maybe sticking with a yeast like SO5 will be safe, with the addition of anti-foam.

Awesome idea swapping in a spunding valve, but this will not support my no oxygen plan. Though, I recently bought a keg lid that has a fitting on it for a carb stone. I may use this without the carb stone attached and put the spunding valve on that, while also using the kegs gas fitting for my blow off. When fermentation winds down, I can just remove the blow off QD, leaving the spunding valve as the only gas port connected.

Not sure what you mean by the spunding valve not supporting your no O2 plan? Late in the fermentation the headspace of the keg is fully purged with CO2, but under only minimal pressure. When you put the spunding valve on you just trap any remaining CO2 to carbonate in a completely O2 free environment. I purge the small volume of the spunding valve with CO2 before using them, or I let a little pressure build in the sealed fermenter keg before attaching an open spunding valve to purge it, but this is probably overkill as venting CO2 from the fermentation already does this. This approach was basically adopted from the LODO/LOB folks.

 

[RyPA]

You're right, it totally slipped my mind that we are talking about a keg here and not a fermenter that has a port that would be opened up to oxygen. Sorry, I'm multi-tasking between work and talking about beer..

 

[hopjuice_71]

You're right, it totally slipped my mind that we are talking about a keg here and not a fermenter that has a port that would be opened up to oxygen. Sorry, I'm multi-tasking between work and talking about beer..

No worries. Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

 

[RyPA]

Which one do you use? I see mixed reviews on them between morebeer and amazon.

 

[hopjuice_71]

Which one do you use? I see mixed reviews on them between morebeer and amazon.

Which spunding valve? I use some DIY ones. They work great but took a lot of tweaking to get there. If I were to buy some now I would go with those preassembled Blow-Tie valves. Two friends of mine bought them and really like them.