Fermenting in a corny keg

[Noleafclover]

So here is the back story real quick....

I brewed 10 gallons of an english pale ale and split it off to two carboys. I used a different yeast strain in each to see how they'd affect flavor. I've developed some lazy habits but almost always make a starter when using liquid yeast.

This time I didn't... With one strain of yeast I had a nice kreusen in a day. The other one took nearly 48 hours to show signs of kreusen.

I let em both go 21 days in the carboy. I racked the one with the slower moving yeast to a keg after letting it sit. It never had very vigorous fermentation but did get a somewhat normal looking kreusen.

So... because I've let myself become a lazy homebrewer I didn't even bother to check gravity before I went into a corny keg. I put it in the kegerator. I tried it a couple of days later, and to my surprise, I was drinking a cup of cold wort (which was quite good, btw...)

I took a gravity reading and lo and behold, 1.049 at about 45 degrees.

I ended up rehydrating a pack of us05 and pitching it last Saturday. I figured I would just use the "out" valve to blow off the CO2 occasionally and have since been sprayed in the face by the beer a few times.... The lid to this particular corny doesn't have one of those key ring pressure valve - it has some sort of automated thing that goes off at a certain pressure.

In any case, this isn't my normal practice but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. I should have picked one with a normal pressure relief valve though.

 

[killian]

I think you want to hook up your blow off to the gas in.

 

[SowegaBrews]

I think you want to hook up your blow off to the gas in.

+1 to this... clogging could be bad especially if you have no pressure releif valve. If it happened to clog so bad that you had no way to relieve the pressure... you might end up having to drill a hole or something just to get the lid open.

 

[mattjmac]

+1 to this... clogging could be bad especially if you have no pressure releif valve. If it happened to clog so bad that you had no way to relieve the pressure... you might end up having to drill a hole or something just to get the lid open.

I think if the pressure relief valve clogged you could always SLOWLY unscrew one of the posts. That would relieve the pressure (and probably spray you with a bunch of krausen/wort)

I think the idea of hooking a blow-off tube up to one of the removed posts is a good idea. I can't see how this is a good idea as standard practice, though. Unless you just need a fermentation vessel. I don't think you could rack from the fermentation keg to another keg using the liquid out tube because it would take all the trub from the bottom of the keg with it to the final keg.

 

[Hugh_Jass]

I think if the pressure relief valve clogged you could always SLOWLY unscrew one of the posts. That would relieve the pressure (and probably spray you with a bunch of krausen/wort)

I think the idea of hooking a blow-off tube up to one of the removed posts is a good idea. I can't see how this is a good idea as standard practice, though. Unless you just need a fermentation vessel. I don't think you could rack from the fermentation keg to another keg using the liquid out tube because it would take all the trub from the bottom of the keg with it to the final keg.

I have fermented 30 gallon in Cornys. I just bent the dip tube up and used a gas qd with plastic tubing as a blow off. when I rack, I purge the receiving keg with co2, hook an "out" to "out" jumper between the donor and receiver kegs, and slightly pressurize the donor keg. Here's a link with some pics.

 

[DKershner]

I sold all my carboys and just ferment in cornys now too, it works great.

But like the others said, use the "In" as your blowoff, or else you are just making a fermentation-powered siphon. You are actually quite lucky you have that pressure relief valve, or you would probably have an empty keg and a wet floor.

Oh, and I do it differently than hughjass. I actually remove the "In" post and hook a 1/2" tube directly to the threads. It's cheaper and allows a bigger diameter blow-off, but is less convenient and slower to transfer if you want to pressure transfer.

 

[mb2696]

I sold all my carboys and just ferment in cornys now too, it works great.

But like the others said, use the "In" as your blowoff, or else you are just making a fermentation-powered siphon. You are actually quite lucky you have that pressure relief valve, or you would probably have an empty keg and a wet floor.

Oh, and I do it differently than hughjass. I actually remove the "In" post and hook a 1/2" tube directly to the threads. It's cheaper and allows a bigger diameter blow-off, but is less convenient and slower to transfer if you want to pressure transfer.

I just started doing the same thing...I just worm clamp a 1/2" i.d. hose to the IN threads, and leave the out post as is. I don't transfer under pressure though, I just siphon.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Could you use one of these for transferring:

Because that would be slick and easy.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Or what you could do is let it ferment until it gets close to FG (about right after the krausen falls) then seal the keg and let it naturally carbonate in the keg. Then chill and transfer to another keg (liquid post to liquid post). I would attach a gage to a gas IN QD and put that on the IN post so you can monitor the pressure and vent it if necessary.