Lager primary in a corny keg?

[nebben]

I have begun my quest to brew a lager this winter. It has been cold outside lately, and I have been thinking about making a controlled heatable fermentation chamber that will live outside (to soak in the cold).

Anyway, I've read that lagers usually produce smaller krausen than ales, but how small isn't clear to me. Does anyone here have experience in using a corny keg as a primary fermenter for a lager? If so, after primary, how much clear beer usually results from said primary fermentation assuming a balance of ~5G+ adequate headspace is the starting point?

 

[Torg]

I generally leave about 3" below the rim for primary. I have at times had to remove the airlock, clean it, and put it back on from blow over. But most of the time 3" or so works. Comes to about 4.75 gallons (which is the only real drawback I can see).

 

[gxm]

I've not used a corny for fermenting, two issues I've heard of are the small hole for blowoff can get plugged, and the increased height to width ratio (versus a regular fermenter) means that yeast take a longer time to fall out of suspension. Got for it and see how it works for you

 

[petep1980]

I riggid mine with a one way valve and it worked GREAT!!! You can fill that bad boy right up to the top weld line if you want. Even if you don't use a one-way valve just bleed that sucker once a day and you'll be fine. Just make sure you aerate properly. My FGs with poor aeration have still been around 1.014 with this method.

As far as clogs just blast them through by hooking up to your CO2 tank.

The only issue I found is it's difficult to harvest yeast out of them because you can't see where to rack off the hop trub, and you will end up with 4-4.25 gallons of beer.

When you rack, just rack to another corny with the correct amount of priming sugar (I think 2 oz), then prime for a week and stick back in the cold and it can lager until there is tap space.