Push wort using Cornelius Keg

[Chapster100]

Hi Guys

We are doing a brew next week and have a plan to get wort from the kettle to the fermenter via a plate chiller. We have no pump, and plan to put hot wort into a corney keg, then pressurise it slightly with co2 to push the wort through the chiller and into the conical fermenter. Does this sound feasible.

My questions are:

1. Will the corney keg be ok to have hot wort put in it.
2. The the wort be affected by the co2 pressure on it. I dont want to create off flavours, or wort that the yeast wont like.

Thanks
Matt

 

[wilserbrewer]

I would try and gravity drain the wort thru the chiller before trying to force it through using a pressurized keg, sounds like a hassle but I see no reason why you can’t do it.

Are your keg line rated for the kind of heat they will see?

 

[OdeCloner]

Near boiling liquid under 2-10lbs of pressure? I would re-think this idea.

 

[schematix]

I'd go buy a pump....

You can gravity drain if the restriction is low enough. More elevation is a good thing for you here.

There will be 0 harm from the CO2 pressure. For one, solubility of CO2 at that temp is extremely low. Also your exposure time would be minimal.

 

[Veets]

I'd be very, very careful with that. The keg should not be harmed, and the wort won't be affected, but if something goes wrong (and there are a lot of opportunities for something to go wrong), then you're spraying near-boiling liquid around. Think about your bare skin, eyes, etc.
I would spend a lot of time thinking about how to get an elevation difference in order to use gravity instead. Or buy a pump and test the fittings thoroughly with non-boiling water before using it on your wort.

 

[Sparkncode]

Its likley that some keg lid seals are not rated for boiling wort eg 100C so use caution.

I have seen black seals that look like normal orings and white ones that are softer.

I dont like the idea of preasueised boiling liquid.

Also could colapse the keg due to vacume if it accidentally was allowed to cool in it. A wort fountian from the mast tun pump at 75C was bad enough