Relief Valve instead of Airlock

[BrewingFerret]

Hello ladies and gents,

as the title suggests, I'm wondering if I can use a relief valve instead of an airlock when fermenting, because I'd like to keep my fermenter pressurized while fermenting, so that the beer is already carbonated after the the maturation process.

I ask that because once I went to a microbrewery and the tour guide offered us brew straight from the fermenter, and it was carbonated. I took a look on their airlock, and it seemed to me it had some sort of pressure control, but I honestly have no clue if that's what I saw, neither if the relief valve could be used to do that.

Thank you

 

[Bobby_M]

Only if your fermenting vessel can safely hold twice the pressure you want to set the relief valve to. You didn't mention what kind of vessel that may be. You can do it SANKE and corny kegs.

 

[Culbetron]

Pressurizing fermenting wort inhibits ester production. You will only be able to make "clean" style beers. No funky belgians, no hefeweizen, even most british beers require more ester production. Some large-scale commercial breweries do this intentionally to minimize the yeast contribution. The opposite end of this spectrum would be open fermentation.

 

[conneryis007]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/

Check this out for everything pressurized fermentation related!
As stated above, only do this with a keg designed to hold pressure, not a glass/plastic carboy!!

 

[masskrug]

So I can hook a hose and valve to my fermenter and drink carbonated beer straight from the primary bucket? Sweet! Who needs bottling?