Sanke Keg fermentor: need spear for seal?

[olie]

I'm about to do my first in-keg fermentation with a Sanke D-type. After spending weeks looking for a food-safe 2" stopper with 2 holes, it occurred to me that I could just use a transfer-tap with some tubing to port CO2 into a bucket -- yay!

So now my question is: will the tap seal if I remove the spear? Or does it require the spear to push against?

At a minimum, I can remove the drop-tube and just use the spear-head to seal against, but I'm wondering if all of that is necessary, or if I can just take it out.

I think I could also leave it in and use the gas-line for CO2-removal (capping the tap-line and leaving the tap-handle in the down/open position)...

...uh... right?

Anything else I'm missing, here? This works, right?

(My plan is to put a 10gal batch into a 1/4bbl (13.5gal) keg.)

 

[acidrain]

I use Sanke's for fermenting and then closed-loop pushing the beer into serving kegs. It works great.
I ditched the Sanke spear and use a spunding valve assembly made for this purpose. it's basically a TC cap and uses a TC clamp and silicone washer to seal it against the top of the bung.
The TC cap has three holes, one for a stainless racking cane with a slip-fit o-ringed compression fitting, one is NPT threaded for the spunding valve, and the third is for gas-in for pressure transfers.
After you play with your system and see how well it works, you'll probably want to do something like what I do to save tear down time, and ease of installation.

 

[olie]

My 1/2 barrel fermentor is now bubbling away, with a spear-top (for the tap to seal against), but no actual spear.

...Which I just realized means I don't have a good way to bump bear out, later. Ah well, live & learn.

"Next time!"