Weezy
Well-Known Member
Yes. Love fermenting in cornies. Its sure is nice to use the better bottle with the rotating racking arm but having to pull out the immersion chiller and sanitize it and waste all that tap water (although I do run it into the washing machine) and wasted time, is a pain. In the summer I dump the hot wort straight to the keg, seal the keg, and put the keg in the pool on the steps. In the fall and winter I keep a big cooler outside with water in it. That works even better (colder). If there's snow and its ~10*F out, I'll stick it in the snow. I'm rambling but the no hassle chilling is great.
Airlock? Pffft. Leave the pressure release valve in the open position and jam a plastic grocery bag over the top of the keg. Nothing is getting in there.
I bought a $20 gas side contraption from Williams. It has a pressure gauge and pressure release valve (15 psi min). I'm looking to swap the valve to a fixed 5 psi one. Put this on after 3-4 days and let the beer finish fermenting at 5 psi. This is fine foe the beer and it'll be partially carbed and ready to self transfer to a new keg when done.
Downside? Hard to harvest yeast, if you do that. When I plan to harvest yeast, I'll use a traditional fermenter. Its harder to control trub getting into the serving keg as well (you know us small batch brewers are always trying to get every last drop) we can so some bottom trub and top krausen will always get to the serving keg. Not a big deal...unless you move the serving keg and stir it up.
Airlock? Pffft. Leave the pressure release valve in the open position and jam a plastic grocery bag over the top of the keg. Nothing is getting in there.
I bought a $20 gas side contraption from Williams. It has a pressure gauge and pressure release valve (15 psi min). I'm looking to swap the valve to a fixed 5 psi one. Put this on after 3-4 days and let the beer finish fermenting at 5 psi. This is fine foe the beer and it'll be partially carbed and ready to self transfer to a new keg when done.
Downside? Hard to harvest yeast, if you do that. When I plan to harvest yeast, I'll use a traditional fermenter. Its harder to control trub getting into the serving keg as well (you know us small batch brewers are always trying to get every last drop) we can so some bottom trub and top krausen will always get to the serving keg. Not a big deal...unless you move the serving keg and stir it up.