mikescooling
Well-Known Member
My question to you, is why doesn't everyone use sanke kegs as fermenters? They are great, and when it's time to rack, you can use co2 to make the jump, (with the spears locked back in).
My question to you, is why doesn't everyone use sanke kegs as fermenters? They are great, and when it's time to rack, you can use co2 to make the jump, (with the spears locked back in).
[...]I have no idea why this isn't talked about more.
You can get them new or used, my home brew club has a connection for em, and they are sold online. They come in all sizes. They are food grade SS, so they block out light. They come with a skirt which works great as a stand. The better bottle airlocks fit them. When you want to rack, you use sanke couplers to push the beer with CO2. You have to take the flow check valve out of one of the coupler and I use a spear/dip tube that I cut an inch off the shaft, so it's not on the bottom when I rack. I also serve in sanke's, so I jump from the fermenter to the serving keg. The couplers are bomb proof. I have no idea why this isn't talked about more.
If that is in response to my contention that glass is easier to clean and sanitize, I beg to differ. Plastic is FAR easier to scratch than glass and it is a well accepted belief in the food industry that scratches in plastic are very difficult to clean and sanitize.
Many glass users will parrot this mantra about scratches and infections, when the reality most of them use a FAR more likely to be infected tool known as an autosiphon, or a plastic racking cane, or a bottling wand, or plastic transfer tubing, or get their yeasts from plastic vials.
Show me someone concerned about plastic scratches and infections and the vast majority of the time I'll show you some who ferments in glass trying to rationalize their choice.
I can soak and shake my better bottles clean without any other cleaning techniques 90% of the time. I have also dropped them before and they didn't break. Many glass users will parrot this mantra about scratches and infections, when the reality most of them use a FAR more likely to be infected tool known as an autosiphon, or a plastic racking cane, or a bottling wand, or plastic transfer tubing, or get their yeasts from plastic vials.
Show me someone concerned about plastic scratches and infections and the vast majority of the time I'll show you some who ferments in glass trying to rationalize their choice.
flugelizor said:Well, no, I chill directly to glass, then ferment until there is alcohol.
Then use the plastic products you mentioned, when the alcohol level is high enough, infection danger is lower.
[...]This is what my Labor Day Weekend Hefe did last night. WY3068 +32 hours. [...]
What's the attraction to glass carboys then? Doing what works for you is of course the main thing here. I'm just curious why many homebrewers choose to go with the carboy...
I like carboys. I've been using glass for 2 years with no problems up until last night. I've heard horror stories about glass but figured that was "other people's problems".
This is what my Labor Day Weekend Hefe did last night. WY3068 +32 hours. Fortunately, no one has been hurt. (though I still need to clean up the champer)
I'm likely going to move to a better bottle because I like the limited exposure to the atmosphere that a bottle gives you. Those glass shards are nasty looking.
The fact of the matter is everyone uses plastic cutting boards and we clean them everyday.
Bingo.
You "clean them everyday."
When you rack wort into a plastic bucket to begin fermenting, you're not cleaning that plastic bucket "every day." You're leaving it undisturbed for days/weeks, giving it the perfect environment for any contaminant to grow and fester.
For me it is easier to transfer from a carboy into a keg under low CO2 pressure. This way, the keg is flushed with CO2 and I push the beer with CO2,very little, if any, O2 exposure.
I'm a little curious about the thermowell or probe he has jambed in there. I don't think I've seen that with a universal bung before. Something new there.
Never used a thermowell before (will soon) but I'd assume you're supposed to use a carboy cap - one opening for the thermowell, one for an airlock?
None of the vessels we typically use aside from conicals, are rated for pressure though, so even though I don't do this, if I did, I'd be very careful.
I'm a little curious about the thermowell or probe he has jambed in there. I don't think I've seen that with a universal bung before. Something new there.
Try out a needle valve in-line after the regulator. That should let less gas through to the carboy so you can move the beer with the lowest pressure possible.
So the airlock plugged and the stopper was so tight it literally blew up the carboy??
Or did you drop it...
Cheers!
The airlock plugged and the stopper was so tight it blew up.
The airlock plugged and the stopper was so tight it blew up.
I don't believe it.
Really? I mean it is going to fail somewhere. If the weakest point wasn't the stopper then it won't fail there. I suspect the carboy might have had a microfracture there already but that is just conjecture. Stranger things have happened.
No, the airlock would pretty much need to be filled with superglue for that to be the cause.
I'm more inclined to believe that the carboy was fractured by the trauma of forcing that bung so far down in addition to having a foreign object between it and the glass (whatever that was, some sort of sensor) and that the fracture traveled while it was in the chamber. Glass fractures travel easily based on temperature changes.
I don't believe it.
I'm open to other theories. I promise that it was not dropped.
You can't be serious. If the bung being forced in caused the fracture it would've broken at the opening. Not 6" below it.
foreign object between it and the glass (whatever that was, some sort of sensor)
[SIZE=+1]Diffusion[/SIZE] - The rate at which two gases mix.
[SIZE=+2]Graham's Law of Diffusion[/SIZE]
- The rate at which gases diffuse is inversely proportional to the square root of their densities.
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