Tri-clamp cap advice for keg fermenter

[angrysparrow]

I recently scored a good deal on a used slim 1/4 bbl keg from a fellow brewer that is upgrading some of his gear for larger batches. It is modified with a 4" tri-clamp port on top, as well as a pressure relief valve. I think it's actually one of these, but I bought it without the sankey spear.

It was previously being used as a serving keg for a commercial-style kegerator, but my kegerator is set up for cornies so I'm planning to use this one as a fermenter. Since I brew 5 gallon batches, this 7.75gallon size seems just perfect for that with plenty of headspace for krausen. No more carboys! :rockin:

I'm trying to decide what the best setup for that might be, with the following goals in mind. First, after fermenting in this keg, I'd like to be able to transfer from this directly into my cornies using Co2 pressure. Second, it might be interesting if I could use this to start trying my hand at pressurized fermentation.

Most of the threads I've seen where HBT members use sankeys as fermenters use the Brewers Hardware Sankey Kit, which looks nice. But it's based off of a 2" port, and my keg uses a 4" port. The options I've found would either be to see if BH would make one on a 4" cap (I emailed them, no response yet), or use one of these 4" to 2" TC reducers and use the BH kit as-is. Either one would be a nice set up, but it wouldn't allow pressurized fermentation.

I've thought about seeing if anyone makes a 4" TC cap that is set up like a corny keg (gas-in and liquid-out ball valves with a dip tube), as that would let me pressure ferment in the keg using a spunding valve. I saw that Synergy uses a similar setup on their uni-fermenter. But, they only sell their fermenters as a complete unit, and I don't know anyone else that makes caps like that (I'm sure someone does custom ones, but I don't know who!).

So, I'm asking for advice and ideas from HBT. If you were a 5 gallon batch brewer, how would you set this keg up for your fermenter? Would you use something similar to the BH sankey kit, or something custom?

 

[angrysparrow]

Sorry for the bump. I guess I didn't do a good job of asking the question.

Anybody have advice for setting this 1/4bbl sankey keg (with 4" TC) up as a fermenter?

Here's pics of what I'm talking about next to a corny, for size reference.

 

[angrysparrow]

I seem to be talking to myself in this thread, but I'm going to keep it updated in case someone else finds it helpful someday.

I contacted Brewers Hardware to see if they would make me one of their Sankey fermenter kits from a 4" TC instead of their standard 2", but Derrin replied that they're too busy to do custom work right now. So, I went ahead and ordered one of the standard BH sankey kits along with a TC 4" to 2" cap reducer. I'll post a pic of the setup when it arrives.

 

[Bobby_M]

It's probably for the best anyway since the adapter will give you a little more headspace.

 

[Bsquared]

I have a 15.5 gallon wine top off tank that has a 4" TC fitting I use as a bright/dry hop tank. I think a lot of people use them as yeast brinks in commercial breweries. you can get a mogified cap from St. Patrick's of texas . Go to their Barrel tools section and look at the wine top off tanks.

Also GW kent sells the 1/2bbl yeast propogation tanks with the 4"TC top and a 1-1/2"TC port, but I could not find a modified end cap like the one at ST. Pat's.

 

[angrysparrow]

Thanks guys. I hadn't seen the St Pat's cap.