Primary in keg

[new2brew1221]

I saw a lid for cornys online that has a place to put an air lock. Has anyone used one of these, and if so, did you use the keg for primary? I was thinking of trying this, as it would give me another vessel to ferment in.

 

[E-Mursed]

Not a fan of the drilled with airlock lids.

Create a blowoff with a gas disconnect. Then make a spunding valve to control fermentation pressure. Fermcap also helps with keeping foam to a minimum.

 

[DPBISME]

hard to clean and to expensive.

Buckets are easier.

Now you can Condition in a Coney... Even in the one you will serve from.

Say you made a ale and after 4 weeks you moved it from Plastic... put it in a keg and Keg Condition for al long as the style recommends... (I would Prime it)

When you are ready to serve remember the first beers "pulled" will have some yeast in them but once the area at the bottom of the drop tube is clear so will you beer be...

 

[E-Mursed]

No harder to clean than any other keg and the expense of making a spunding valve is not that great. It is actually cheap when you consider the cost of some brewing equipment.

I know this from experience - not because I feel it is that way or heard someone say it.

I can say that buckets are bacteria traps and that carboys will break and cut you. Both are generalizations that ignorant people make here all the time.

Closed system pressurized fermentation works, is easy to do, and produces very clean beers.

Don't listen to ignorant advice until you do your own research or you get your advice from someone who has actually been there and knows from personal experience.

 

[DPBISME]

No harder to clean than any other keg and the expense of making a spunding valve is not that great. It is actually cheap when you consider the cost of some brewing equipment.

I know this from experience - not because I feel it is that way or heard someone say it.

I can say that buckets are bacteria traps and that carboys will break and cut you. Both are generalizations that ignorant people make here all the time.

Closed system pressurized fermentation works, is easy to do, and produces very clean beers.

Don't listen to ignorant advice until you do your own research or you get your advice from someone who has actually been there and knows from personal experience.

Harder to clean than a Bucket...
More expensive than a Bucket...

It is fine to have a different opinion but using terms like "ignorant" are really uncalled for and rude.

I have 20 Kegs, and two 10 gallon brewing systems... I have brewed thousands of gallons of beer...

I use my seven (7) 5 gallon and my two (2) 15 gallon plastic and my 14 gallion Blichmann fermenter I have choosen not to use Corney Kegs because I found them to be a pain to clean... OF course that is different since I built a KEG-WASHER...

BUT it could be my cleaning regime was more complicated than this posters...

I had heard about "jerks" on this site but never experianced it until now...

 

[new2brew1221]

I typically use the bucket for fermenting, but was just wandering if others had used a keg to ferment in. I normally will primary in the bucket for a couple of weeks and then rack to a keg before cold crashing and applying CO2. So far this has worked pretty good. My thought was that the keg would be harder to clean 100%, since the opening is small, and it has the two ports in it too. For now, I think I'll stick to the bucket. Thanks

 

[E-Mursed]

I typically use the bucket for fermenting, but was just wandering if others had used a keg to ferment in. I normally will primary in the bucket for a couple of weeks and then rack to a keg before cold crashing and applying CO2. So far this has worked pretty good. My thought was that the keg would be harder to clean 100%, since the opening is small, and it has the two ports in it too. For now, I think I'll stick to the bucket. Thanks

Your way of doing it will work just fine.

When you get familiar with kegs, you will realize that they break down easy, are easy to clean, don't scratch, and don't break like glass. Fermenting in kegs has made my brewing process easier and a lot cleaner when it comes to beer quality.

I started off in buckets, went to carboys, and now I ferment in kegs. All along the way there were those that said one method wouldn't work or another was better than the other. Truth is that I made my decisions to go from one process to another through investigating the merits and detriments on my own. Trust facts - not opinions.

Good luck and great brewing.

 

[Disintegr8or]

I haven't fermented in a keg, but I've yet to find anything that a good soaking in ~150 deg water/oxyclean won't clean (brewing wise). My kegs come out clean as new.

 

[Xpertskir]

The long and short of it is that there are pros and cons to all fermentation vessels. There are many threads speaking to all of the different set ups and many people use all of them with exclusivity. You just need to figure out what formula works for you. If you are already using kegs for serving, the costs involved in giving it a try are not large. ..Extra gas disconnect, some tubing, fermcaps, and a jumper(if you want to transfer under pressure). You can only learn so much from other peoples trial and error, sometimes you need your own failure. Ive thought about making the switch, even just to be able to scale my production without buying more better bottles when my pipeline is low. I will probably start doing some apfelwein production in kegs, because that really makes sense to me.

 

[a6ladd]

I have tried a keg fermentation and I did so without the use of blow off or an airlock (I was in quite a pinch). I would simply bleed most of the pressure off periodically and I let it do its thing for about 2 weeks (until it stopped releasing so much CO2), then I bottled it. The beer turned out interesting, I feel like the way I did it may have lead to some off taste production but I am not quite sure. I just gave out a few bottles and I will have some more opinions shortly!

 

[DPBISME]

I have tried a keg fermentation and I did so without the use of blow off or an airlock (I was in quite a pinch). I would simply bleed most of the pressure off periodically and I let it do its thing for about 2 weeks (until it stopped releasing so much CO2), then I bottled it. The beer turned out interesting, I feel like the way I did it may have lead to some off taste production but I am not quite sure. I just gave out a few bottles and I will have some more opinions shortly!

On another note: there is a lot of descussion about fermenter brewing geometry out there.

In "Brew like a Monk" by Stan Hieronymus... there is a couple places where there is talk about the fermenter geometry and pressure and its effect on fermentation... This is the only source I can think of off the top of my head... but you might want to do a little research and see if it is approreate for the style of beers you plan to brew...

DPB

 

[a6ladd]

Thanks for the info. I actually have a copy of Brew like a Monk but Ive only just skimmed through it so far. It was never my intention to ferment in the keg as a primary (I didn't even know it was an option until I did some reading after my little mishap) but Ill take a peak for that specific section. Cheers!

 

[SpeedYellow]

No way on earth that fermenter geometry is relevant for 5 gallon brewers. Just no way. There are soooooo many more important issues than that.

As others said, kegs are fine for fermenting. Blow off tube attached to a gas QD works and is super easy. Oxy clean makes cleaning easy.

 

[E-Mursed]

There are a couple threads here on closed system pressurized fermentation and fermenting in cornelius kegs. They are great resources for information from those who have done this method of fermenting.

Take a day and read through them and you will learn tons about fermentation, kegs, and yeast that you never knew. What I found particularly interesting was the history of carbonating naturally.

 

[Guitarboarder]

I have pretty much been exclusively fermenting in corny kegs for a while now and I do no modifications to them at all with no problems. I just screw off the pressure release valve and insert a short length of vinyl tubing with an airlock in the other end of it. I rack under pressure and use my cobra tap at first to get rid of any yeast in the beginning that may be in the way of the dip tube and bam it works great and I now just use my carboys for collecting dust on top of my ferm fridge. I LOVE it. No light, no o2 no worries and cleaning a cornie is a piece of cake! also I do only put around 4 gal of brew in each one and do 12gal batches even though Ive never had a hint of blow off as I usually ferment around 63ish for my ales but three cornies takes up way less room than two carboys in my ferm fridge!