Primary/Secondary/Lager in a corny?

[krebs119]

Ok, I searched around a bit and couldn't find some clear answers as to what I'd like to do, so I figured I'd ask...

Here's my situation... I have a fridge that holds 3 kegs. I own 5 kegs total. I have a johnson controls temp regulator for this fridge. I recently decided to move to BIAB, with 2.5gal brews. Long story short - it allows me to brew more, brew more styles, and I don't drink fast enough to kill off a 5gal keg as quick as I'd like. Also, I have maybe 3 plastic buckets, one 5gal glass carboy, one 6gal better bottle, and two 3gal better bottles so secondarys/lagering in the fridge wouldn't be a problem if all of this is not doable...

What I would like to know is if I can primary, secondary, and/or lager in a corny keg, and what the correct method would be...

I've read about people lagering in a corny, and some doing secondarys. I've seen this item as well, which looks interesting: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/keg-fermenter-kit.html

So I guess here are a few thoughts and concerns...

Primary: How would I let the co2 escape? Do I need to (don't kegs allow pressure up to something like 100psi?)? The item in that link above looks like it would work just fine, but then what about the trub? Do I have to transfer to another keg? Can I just pour (via tap) through to a bucket until I get just beer, and then dump the bucket? If I can just pass the trub out of the tap, wouldn't this clog my diptube rather quickly? I am a firm believer in fermcap-s - would I even need that for a 2.5gal brew in a 5gal cornie?

Secondary and lagering: Again, how do I let the co2 escape? Would any of the gasses that pass out of the brew get stuck in the keg, and fall back into the brew in a bad way?

For all 3: I've read I should purge the keg of oxygen, with co2, and then add the beer.... Can someone explain this to me? Does this just mean fill with co2, vent, fill, vent, fill, vent until it's just co2 in there? Does the co2 just sink to the bottom or does it all escape when I open the lid to add the beer? If I'm ok to primary/secondary in a keg, should I hook the gas line up the entire time, or is co2 a bad thing during either phase? Remember it will only be 2.5gal in the keg at a time - leaving a bit of head space (and no, I don't want to pay $130 for one of those small kegs....).

Sorry for the 80 questions or so, but I couldn't find anything definitive on some of this, so I thank you in advance for any advice

 

[krebs119]

hmmmm, no bites huh? Mods, if you are reading this, can you maybe move this to the "kegging" section?

 

[Flomaster]

you can remove the poppet from the gas post on the keg and attach a blow off tube. or attach a coupling with some tubing off of it into another small container filled with starsan or bleach water or etc.

when filling a keg with beer attach the CO2 to the beer out post. put a few seconds of co2 into the keg. it's heavier than air so it create a blanket of gas to protect your beer from oxygen.

remove the corny lid, and make sure you siphon tube is at the bottom of the keg and siphon from vessel into the keg.

once done attach co2 and fill, pull the release valve just to make sure there is no Oxygen left in the keg. then set you desired psi and let it carb up.

-=Jason=-

 

[krebs119]

Jason - thanks for the response....

I follow most of that when generally kegging, however I'm considering using the keg as a primary or secondary fermenter..... Have you done this? How did you deal with the trub? What about the gasses that get released during fermentation - do they effect the beer negatively? Since I'm only doing 2.5gal, do I even have to worry about a blowoff tube?


Thanks again...

 

[Flomaster]

well blow off tubes because its easier than trying to finagle the airlock onto the corny. (I guess you can remove the post and get some tubing that threads onto the post then insert your 3 piece airlock into the end of the short tubing)

no I haven't done this, but you can get a jump hose and connect from the primary to the secondary/bright tank / serving keg.

just get enough psi to make the beer transfer from one keg to another. it might stuck up a small amount of trub at first, but as long as its compacted the rest of the transfer should be clear.

actually if you are going to primary in the keg I recommend doing a keg to keg transfer with a jumper hose.

-=Jason=-

 

[krebs119]

Thanks again...

With regards to the blow off tube - if I *NEEDED* something, I was thinking of picking up one of these: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/keg-fermenter-kit.html It looks a bit easier...

Yeah, I thought about the jumper idea too - but unless I cut my dip tube, I would just transfer all of the trub over - or at least a ton of it, ya know? Ideally I would like to go from boil, to chill, to in keg ..... wait a few weeks until fermentation is done (assuming an ale), carb, drink! I was hoping to just pour off the trub and then drink from there, but as I said above, I'm concerned it would be a constant fight with sucking up too much trub and clogging the diptube...