Fermenting in Corny Kegs

[studio1]

So I was cleaning a couple of cornies this evening....and looking at them wondering if they would make good fermenters. I did some googling and found some info on the web about doing it:

The benefits are appealing: easy to clean and sanitise, easy to transfer beer out, easy to move/store etc

The only 2 mods you seem to need to make to the keg are: swap out the pressure relief valve to accept an airlock or blowoff tube, and shorten the dip tube by a couple if inches (or replace with plastic racking cane of suitable length).

Obviously you need to leave sufficient room for head - so I figured i could split say a 32-34L batch into 2 cornies.

I'm keen to give it a try with a simple test batch in 1 corny. Rather than worry about cutting the dip tube - do you think I could leave it at the normal length and collect trub and yeast until the beer is clear - or do you think it would it clog up the dip tube?

Any other things you can think of?

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah I would say go crazy!! Just leave the Airlock open. Only question I have is the height and diameter of the corny isnt very friendly to yeast.

[Reviled]

Can I ask why you would want to?? Youll ruin a perfectly good keg/s :o(

[studio1]

won't be anything ruined - no permanent changes are made to the keg - (unless I chopped the dip tube - but more likely to find some plastic to do the job). You could even filter your beer when transferring it straight out of primary into the serving keg.

Cornies are cheap for what they are.

I hadn't thought about the size shape issue Mike - but it seems some people posting about them online have no problems as such.

[Reviled]

Ah i see so youre going to take the dip tube out and replace it with plastic?? Youre right, cornys are cheap, but if I acquired more kegs id just want them to be filled with drinkable beer :o)

[Mike Neilson]

I like the Idea and I dont think you would stuff them up, Why I like it is because you can transfer using C02, the beer would never come into contact with air you can natrualy car your beer etc just got to be better for you

[denimglen]

The downsides I'm seeing are

Big decrease in batch size, I reckon you'd only be able to ferment 15L in one, may get away with more if you use some fermcap to hold back the krausen though

Fucking expensive - 100 bucks or so, so a total of 200ish dollars to ferment 30L? Plastic may have a few downsides but price is so much better.

[Horace]

Are your dip tubes central or off to one side. You could able to tilt the keg slightly away from the dip tube (if you have the fridge space). Treat the keg as a ssort of conical. Or place some sort of inverted cap underneath the dip tube so only a small amount of the yeast is collected. I have tried both - it works but can be a pain.

Jamming the pressure relief valve open was sufficient for blow off.

[studio1]

yeah i've just been playing around with the dip tube - it sits in the middle. My beer line is the same OD - so could try making something out of that.

EDIT - I just popped a shot glass in there and it fits perfectly.

You could leave the pressure relief valve open and just cover with sanitised tinfoil eh?

[Horace]

Or use the gas tube with a short bit of tube on it or into some water. With the shot glass you may have to get the keg into some interesting positions to get any residual sanitiser out.

[Reviled]

But...... youre not gonna be able to completely fill the keg if you ferment in it... I like to fill the keg and still have one or two bottles to store away for later, youll be fermenting say 15-16 litres, which means your keg will have 14-15 litres of fermented beer in it, less if you dry hop...

Whats wrong with your plastic fermenter? :o) lol