Fermenting in a Cornelius

I have not tried that (fermenting in a keg) due to listening to people who have tried it. The ones I've talked to, say that it is a bitch to clean.

As for the staling at 2-4 months, most of my kegged beers seem to be much better during that timeframe (and longer).

The colder temps should result in less staling, not more, I would think.

 

Fermenting 5 gallons of beer in a 5 gallon corney sounds like a lot of overflowing krausen and a mess to clean up.

There was a thread a week ago about racking from a carboy to a keg via pressure. That may be closer to what you're looking for.

 

I've switched to using the ported Better Bottles exclusively. Easier to pull samples during fermentation, and easier to rack to a keg without picking up any oxygen.

 

I use cornies to ferment all of my 3-4 gallon batches, usually bigger beers or unusual beers that I dont' wan't a full 5 gal of.
Cleaning is easy using a keg cleaner. I have a homemade keg cleaner similar to this. 30 minutes and done, no scrubbing required.


In the past I've used cut off dip tubes, and they work fine. But what I do now is use a straight dip tube with no flare on it, and I've drilled out on of the keg connections so the tube slips right through (I think it's a 3/8" hole). I use an o-ring inside the connector and around the tube and hand tighten the connector down. The tube can be slid down to the exact spot you want to draw from. On the top of the dip tub is vinyl tubing that goes to a beer gun (again home made) for filling bottles. I've used this technique with both carbonated beer and primed beer. I prefer to bottle carbonate beers though. I've convinced myself it helps to safe guard against oxidation. With this method you can carbonate in the same corny you ferment in if you want, which should help further reduce the chance of oxidation. But it is much easier to bottle condition IMO. To bottle condition I transfer the beer from the fermenter (using thew slip connector) to another corny so I can measure the volume and determine how much priming sugar to add. I then bottle from that keg.

So if I read your post correctly you brew 3-4 gallon batches, so your kegs are only partially full when you carbonate? I can see why you are getting oxidation, those kegs need to be filled to the top to reduce the oxidation. I've experienced that myself, however much sooner than 2-4 months.

Good Luck,

 

I do the same thing with my kegs and I think you're probably fine, although I admit I have considered rigging up some tubing to a keg coupler and racking through the dip tube while venting the keg to really eliminate the possibility of any O2 (or other contaminants) entering via the open lid. At the point where you're that paranoid, you'd probably also want to rig up another tube to swap the CO2 from the keg into the carboy, so you're not pulling O2 in there as it empties.

 

I can't take any credit. It's essentially the procedure described at http://www.better-bottle.com/products_master.html, How To > Racking > Carboy-Carboy.

 

Never did it but I totally like the idea of doing so and at the same time do Natural Carbonation with pressure gauge and bleeder valve. Your only limit is the batch volume.

 

This is what I do. It takes some work, but once you get the process down, it makes things much better and eliminates any kind of outside contaminants. I secondary ferment (when I secondary) in a keg. At that point, I can either leave the beer in there and pour of the first couple pints which would be full of yeast (or drink them) or transfer to another keg. To do that, set up the keg like normal; out to out and in to in. On the second keg, I switch the hookups, so the out hookup is on the in valve, and in valve on the out hookup. This way, my beer is being forced into the keg, and the beer is coming in through the dip tube, so there is no additional oxygenation. I leave all of the valves closed, and generally, the pressure remains constant between the two kegs because it is basically a closed system. Hope that helps.

One thing I want to try that I haven't yet, is using CO2 to get the beer from the primary glass fermenter into the keg. I have one of those orange caps I use for racking, but I am thinking if I can get CO2 on the open end, and put the racking cane in the other opening, I can force the beer out without blowing air into the system to get the racking started. Maybe I will try that one day.

 

No better bottle, primary is my corny. I use the star-san CO2 purge method as well to purge kegs.
I'm not sure how the O2 gets in, but I know from experience that if you have a lot of empty head room, no matter how careful you are to purge, that the beer is likely to stale after 2-4 months. For a few weeks it can be fine, for instance if you untap a 1/2 filled keg and let it set for a while. But after months of sitting like this it stales. I also say likely, because I've had kegs that were fine sitting half filled for months, but I don't take that risk any longer.

I recommend the corny as a fermenter for small batches, but I also recommend a keg washer, they are a bear to clean without one, as mentioned by GreenKrusty.

 

Tom Gardner in Denver solves the 5-gallon-batch-in-a-5-gallon-Cornie-overflowing-krausen-mess problem by just using two 5 gallon Cornies to primary a 5 gallon batch. Actually I think he makes 5.75-6 gallon batches, and puts 3 gallons in each 5 gallon Cornie so that he ends up with 5 gallons in the secondary/dispensing Cornie.

I believe he does transfer under pressure, with shortened beer-out tubes to accommodate the height of the flocced-out yeast in the primary Cornie.

But he's so old, his Cornie fleet probably only cost $5 apiece, when he bought his stash.

(I can say that because I'm older than he is...)

He used to post here as TG, I think, maybe he can clarify if he sees this...