Hello all,
I’ve decared WAR on O2 at the point after aeration. I submitted a 1 year aged barleywine and got back oxidized comments. Not happening! Ok… ok… I get PO’d after nursing it a year. I digress.
I now have my first two batches primary in corny kegs. The first was 5 gallon and the second is a 10. Keeping it cool is another topic we can get to later.
I jammed tubing onto the out post with the dip tube removed. Works well for blowoff but I didn’t have any using drops of Fermcap S.
Initial primary is completed in the 5 gal and I mover it and installed a lid with an airlock and the dip tube to transfer later. I haven’t seen any airlock activity at all but check the SG and it has dropped 15 points in the last 5 days. You’d think that the fittings are tight and the airlock is clamped pretty good this would be good sealed.
For those who do this do you, after primary completes do you pressure seal the lid with the usual 20-30 PSI and let it continue without any airlock?
I thought about this and figured why not just leave the posts and dip tubes in . Hook the gas out fitting up and instead of putting it on the gas stick it in a bottle of starsan and just leave it untill ready to transfer with a jumper. Never have to open the keg.
Hey Brew_Cat,
I thought about that and read where someone had a hellofa time cleaning the fermentation residue off the tubes. I now have resolved to just removing the long,out dip tube and place a hose on that post for a blow off.
After fermentation activity is over I run the tube back in and hit it with pressure to transfer.
If anyone is Primary Fermenting in corny kegs I want to discuss a few things.
Namely, the attenuation I’ve been experiencing since I’ve started.
I made a variation of the Son of a Fermentation Chamber out of an old kegerator chest freezer. (documented at another site)
and I’ve had 3-4 brews in this and can’t say enough about controlled temp! BUT>>>>
I’m finding my attenuation had dropped tremendously. I’ve used 66’ and 64’ with Nottingham and WLP002 and all have come up short. Especially my recent Rye. After an entire 10 days I sampled and noted only a 33 point drop from 1.063 to .30. When I used an open cooler with Ice bottles 10 days was almost complete attenuation time.
The second factor may be my recent move to primary in cornies. I know there’s been discussions about the talk, thin cylindrical aspect of the corny shape and yeast performance, etc… but is this normal to have very, very slow attenuation because of cooler temps AND the shape of the vessel?
I brewed an irish ale maybe a month ago and fermented with Notty. One pack rehydrated. Started at 59 let it go to 63, day 4 krausen was gone looked flat and starting to clear, let it rise to room temp 68-70. 1.063 to 1.012 room temp degassed, 76% attenuation two weeks after brew day. Glass carboy.
I’ve read that there is an optimum height versus width for fermentation. I think the consensus was wider and shorter was best and it makes sense to me anyway more surface are for the yeast to work. I have a short wide bucket for one of my fermenters never documented wether it made a difference. But I do know colder is slower but wether it make a difference in taste from say low 60 to 60 I can’t taste any.
