Corny keg conditioning?

[Spudhead94]

Evening all,

I’m going to be brewing a clone of Mint spy (sweet mint stout) and was curious as to whether I could condition in a corny keg?

Ideally i’d like to leave it 6 months and serve around Christmas time, my thinking behind this would be to charge the keg with a Co2 bulb and purge a few times. Once this has been done every other week just charge the keg again so the dead space remains oxygen free.

Is this a good idea or am I being daft? Additionally, I wish to keg condition due to the fact i’m meant to be moving in the next few months and wish to leave it with a family member.

 

[LeeH]

Unless you get a perfect seal on the lid, using a bulb could be problematic and expensive.

These kegs require pressure to seal and can leak very badly until a certain pressure is achieved.

 

[Sadfield]

I use my cornies like this all the time. I've never had a problem with them losing pressure. The only risk is if they are stored somewhere that hits freezing, then the beer could absorb co2 and drop the head pressure.

If you are concerned about this, the safest way to do it is to rack to the keg, prime with sugar to carbonate and then use an initial blast of the CO2 bulb to pop the seal into place.

 

[HarryFlatters]

I find that pressurising up to 40psi and leaving it produces a good enough seal so that I rarely have to top up the gas while conditioning.

Sort of related, if I prime a corny with sugar, is the calculation/quantity required the same as if I was batch priming for bottling?

 

[Sadfield]

You could over carb and then vent to the correct pressure for the storage temperature, although a pressure gauge would be required. So, it's probably easier to calculate the correct dosing.

If you use Beersmith, there are settings in the carbonation section to calculate dosing. The calculation is different to bottling depending on the remaining headspace in the keg.

 

[parpot]

I can not seem to get a very high pressure in my Corny Keg using a soda stream gas bottle is this normal?

Also I have it conditioning in the fridge and I am having to keep putting more gas in, is this normal or do I have a leak somewhere? I have checked all over with washing up liquid but can to find a leak.