Pressurised fermentation in corny keg

[S.R.S]

Apologies if this has already been covered off in other threads but having fermented under pressure in a corny keg, the Co2 produced has not created enough fizz in the brew.
Can I simply attach the Co2 cylinder and add an additional 10psi and leave it until it is ready?
Excuse what is probably an obvious question/answer.
Many thanks

 

[Dutto]

1. ......... having fermented under pressure in a corny keg, the Co2 produced has not created enough fizz in the brew.

2. Can I simply attach the Co2 cylinder and add an additional 10psi and leave it until it is ready?
.......

Whoa!

1. If you "fermented under pressure in a corny keg" then where is the trub? If it's still in the corny keg then I advise you to decant the brew to a second keg before attaching the CO2.

2. See 1. above plus using a corny keg with trub in the bottom will almost certainly ensure a cloudy brew.

How do you know that the fermentation is finished? Taken a Final Gravity that is 1.010 or less?

Sorry, but I don't think you've got "fermenting under pressure" fully worked out yet! Don't worry, we all have to learn; some of us (me included) the hard way!

 

[foxbat]

Apologies if this has already been covered off in other threads but having fermented under pressure in a corny keg, the Co2 produced has not created enough fizz in the brew.
Can I simply attach the Co2 cylinder and add an additional 10psi and leave it until it is ready?
Excuse what is probably an obvious question/answer.
Many thanks

Short answer: yes! Just leave it connected at that 10psi for a couple of weeks and it'll be done.

 

[Session]

Apologies if this has already been covered off in other threads but having fermented under pressure in a corny keg, the Co2 produced has not created enough fizz in the brew.
Can I simply attach the Co2 cylinder and add an additional 10psi and leave it until it is ready?
Excuse what is probably an obvious question/answer.
Many thanks

I agree with @foxbat - it should be fine. As @Dutto mentioned though, you may want to use a floating dip tube to make sure you’re drawing the clearest beer off. I personally didn’t have much of a problem with trub when I used to ferment and serve from the same keg (crash cooling for 48 hours makes most of it fall out of suspension anyway) but it was never as clear as after moving to a serving keg.
What pressures were you using to ferment and when did you cap the vessel?

 

[xozzx]

I plan to try pressure fermenting in a keg when my spunding valve arrives, my plan is:

- Ferment under pressure until complete - use a party tap on beer out to measure FG.
- Cold crash
- Use the party tap to pour off about a liter to remove trub (if it blocks the disconnect post I may have to try with shortened dip tube)
- Transfer into clean keg with inline filter
- Connect to CO2 at about 10psi and let condition for a week or 2 before drinking.

 

[Newerbrewer]

Hey SRS - what did you set your spunding valve at?

Should be fine to use CO2 to increase until at the desired level.

There's some great articles on brulosophy I used to get my set up sorted. Some people serve fine from the corny they fermented in (usually with a shortened or floating dip tube) and others want to transfer into a clean keg to serve.

 

[Session]

I plan to try pressure fermenting in a keg when my spunding valve arrives, my plan is:

- Ferment under pressure until complete - use a party tap on beer out to measure FG.
- Cold crash
- Use the party tap to pour off about a liter to remove trub (if it blocks the disconnect post I may have to try with shortened dip tube)
- Transfer into clean keg with inline filter
- Connect to CO2 at about 10psi and let condition for a week or 2 before drinking.

A better way which would avoid the possibility of blocking a poppet is to use a floating dip tube like the CaskWidge which has a filter built into it.

 

[S.R.S]

Whoa!

1. If you "fermented under pressure in a corny keg" then where is the trub? If it's still in the corny keg then I advise you to decant the brew to a second keg before attaching the CO2.

2. See 1. above plus using a corny keg with trub in the bottom will almost certainly ensure a cloudy brew.

How do you know that the fermentation is finished? Taken a Final Gravity that is 1.010 or less?

Sorry, but I don't think you've got "fermenting under pressure" fully worked out yet! Don't worry, we all have to learn; some of us (me included) the hard way!

Hi and thanks for all your responses.

1. Trub is still in corny. I bent the dip tube somewhat to get it away from the bottom of the keg. I dont have a 2nd keg although I could rack to a bottling vessel and transfer back to the original keg once cleaned but I want to avoid exposure to o2. I was also planning to bottle most if not all of the brew. I have heard of many that ferment and serve from the same corny.
Measured FG using a hydrometer and it read 1.014 (suggested FG 1.012) consistently over 4 days.

 

[S.R.S]

Short answer: yes! Just leave it connected at that 10psi for a couple of weeks and it'll be done.

thanks Foxbat

 

[S.R.S]

I agree with @foxbat - it should be fine. As @Dutto mentioned though, you may want to use a floating dip tube to make sure you’re drawing the clearest beer off. I personally didn’t have much of a problem with trub when I used to ferment and serve from the same keg (crash cooling for 48 hours makes most of it fall out of suspension anyway) but it was never as clear as after moving to a serving keg.
What pressures were you using to ferment and when did you cap the vessel?

applied pressure throughout at what I thought was 10psi, however, as posted in a separate thread, I have discovered the regulator attached to the gas cylinder is inaccurate to between 3-5 psi. I know this as when I attached 3 separate spunding valves to the keg. All three showed 3-5 psi higher than what the the regulator gauge read.

 

[S.R.S]

Hey SRS - what did you set your spunding valve at?

Should be fine to use CO2 to increase until at the desired level.

There's some great articles on brulosophy I used to get my set up sorted. Some people serve fine from the corny they fermented in (usually with a shortened or floating dip tube) and others want to transfer into a clean keg to serve.

set it to 10psi

 

[peebee]

Whoa!

1. If you "fermented under pressure in a corny keg" then where is the trub? If it's still in the corny keg then I advise you to decant the brew to a second keg before attaching the CO2.

2. See 1. above plus using a corny keg with trub in the bottom will almost certainly ensure a cloudy brew.

How do you know that the fermentation is finished? Taken a Final Gravity that is 1.010 or less?

Sorry, but I don't think you've got "fermenting under pressure" fully worked out yet! Don't worry, we all have to learn; some of us (me included) the hard way!

It's not as bad as that. My thread doing this is: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/peebees-brewday-session-beer-crisis-beer

I am using floating extractors, but cloudy beer is coming from an unexpected source, probably yeast on the keg above the surface. I now give the keg a good swirl after fermentation to dislodge most of it, and have returned to using finings ("cold crash" isn't so effective).

My biggest concern was yeast "autolysis" but my current brew (Centennial Blonde) is 2 months old and doesn't seems to be suffering off-flavours (Danstar's dried Nottingham yeast). But as yet I've not fermented anything stronger than OG 1.045 using this method (I've been brewing low-alcohol stuff in the dispensing keg for a while now, but it doesn't create a lot of yeast sediment).

And there's no concern about when "fermentation is finished" 'cos even when it has, the beer's not going anywhere. Hydrometer samples (if one is needed) can come out of the dispense tap.

 

[Sadfield]

If your process is good up to transferring into the keg, then trub shouldn't be issue, especially if the OP has bent the dip tube.

If you want to ferment in a corny, it's best to recirculate wort through the mash before first runnings, cool as quickly as possible to pitching temp at the end of the boil. Don't get greedy on transfers, and transfer clear wort at each stage.

 

[peebee]

…
Can I simply attach the Co2 cylinder and add an additional 10psi and leave it until it is ready? …

I didn't really answer the question posed by the OP in my last post.

But the link in my last post does up the pressure to get higher carbonation … so, answer is "yes"! Though I am using a secondary regulator as my "spunding valve" (I really don't like those crappy poppet-type valves* everyone seems so stuck on), so increasing the carbonation was just a case of winding up the regulator (aka "spunding valve") a bit higher.


* yeah, I know, you can get the diaphragm "Blowtie" type spunding valves; I've got them but haven't tried them yet (but they make great "wet" pressure release valves for over-zealous pumps - saved me from more soakings when the pipes burst!).