Using a Corny as a ‘Conical’

[Petrolhead]

I was posting in one of @Chippy_Tea threads about bottling from a corny that I was using as a secondary fermenter. That corny I had banked over to one side away from the liquid tube hoping that The trub would settle there. In actuality as I have now decided to bottle the brew then I fully expect all the trub to come up in the first few bottles as I will be moving the corny to bottle.

This got me thinking. If I were to use the corny to ferment, 1st or 2nd, and extended the liquid tube down to the bottom of the corny, a piece of silicon tube would be perfect, then surely I could draw off the trub without opening the fv/corny.

You could in fact take your brew from boil kettle to serving without opening the corny.

Anyone doing this already?

 

[peebee]

Beaten you to it! Though there'll be plenty to have beaten me to it too. Fermenting under pressure so I could transfer carbonated beer to bottle or second Corny keg. Actually at the moment I'm skipping the transfer and serving from the keg fermented in which works great for low-alcohol offerings but isn't going so well for 4-5% ABV beers (clearing is an issue).

I do use floating extractors on silicon tubing rather than the original rigid dip-tube.

I discussed the fermenting here, but it doesn't discuss (just speculates) transfer yet.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ay-session-beer-crisis-beer.85960/post-885418

 

[Petrolhead]

Hi @peebee, that's the exact issue that I was really raising which is the possibility of drawing off the trub from below the fermenting wort much like you do with a conical but via an extended liquid out tube.

 

[peebee]

I get you now. Okay, more speculating:

Trouble with Corny kegs is they have a shallow dished base, not a steeply tapered one (conical fermenter) so I'd dismissed all thought of "sucking" sediment out, a non-starter in my opinion. So I concentrate on collecting clear beer from above the sediment (like using a syphon tube in a bucket, except allowing for it happening "blind"). Possibly using floating extractors, but you'd still need indication when it starts sucking up sediment.

 

[Sadfield]

Poppet blockage would be my first concern without even contemplating dip tube extensions and corny geometry.

 

[Petrolhead]

Interestingly, well if you have a mind like mine, earlier today I bottled from a corny which I had used as a secondary fermenter. I accept the dip tube was in the usual place, but I expected the trub to come out into the first bottle but it all came out in the last half bottle.

I think this means that I have in effect proved my idea wrong myself. What I think happens that as you draw liquid through the dip tube you may draw in some localised trub but a current forms in the corny which leaves the majority of the trub undisturbed. However, when you get to the end of the liquid it's surface tension draws in the trub. Hence it being in the last of my bottling.

In some ways this is good. If you use a corny as a primary or secondary fermenter you know you are always leaving most of the trub behind as long as you are not too greedy as to how much wort/beer you decant.