Some advice on a Corny please

[guyb]

Ok, I have been brewing for a few years and have taken the plunge from kits, to AG a while ago.

I got fed up with having a load of glass bottles about the place and the labour that is bottling.

So having had my birthday, I decided to invest in a Corny, a regulator (single stage twin gauge), a cobra style tap (quick disconnect to a plastic affair) and I pick up my beer gas for £18 (no deposit) on thursday.

I am going to test the corny for leaks, although it was shipped pressurised etc.

I have a dilemma in that I've read a number of posts that talk about the length of beer line, volumes, psi and all manner of things.

I have 22litres of St Peters Ruby Red Ale (I don't always have time for AG) that is in a secondary for settling.

Having not used the Corny before, I am a little concerned about dumping 19L of this brew into the Corny only for me to make a mistake and end up with 19L of drain feed.

I was wondering if I could say put 5L of St Peters in to the Corny and bottle the rest, and put the Corny under pressure at say about 5.5deg c (in the fridge) and put in 13.5 psi? i.e. is there any minimum volume?

I picked up the detail about volumes and temps from here linky

I've got the "flexi tap + out disconnect" which looks to be about 1M in length in 5/8", and I also got a 2M length of 5/8" for the gas.

I've looked at the links for sterilising a corny etc in the how to section.

Any help or advice gratefully received.

 

[Dave1970]

I wouldn't worry. I don't see how putting it in a corny is going to result in you getting drain feed. If you put a full 19 litres in your beer will be safely under CO2 in the keg, whereas if you try putting 5 litres in you might find it hard to get all the oxygen out.
The worst that can happen (apart from a big leak but you're going to test for this) is that you pour foam. If this happens you could either get hold of some 3/16" line or lower the pressure on the keg and leave it to de-gas for a bit.
I've been using cornies for a few months now with no temp control (kegerator build now underway :thumb: ) and with a 5ft length of 3/16" line I've had no bother at all, even with summer temps.

 

[soupdragon]

I picked up the detail about volumes and temps from here linky

Link isn't working mate.

You can put as much or as little in a corny as you wish to. Just make sure that you purge the air from the head space after you've filled it. Was this something like you were refering to?

Simply put, all you need to do is to cross reference your storage temp and desired carbonation level on the chart and it'll give you the correct psi to slow condition at :thumb:

Cheers Tom

 

[guyb]

I picked up the detail about volumes and temps from here linky

Link isn't working mate.

You can put as much or as little in a corny as you wish to. Just make sure that you purge the air from the head space after you've filled it. Was this something like you were refering to?

Simply put, all you need to do is to cross reference your storage temp and desired carbonation level on the chart and it'll give you the correct psi to slow condition at :thumb:

Cheers Tom

thanks Tom, yes, it had a similar chart (link now fixed) - when you say, slow condition, is slow defined as "1week", "2weeks"? Or would i use the rule of thumb, i.e. 1 week per gravity point, so perhaps for a beer of 1.040, then 4weeks, or more like I do in the bottle, in about 2weeks it is pretty much good to go (carbonation in the bottle etc) - for bottling I'd normally do: 2weeks fermenting, 1 week in secondary, bottle, then 1 week in a warm place, and 1 week in a cold place. And then anything else is a bonus.

By purging the air from the headspace, does this mean, zapping in some CO2? apologies for the naive question! :grin:

 

[Hawks]

Are you intending to serve at that temp? Just sounds a bit cold to me.. and 2.5 vols of CO2

If you are looking for that level of carbonation then fine, but if you are just new to cornies and have read various posts and seen the carbonation charts you might want to try lower. This one is American and they consider many of our beers under carbonated :shock: and too warm :shock:

I would condition and serve something like this around 12C @ 2psi so more like 1.25 vols - this is then is the cask ale territory ( 1-1.5 vols ). I can serve this direct from a tap on the corny :thumb:

 

[soupdragon]

I should really have said slow carbonation. Usually 1-2 weeks at your desired settings will do the job. This is presuming that you don't add any priming sugar in the corny.....
Not really sure regards how long to " condition " for but as a rule 3 weeks is a good starting point but if you're thirsty...........
To purge just pressurise your corny then lift the pressure release valve so that the co2 pushes the air from the keg. Co2 is heavier than air so will sit on the beer so when you " burp " ( as some people call it ) the keg the air will be forced out leaving just co2 and beer in the keg. Not sure how many times you need to do it but as there's only a small head space when you've got a full keg once should do it. If you only plan to put 5 ltrs in then it might be an idea to do it a couple of times to make sure you've pushed all the air out :thumb:
Oh and one more thing. You'll need a length of beer line that's long enough to drop the pressure down to serving pressure at your tap. I have about 15 psi and use a 7 foot length of 3/16 line that drops the pressure enough so that the beer pours without a massive load of foam. Too short and as the beer comes out of the tap the co2 will try to escape as foam. Too long and it'll take you ages to pour a beer. It's a bit of trial and error but generally speaking 1 foot of 3/16 line will drop you pressure by 1-2 psi.

I hope that all makes sense?

Cheers Tom

 

[guyb]

Are you intending to serve at that temp? Just sounds a bit cold to me.. and 2.5 vols of CO2

If you are looking for that level of carbonation then fine, but if you are just new to cornies and have read various posts and seen the carbonation charts you might want to try lower. This one is American and they consider many of our beers under carbonated :shock: and too warm :shock:

I would condition and serve something like this around 12C @ 2psi so more like 1.25 vols - this is then is the cask ale territory ( 1-1.5 vols ). I can serve this direct from a tap on the corny :thumb:

i'd had a few tastes :grin: last night of Gales Festival Mild (BYOBRA), I think I properly understand now and yes I can see where you are coming from.

 

[guyb]

I should really have said slow carbonation. Usually 1-2 weeks at your desired settings will do the job. This is presuming that you don't add any priming sugar in the corny.....
Not really sure regards how long to " condition " for but as a rule 3 weeks is a good starting point but if you're thirsty...........
To purge just pressurise your corny then lift the pressure release valve so that the co2 pushes the air from the keg. Co2 is heavier than air so will sit on the beer so when you " burp " ( as some people call it ) the keg the air will be forced out leaving just co2 and beer in the keg. Not sure how many times you need to do it but as there's only a small head space when you've got a full keg once should do it. If you only plan to put 5 ltrs in then it might be an idea to do it a couple of times to make sure you've pushed all the air out :thumb:
Oh and one more thing. You'll need a length of beer line that's long enough to drop the pressure down to serving pressure at your tap. I have about 15 psi and use a 7 foot length of 3/16 line that drops the pressure enough so that the beer pours without a massive load of foam. Too short and as the beer comes out of the tap the co2 will try to escape as foam. Too long and it'll take you ages to pour a beer. It's a bit of trial and error but generally speaking 1 foot of 3/16 line will drop you pressure by 1-2 psi.

I hope that all makes sense?

Cheers Tom

Cheers for this Tom, yesterday I was a a bit nervous about the whole corny thing, :wha: , however, having read your post I instantly connected with what you were saying and now I have a much better understanding of the "purge" and really why you get a "foaming" - something I hadn't understood before :nah:

However, I feel a whole load better about my purchase now, and whilst I've got 3/8 line (about 2M) I can get some 3/16 if required and do some mods with a couple of speedfit connectors to step the 3/8 upto 3/16 - however, I wondered as 3/8 (9.5mm) is a larger diameter than 3/16 (4.7mm) i wondered if it would make any difference by sticking with the 3/8.

I suppose it will be trial and error, although I'm quite happy now to give it a go.

 

[soupdragon]

You can use 3/8 without problems. I don't have any method of cooling my cornys at the moment so need higher co2 pressure in the kegs to get the level of carbonation I want. At higher pressure you risk more foam so it's just easier to use thinner line that helps to minimise the foam. If you're going to store yours at 5c ish then 3/8 should be ok. Again though it's still a bit of trial and error till you get the right length of line for the pressure in the keg. I'm not sure what the pressure drop per foot is for 3/8 though..........

Cheers Tom