Using a Corny Keg

[Rich747]

Folks, one day I will branch out into using these but am confused about he process. Let me give you the scenario...........

My beer has finished first fermentation.

What then?

Do I stick it in a corny keg and purge out the air, leave for 2 weeks then carbonate?

Should I have done a secondary fermentation before kegging?

I wouldn't mind a definitive idea of the process from end of first fermentation to serving.

Are there any websites which give this? Most leave out bits like secondary fermentation, priming etc.

What pressures, when etc etc??

I'm sooooo confused!!!

 

[carl_saint]

+1 for this. I'd like the same info! Cheers

 

[Moley]

First off, you aren't telling us how to do anything, so don't post in the “How To” Guides, and I'll move this to Equipment discussions.

If you look down the “How To” Guides you should find a few relevant topics, such as Corny Kegs Made Easy, How to clean and sanitise a Corny, First Corny and a few others.

The beauty of the Cornelius system is that you don't have to prime for a secondary fermentation, so you get little if any sediment in the keg, and this will usually be blown out with the first pint. You can use finings and keg clear beer because these kegs will withstand quite a lot of pressure and you can force carbonate your beer.

That doesn't necessarily mean that your beer has to be fizzy, if you're brewing ales you can give it a blast at around 20psi for a week but then reduce dispensing pressure to around 3psi, enough for a decent head but not a glass full of froth.

When you syphon your beer into the keg and close the lid, you should open the pressure relief valve and gently add some gas to the keg. As CO2 is heavier than air, this will purge any oxygen from whatever head space is left in the keg, then you close the PRV and give it a blast of gas. With no oxygen in the keg to spoil your beer, it will keep for a very long time.

 

[Vossy1]

This is how I do mine, other folk do it their way.

Ferment to target gravity usually 3-4 days, yeast dependent.
Once target has been reached allow a couple of extra days for the yeast to mop up any undesirables the yeast has made as a by product.
I then crash cool to 2 deg c for a couple of days to a week to drop any excess yeast and protein complexes that could be present (chill haze material). You could also add chill haze finings at this stage (Polyclar etc), though when would depend on the fining gradient temp required.
Then I'd rack to corny keg, purge the head space with C02, and leave for how ever many weeks is required (usually 1 week for every 10 gravity points, so a 1.040 beer should have 4 weeks minimum in the ideal world).
A week before I intend to drink the beer I'll start to carbonate it. My own preference is just to open the gas valve a few times a day for a week until no more gas can be heard hissing into the keg. What pressure you charge it at is really personal preference. A lot of folk serve ale at up to 10PSI, personally I prefer around 3.

Secondary fermentation is not required using corny kegs, though actually it's always going to happen. Even though a beer has 'finished' fermenting there will always be residual complex sugars that the yeast will much on for some time, though it won't be seen to the naked eye.
If you leave the beer for long enough you will see the gravity fall a couple of points.

Having said that you can prime in the keg, I've never done it, so can't really comment. I assume it's just a case of adding the necessary priming sugar, mixing well and then leaving it.
The only 'down side' I can see to it is that sometimes cornies need pressure in the keg to get a good seal, and by priming you might not achieve that pressure, and thus your beer won't carbonate.

EDIT, beat me to it M :grin: