Keg fermentor

[spog]

I have been wondering about converting a 50 litre keg ( legalities aside) into a fermentor.
The idea is to turn the keg upside down and attach a Tri Clover fitting to the coupling to be used as a dump point with tap,then fit a weldless outlet with tap on the side wall (as low as possible) to use for bottling or a pump attachment for keg filling.
At the top of the keg which used to be the bottom ,cut an opening to suit a lid of some sort along with a silicone seal of sorts and then a blow off tube or airlock.
A lock down clamp of some kind for the lid would be easy to workout but the opening/ lid diameter would need to be large enough to make cleaning easy,no point in having a Corny keg lid welded in place as you couldn't get your arm inside to clean properly.
I've seen many variations on the web ( thinking about Aussie suppliers here ) but I thought I'd throw the idea out and see what we can come up with.
Cheers.....spog...

 

[Kingy]

5stardistilling sell this which would be good for the top
Or along with this as a blow of tube

 

[claypot]

Hey mate,

I have a 50 lt keg with a large, say 300mm diameter hole cut in the top.
It has a tap fitted to the bottom.
I use it to ferment double batch's, I just smear some water around the top of the hole and place glad wrap over the top.
Works well, never had an infection, but I do ferment in a ferment fridge. Also super easy to clean with the large hole.
You can easily see what's going on inside through the glad wrap also.
Love the idea of doing it up side down with the drain. Keen to see some pic's when your done, and where you get the bit's from.

 

[klangers]

If you're really keen you could even add a CIP port with spray ball.

 

[wobbly]

If you are going to that sort of effort why not go a bit further and consider turning it into a pressure fermenter by adding the following:-

• A 1.5 or 2 inch butterfly valve on the tri clove fitting on the bottom to enable the spent yeast and other trub to be dumped
• A beer outlet quick disconnect and dip tube to the now top (previous bottom) to dispense the final product
• A large opening lid as per post 2
• A quick disconnect "gas in" to the new top (previous bottom)
• A spudding/variable pressure relief valve to the new top to control fermentation pressure
• A "maximum" pressure relief safety valve to the top
• Some sort of receptacle/mechanisim that could be connected to the beer out post to allow clarification liquid to be injected to clear the beer like the Williamswarn set up

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[Crusty]

If your not fussed about collecting the yeast & washing etc, I highly recommended the Sanke fermenter kit that Brewer's Hardware sell.
I've done a few ferments in mine & the keg is still sparkling clean. You can use a gernie if you think you need a blast inside.
I use a senior airlock on the gas in port when fermenting & when ready to transfer under pressure, I slip it off & slip on the silicone transfer hose that has a gas in ball lock disconnect on it. Another hose slips onto the out post & is placed into the waiting keg. I'm setting up an inline wort oxygenator at the moment & transferring from the Braumeister using a pump to the fermenter whilst adding oxygen using triclover fittings. It's nice & shiny but pretty expensive but just another step in the ever evolving brewery.

 

[MastersBrewery]

As opssed to Crusty I like the sanke kit from brewhardware.com I'm on the phone so can't link or get to pic's.

 

[Tahoose]

I've been thinking about something similar for a while.

Upside down, 2" triclover with a liquid ball lock post.

Get somebody to plasma cut a corny keg lid in the top for me. Gas post at the top and a thermowell too.

The pressure relief valve is built into the corny lid so that's a benefit.

 

[spog]

Thanks for the suggestions/ ideas.
I've been thinking about doing this for a while ( this " hobby " can get serious ) the idea of having a tap connected via a Tri Clover set up was for yeast collection and washing and by inverting a keg it's a very basic conical by design.
I have also stuffed about with legs for it and am considering using some hardwood with castors on them so it can be moved for what ever reason and some sort of metal banding to hold it all together.
A polished keg with varnished hardwood legs held together with black metal straps....ooh yeah. Bling !.

Then the issue of transferring to kegs or bottles......
A little brown pump hooked up to a switch box so I can stop the flow when needed and I don't have to worry about lifting or suspending the fermentor when transferring .
And when finished wheel it outside to clean it.
Cheers....spog....

 

[Maheel]

i have often thought just use a standard keg with spear still in it.
maybe cut the bottom of the spear a little to avoid the Y cake when getting the beer out

ferment with just a old school bubbling thing in the top (spear out) or just some glad wrap as normal
put the spear back in once fermented
use the keg beer coupler and pump out the beer using CO2 or maybe even just compressed air if you game ....
pump it out into kegs

chill it down and enjoy..

what are the thoughts of pushing the beer out using compressed air (nice and slow)?

 

[Benn]

what are the thoughts of pushing the beer out using compressed air (nice and slow)?

Aside from the oxidation concern, Compressed air from an every day compresser carries the same bugs that are floating around in the air i.e infection risk. The bottom of the pressure cylinder of a compresser collects water from the air and rusts away inside, hence the drain screw. Oil from the motor also makes its way into the air out, great for tools not good for beer.
A scuba compressor however will deliver pure filtered breathable air, an entry level unit can be had for around $3000

 

[trevgale]

As opssed to Crusty I like the sanke kit from brewhardware.com I'm on the phone so can't link or get to pic's.

I'm currently using the brewhardware sanke kit and love it. I ferment under about 5psi of pressure and then set it to 25psi near the end of fermentation and it naturally carbonates the beer at about 2.5 volumes. Fermenting under pressure also lets you take samples during fermentation.

 

[trevgale]

You can also sterilise the whole setup using steam. I put about a cup of water in the keg after it has been cleaned, then put it on the bbq wok burner. This creates steam and heats everything up to at least 100deg for about 10 min.

 

[spog]

Hmm,I may have to issue some payback as my wife often snaffles my collection of stock pots for cooking so guess where her ( uh hum) my small hand held steam cleaner will now call home.

 

[Judanero]

I've got two converted 30L kegs that I use for fermentors

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/4896-turning-a-keg-into-fermenter/page-4

I've found that the slight conical shape is negligible, the first bit that comes out of the ball valve does dump quite a bit of the trub/hop material but once all the beer has been dumped there is still a yeast cake that remains.. not dissimilar to a standard flat bottomed fv.

I don't use a pump to transfer transfer to keg, I lift the fv and sit it on top of another milk crate ( that is sitting on an aluminium platform) and just use gravity. Stainless is a dream to clean!

Also I ended up ditching the corny lids on mine because I had an inconsistent sealing of the blow off tube, I now use a tempered glass saucepan lid with slit silicone tube to seal it against the top, and it is held down with duct tape taped to the sides- like a lock-down bar but ghetto version.
To that end you could make the hole a little bit larger and use the stockpot lid from one of the BigW $20 specials, for cleaning mine just get a spray using the 'jet' setting of the garden hose- all the crud just blows away, a quick wipe with a scotch pad, another blast from the jet, kettle (~1.7L) of boiling water to rinse, spray of star san, seal it up and five minutes later another rinse with a kettle of boiling water.

Once I finish a couple other projects I intend to make a dedicated cip jig that will utilise steam but current method is working fine at the moment.

 

[hockadays]

Was it the corny lid that wouldn't seal or the blowoff tube to the gas disconnect?

 

[Judanero]

Blow off tube, I had previously ditched the gas connect due to height restriction of my fridge.

The blow off tube was jammed into the canal of the disconnect, probably could have been fixed with a larger diameter vinyl tube over the exterior of the disconnect canal but used a quick fix that worked and hadn't really attempted to rectify the original issue.

I've found it comforting to be able to visually check krausen/ ferment activity via the see through lid.

 

[spog]

Judenero thanks for the link and description.
For the silicone seal for the lid I spotted one at Mitre 10 it's from Still Spirits iirc it has a slit along its length so would be perfect for sealing the lid and easily removed for cleaning. I'll check on the way home today.