Home of the BrewNosers

Anywhere here experimented with fermenting in kegs? Pros/cons

I have the 3 gallon kegs from OBK and wouldn't mind trying this out.

I haven't tried it, but I looked into it a bit. It seems like the big upside is the ability to ferment under pressure (which is supposed to reduce ester production, but at least some of the experimental homebrew trials haven't showed a noticeable difference at our scale) and the big downside is not being able to visually monitor fermentation. I think the main reason people do it is get a cheap large fermenter (by converting 15 gallon kegs). I am not sure that I'd see a lot of upside to doing a ferment in a 3 gallon keg over a carboy.

Check out anything here written by GRock.

sleepyjamie wrote:Anywhere here experimented with fermenting in kegs? Pros/cons

I have the 3 gallon kegs from OBK and wouldn't mind trying this out.

I've only secondary fermented juice in kegs which I always add at kegging. No issues other than the bit of sediment that clears after the first few pours.

I ferment in 15 gal corny kegs. it works well for transferring. Most cut an inch off the dip tube for trub/yeast. I just leave the vent open and foil the top.

My goal is to simply ferment in the same keg where I serve without having to do any transfering. My concern around this is the amount of trup that could be left over and possibly clogging.

sleepyjamie wrote:My goal is to simply ferment in the same keg where I serve without having to do any transfering. My concern around this is the amount of trup that could be left over and possibly clogging.

I'd imagine the first few pints will be pretty gross, AND if the keg lingers a few months you will get autolysis.

Don't forget to cut the dip tube back.

Grab a big pot, do a stove top BIAB, boil, cool, add yeast to pot, cover, primary ferment, transfer to your corny to "secondary" and condition. Carb and serve in keg. You could add a spunding valve to carbonate naturally too. Still cut back the dip tube.

RubberToe wrote:Grab a big pot, do a stove top BIAB, boil, cool, add yeast to pot, cover, primary ferment, transfer to your corny to "secondary" and condition. Carb and serve in keg. You could add a spunding valve to carbonate naturally too. Still cut back the dip tube.

That method worked very well for GRock.

LeafMan66_67 wrote:

RubberToe wrote:Grab a big pot, do a stove top BIAB, boil, cool, add yeast to pot, cover, primary ferment, transfer to your corny to "secondary" and condition. Carb and serve in keg. You could add a spunding valve to carbonate naturally too. Still cut back the dip tube.

That method worked very well for GRock.

Was he making moonshine? lol

You could go the other way with it and spend the ungodly price tag for a brewha 4 in 1 - the higher end conical that is pressure capable so you can carbonate in it after dumping the yeast and trub.