Fermenting in kegs

[wartyOne]

Anybody ever done this? Results?

 

[Sleepy T]

I don't have kegs so it isn't an option for me :sad:

 

[Darkstone42]

I got a keg, all the equipment to fill and pressurize it, and a kit to turn a minifridge into a kegerator yesterday in the mail. Perhaps I'll try this soon. I'll just keg my fermented-in-the-usual-way beer tomorrow.

 

[757Hokie83]

havent, actually just thought about it the other day when i was cleaning out my kegs and wondered how well it would work

congrats on the soon to be kegerator Darkstone

 

[wartyOne]

havent, actually just thought about it the other day when i was cleaning out my kegs and wondered how well it would work

congrats on the soon to be kegerator Darkstone

This would be awesome because you're transferring in a totally oxygen depleted environment. My concern is with the trub sticking the uptube. If that happens, you're fucked. Additionally, if you don't have access to a caustic (NaOH) bath, you won't be able to effectively clean the mess that is going to ensue. I don't have this problem working in the brewery, but a homebrewer without access to a friendly brewery will have issues.

I've got a conical fermenter, but it's not set up to be pressurized (most homebrewers don't see the need for this). Here's why it's important. If you have the ability to pressurize your vessel, you can dump trub/yeast out of the bottom, bring your vessel up to transfer pressure (13.5 psi, typically), and transfer sans O2 into your keg. You need to pressurize so that the vessels are in equilibrium as one empties, and the other fills. Otherwise you create vacuums and can crush your vessels like a beer can (pun intended).

The latter situation is the ideal, if I could pressurize.

If anybody attempts the keg fermentation, let me know how it turns out for you.