Testing a new idea

[CRUNK]

I'm using my kegs as unitanks, instead of a conical fermentor this time.

For the fermentation I have attached a blow off tube into a bottle half full of water, then I will attach my spunding valve when my gravity is 6 points away from terminal gravity, then I will purge the yeast and lager, and serve from the same keg, eliminating and oxygen ingress possibilities during transfers.

I let you know the results in a few weeks when the Oktoberfest is ready.

On another note, my yeast farming is getting quite large, I have many mason jars of 34/70, 2 jars of Belgian ale yeast, 2 jars of California ale yeast, and a few other lager yeast ie 835, 838 etc...

My next upgrade is a mill, and bulk ordering of my base malts, and storing some specialty malts ie carahell, vienna, malts i use regularly.

I have started my Sauergut reactor, it is working out perfectly, I have done 3 batches so far with sauergut. It controls my ph without issues, I titrated a sample to determine the percentage and it is holding at 1.25%, I keep adding first runnings of each batch to replace what I use each time.

Now I have one more thing I want to try, at least once, and that's a decoction mash.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

cool, talking about your Sauergut reactor, remember every time a container is open it can gather oxygen, so if you don't have a sealed system with co2 running it; it might not be working as expected but either way good luck

 

[GFHomebrew]

I'm using my kegs as unitanks, instead of a conical fermentor this time.

For the fermentation I have attached a blow off tube into a bottle half full of water, then I will attach my spunding valve when my gravity is 6 points away from terminal gravity, then I will purge the yeast and lager, and serve from the same keg, eliminating and oxygen ingress possibilities during transfers.

I let you know the results in a few weeks when the Oktoberfest is ready.

On another note, my yeast farming is getting quite large, I have many mason jars of 34/70, 2 jars of Belgian ale yeast, 2 jars of California ale yeast, and a few other lager yeast ie 835, 838 etc...

My next upgrade is a mill, and bulk ordering of my base malts, and storing some specialty malts ie carahell, vienna, malts i use regularly.

I have started my Sauergut reactor, it is working out perfectly, I have done 3 batches so far with sauergut. It controls my ph without issues, I titrated a sample to determine the percentage and it is holding at 1.25%, I keep adding first runnings of each batch to replace what I use each time.

Now I have one more thing I want to try, at least once, and that's a decoction mash.

Keen to hear how this batch turns out from your keg. So your going to dispense the yeast out via the dip tube once fermentation is done till she runs clearish? Mmmm if so not a bad idea. Your a cluey bloke I'll give you that. I'm toying with the idea of fermenting in a keg only draw back I see is less beer as your starting at 19lt most likely lose 1.5-2lt of losses so 17lt of Finnished beer give or take maybe that's a good thing for me lol.

But the way I think your doing it your not shortening the dip tube? Just pushing out the yeast then serving?

 

[CRUNK]

Keen to hear how this batch turns out from your keg. So your going to dispense the yeast out via the dip tube once fermentation is done till she runs clearish? Mmmm if so not a bad idea. Your a cluey bloke I'll give you that. I'm toying with the idea of fermenting in a keg only draw back I see is less beer as your starting at 19lt most likely lose 1.5-2lt of losses so 17lt of Finnished beer give or take maybe that's a good thing for me lol.

But the way I think your doing it your not shortening the dip tube? Just pushing out the yeast then serving?

Less beer yes, as there is alittle loss purging the yeast, but that opens the door to 10 gallon batches.

Full length dip tubes, I am going to extend my dip tube in my next batch to extend it to the center of the keg on the bottom, so when I purge the yeast it pulls from all directions at once with maximum downward force, I will be cutting the rubber tubing extension diagonally at the end in the center of the keg for maximum opening for purging.

I have found that spunding in one keg, then transferring to a serving keg, also hurts the beer flavor, sometimes very noticeable and others just a minor hit.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Well if you lead the way I may just follow. I can fit at least 2 kegs in my ferment chamber only one plastic bucket so theoretically more fermentable beer.

 

[J A]

Seems to me that fermenting in a 5 gallon keg will yield substantially less beer than 5 gallons. How much headspace will you leave for krausen? How much will you lose to trub.
If I wanted 4-gallon batches, I could see doing it. A friend of mine routinely ferments in kegs. She has short dip tubes in her fermenter kegs and transfers to regular kegs for serving after cold crashing in the fermenter.
I'd prefer to find some slim-quarter kegs and have extra capacity so that I could fill a regular corny. Or for that matter set up a half-barrel Sanke as a fermenter and fill 2 Corny kegs.
I just hate doing all the work and not getting all the beer.