Lagering in a Cornelius Keg

[SuperflyMD]

I have been wanting to do a lager, but I have limited room in my kegerator. It holds 4 cornies and a stack of grain on the hump. I did not want to take up 2 corney spots with a carboy, so I began looking at ways to ferment in one of the corneys and leave the other 3 spots for servable beer. There is some information about doing this online, but I didn't want to perform any permanent mods to my keg or lid. So here's what I did.


Components: airlock, small piece of 1/2" tubing, corney lid.



Follow the pictures. Screw the airlock/tubing combo in and push hard to get a good seal.


Don't forget the pressure test. Purely out of concern for staying sanitary, I used the traditional vodka to cleanse my palate before completing the procedure.


Action shot with a bubble coming through the airlock.


With the collar (2x4) on my kegerator, I ended up with about an inch of space over the whole setup.

I did reduce my volume a little, to maybe 4.5 g of beer, to try and prevent blow off. Hopefully it will be enough.

SF

[ziggy]

Do you get a whole lot of blow off when lagering?

[SuperflyMD]

Don't know.

I saw that suggestion somewhere and it made sense to me. I didn't want to have to empty the kegerator to clean it out.

This is my first lager. If I do this a couple of times without a mess, I'll probably ease back up to full volume.

[SacoDeToro]

Do you get a whole lot of blow off when lagering?

Lagering takes place after fermentation's complete. There should be no blow-off, foaming, etc...

While I prefer to lager in my conicals, I know a few excellent brewers who lager in their cornies. Rather than use an airlock, on simply connects a ball lock fitting to the gas side and a small tube going down to a bottle of sanitizer. The other simply seals up the keg and lets it sit. FWIW, most commercial craft brewers that I'm familiar with cap off their fermenters for lagering.

[SunkenBier]

I lager my beers in a normal sealed keg that I keep at a minimal PSI to hold the seal. This method works great for me.

[Mylo]

I lager my beers in a normal sealed keg that I keep at a minimal PSI to hold the seal. This method works great for me.

+1

That's how I roll, too.


Mylo

[TapItGood]

I have been wanting to do a lager, but I have limited room in my kegerator. It holds 4 cornies and a stack of grain on the hump. I did not want to take up 2 corney spots with a carboy, so I began looking at ways to ferment in one of the corneys and leave the other 3 spots for servable beer. There is some information about doing this online, but I didn't want to perform any permanent mods to my keg or lid. So here's what I did.


Components: airlock, small piece of 1/2" tubing, corney lid.



Follow the pictures. Screw the airlock/tubing combo in and push hard to get a good seal.


Don't forget the pressure test. Purely out of concern for staying sanitary, I used the traditional vodka to cleanse my palate before completing the procedure.


Action shot with a bubble coming through the airlock.


With the collar (2x4) on my kegerator, I ended up with about an inch of space over the whole setup.

I did reduce my volume a little, to maybe 4.5 g of beer, to try and prevent blow off. Hopefully it will be enough.

SF

That's a great set up to do a cold fermentation! American Light Lager here I come!

[SuperflyMD]

I lager my beers in a normal sealed keg that I keep at a minimal PSI to hold the seal. This method works great for me.

Fermenting too? or just post-fermentation lagering?

SF