I have a 50L keg that I'm planning on turning into a fermenter and I'm not sure whether to stick a tap on the side or have it bottom draining.
If the tap is on the side there'll be a good amount of beer lost due to the concave bottom in the keg. I know a lot of that would be yeast but id still imagine you'd loose a couple of litres of beer.
If I drain from the bottom of a keg would all the yeast drain out before the beer? I would imagine that some yeast would come out first and then the beer but would a small amount of yeast continue to come out along with the beer?
If anyone has any experience with this I'd love to hear your take..
Cheers.
The yeast won't drain from a bottom valve, you will end up racking beer through the yeast cake.
I installed an ss brewtech rotating racking arm in my keg and this does the job for me. The fermtaurus has a similar tap.
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/ss-brewtech-racking-arm/
You could get away without a tap and just use an auto siphon, but you won't be able to take samples without a tap.
fit your outlet on the bottom but push a draining tube up through it to a height just above where you think the yeast cake will settle to. This way you will be able to drain off the fermented wort and leave a good yeast cake behind.
Just doodling some keg fermenter designs, and I saw recently somebody cut a hole in their keg for a Corny lid (oval shape). If you're cutting and drilling a keg, why not turn the keg upside down and use the spear hole as a bottom drain, and cut your opening at the top?
On my doodles I've added a sprayball for CIP and made it a 75litre FV by welding one half onto a full, but I doubt it'll get much further than a sketch for the forseeable future!
Quote from: darren996 on February 06, 2018, 10:03:50 PM
The yeast won't drain from a bottom valve, you will end up racking beer through the yeast cake.
I installed an ss brewtech rotating racking arm in my keg and this does the job for me. The fermtaurus has a similar tap.
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/ss-brewtech-racking-arm/
You could get away without a tap and just use an auto siphon, but you won't be able to take samples without a tap.
You can take samples using a sanitised turkey baster. I've even used a sanitised jug before
Im wondering, if i was to go with a tap at the bottom would it pull off a certain amount of yeast/dry hops and then stop or would there be a constant stream of trub coming out with the beer?
Quote from: Mossy on February 10, 2018, 11:23:44 PM
Im wondering, if i was to go with a tap at the bottom would it pull off a certain amount of yeast/dry hops and then stop or would there be a constant stream of trub coming out with the beer?
It's constant. first all yeast then yeast/hops then clear beer then yeast/hops, repeating. And this is with 30HL conical fermentor. if you dont go with a side port and racking arm you will need an upstand. even withe a racking arm have to be careful. Cheers, Seán.
Thanks for the input everyone. Think I'll go with a tap on the side. Worked well enough on the fermenting buckets I've used over the years.
I also have a spare keg I'm thinking of turning into a fermenter. I was just going to buy a bung stopper that fits the mouth of the keg and put an airlock in it. Clean it out with a tonne of PBW, and maybe boil some water in it aswell. This image is not mine but you see how it works.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi296.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fmm172%2Fday1240%2FP1020900.jpg&hash=64ae4a556d9559fecd168e6e74f6d0e2