cornys

[danno]

well, my wife will probably be a little PO'd at me, but I picked up four more cornies on ebay... (going from 10 to 14...) this is a pretty good deal, in case you want to either start kegging, or expand...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2521373788&category=11876

[mountain beer]

How many do you have now--are you able to have them all hooked up at once?

[danno]

I currently have 10... I have a 15cf chest freezer with a thermostat, a collar, and six taps.... I built a manifold with a second integrated regulator, generally I keep two different kinds of homemade soda for the wife and kid at 30 psi, and beer at 10 psi.... Right now, however, I am out of beer, (two batches currently in cornies to secondary...)

I want more to be able to do more secondary fermenting, I may even attempt a primary ferment in a corny, I just picked up all the plumbing fittings to run a blowoff tube or an airlock off the gas in post...

[YamahaXS]

pics please. :) I would love to see your set up!

[toneyc]

It seems like it would be a bear to clean out the poppet valve after getting krausen in it. Krausen might also get up into the relief valve and maybe even the dip tube.

:) Toney.

[paul84043]

Good point Toney, I was thinking about getting into kegging and that exact same question crosesed my mind.

That's a great link, thanks Danno...

My local homebrew shop will prep my kegs for me for only the cost of any parts that need to be replaced...it's good to have a decent relationship with your local shop! It also helps to spend a whole crapload of money there...

I like the idea of kegging because my in-laws wouldn't make the connection between these strange metal cylinders and beer!!

My only question is how long can you let the beer sit in them and condition? As long as you want? I imagine that since you carbonate when you're ready to serve, there's no real limit on how long you can condition, right? Obviously you wouldn't want to do any long lag time beers, but the quicker ones that are ready within a month or two should be fine, shoudn't they?

[danno]

pics, we now got pics....

First one is my chest freezer with the collar on it. I got this freezer free, because it "all of a sudden quit working". I took a chance, took it home, bypassed the factory thermostat, and it fired right up... Since I was hardwiring in a thermostat anyways, it's perfect... What's different about this collar compared to others I've seen is that the lid hinges were integrated into the body of the freezer, so there isn't any way to completely remove the lid. So the lid sits at an angle... (keeps the kid from stacking stuff on it...) collar (http://www.boomspeed.com/danno/collar.jpg)

The next pic is the inside of the chest freezer (my magnificent photo skills cut off the thermostat, it's that black thing you can barely see on the far right...), I picked up these shanks and taps on ebay, they're about 10" long. (taps 1 and 2 are off for cleaning...) I've had 6 kegs, a 20 lb co2 tank, 4 cases of pop, and a heater in there with more room to spare. I think max capacity (summer) is 8 kegs, co2, and 2 carboys... interior (http://www.boomspeed.com/danno/inside.jpg)

Hooking up all the cornies to the gas is my homemade manifold. It's attached to the underside of the freezer lid. I just finished (tonight, in fact...) expanding one side of this.. I have a brass air QD on the left so I can easily swap tanks, four valves that come from the regulator attached to the tank, (hi side pressure, 30 psi for soda.) The second manifold is another ebay find, it's a stainless steel regulator that was used on medical equipment. Has very precise control... The right side is the beer side, I have all the pieces to go from 3 valves to 6. All the manifold is sweated copper and brass valves from the local mega home store, it cost about $6 per valve for all the hardware, including a check valve on each one... manifold (http://www.boomspeed.com/danno/manifold.jpg)

To the "how long is beer in a keg good for?" question, since there's no air exposure, I'd think they'd last as long as it would in a bottle... I had a keg of raspberry wheat (didn't turn out as good as we hoped, so we drank everything else first...) that lasted about 5 months before we finally finished it off. It was actually getting better as it aged...

[batkins]

How well does your collar/lid seal work? especially the back edge?
I had never thought of doing it like that.

[paul84043]

I was wondering the same thing, have you considered integrating any kind of weatherstripping into the edge of your woodwork?

What temp do you keep it at, and how often is the compressor running?

That's a very nice setup, it gives me all kinds of cool ideas!

[batkins]

I have a cooler, and I was considering do this:
http://www.oregonbrewcrew.com/freezer/freezer.html
At this point I wasn't going to do the fermenting side, but you never know.
Anyway, it's a pretty good plan.
The owner of this cooler talked of putting galvanized stripping on the wood edge so the lid would seal better.

[mountain beer]

Thanks for the pics danno. That gives me inspiration. Ive been working on getting another corny to have two in my frig. I just keep beer in a carboy until I'm done with the beer in my corny and then, clean and add the beer from the carboy. It would be nice to have a cpl of beers to choose from.

[danno]

I put the collar together only about a month ago, (used picnic taps all last summer...) and the weather hasn't really been that warm yet, so it isn't running very often. I keep it at about 40º or so... I did pick up some weatherstripping that will go underneath the collar, just haven't had time to put it in yet. (Also haven't put in any sort of drip tray, that's next...)

The seal on the lid comes in contact pretty much all the way around, with the collar on three sides, and the freezer body itself in the back... Plus, I figure that heat rises, and cold drops, so a gap at the very top is a lot less worriesome than, say, a gap in a refrigerator door....

This whole thread started with me posting a link about buying cornies on ebay... check out THIS one... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11876&item=2520545552&rd=1 I love the pictures....

[batkins]

That's a lot of keg!

[YamahaXS]

Danno, you are my HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

damn nice set up

[gardenallyear]

Very Nice Pictures And A Great Set-Up!

[YamahaXS]

how were the kegs you bought from that guy on ebay?

also how much was shipping?

[fuji6100]

I just won an auction 2 days ago for a used corney ($10)

I'm totally clueless as to how to use them, but figured for $10 It would be worth the investment.

How hard is it to get them set up? He's including the inlet and outlet connections.

What is the price range on CO2 ?

[shughes600]

I think that you can find a retail CO2 tank with regulator and gauges inside $100. You can get a refill of CO2 for around $20. I just bought a handy little keg pressurizing device. It connects to the gas inlet. It has a trigger and it uses CO2 cartridges. The size used are 12 gram and it requires 3 to dispense a 5 gallon keg. This is a good option if you naturally carbonate.

[fuji6100]

yeah, I was just browsing a website that sold those. That may be the option I go for.

So to naturally carbonate, you would rack from your secondary into the keg and add the priming sugar or DME like normal and then let it condition for a few weeks? Then use the cartridges for dispensing of the beer only right?

[shughes600]

Yeah it is pretty beautiful. After the first glass or two the remaining beer is very clear. Two thins i would recommend though, food grade lubricant for that O-ring, and a pressure test. Ask the local homebrew shop, or waste some of that CO2 in the trigger contraption. You don't want to make vinegar by venting that keg during conditioning. The lubricant will also help seal the lid. You might also want to replace the O-rings on the connectors. It will save product and CO2. Another beautiful thing here is that you will now be able to precisely control the carbonation of your beer. If it is excessive vent the tank and wait. Under done, add some CO2. This is where the tank is invaluable.

BTW, I could be way off on the initial price of a CO2 rig. I am currently getting reconditioned kegs from the local shop for $25.