Corny Keg as a Secondary

[kbm]

I moved my first batch into the secondary today. Everything smelled great! I'm using a 5 gal corny as the secondary. I have a few questions:

1) Is it necessary to bleed off CO2 daily? I've heard that there may be some adverse results if the beer has too much CO2 running around during fermentation but I haven't seen an explanation so I don't know if the claim is true.

2) I'm going to dry hop in about a week. Do I need to do anything other than carefully drop the pellets in and bleed off any resulting oxygen?

3) I am going to transfer the beer (via a pressurized line) to a serving keg when fermentation is complete. If I want to cold crash, is there any reason I can't do the cold crash in the secondary rather than the serving keg (i.e. dry hops should be removed)?

4) Is there any reason I can't force carb the beer in the secondary after fermentation is complete? I may want to have two 2.5 gal serving kegs rather than one 5 gallon (so I can split with my brewing partner) and I would rather not force carb two kegs if I can get away with doing one.

Thanks!

[BrewMasterBrad]

How long was the beer in the primary before you racked into the keg? If fermentation is complete, I don't see a need for bleeding off CO2. Too much head pressure can inhibit yeast activity.

I would be wary of dry hopping in the keg without using a hop bag. When you transfer into your serving kegs, your QDs and your dip tube may get clogged with hops.

You can definitely force carbonate in one keg, then transfer to another keg. Just make sure the beer is really cold when you do this to minimize foaming. Also make sure that the receiving keg has been flushed with CO2 to minimize oxygen pickup.

[oc eric]

With no carboy available for a secondary fermentation, I used a keg. Turned out the poppet was leaky so it became a terrific secondary - not having to bleed off any CO2. Good to know I didn't have to worry about letting out CO2 without the leaky poppet.

[kbm]

Thanks for the input. It was in the primary for about 9 days. I had vigorous activity within 12 hours for about 3 days and by today, the air lock was barely bubbling about once every 8 seconds.

I will definitely dry hop with a sanitized hop bag.

I can't wait to get the second batch underway.

[BrewMasterBrad]

For what it's worth, I have been brewing for five years and I never transfer beers for secondary fermentation anymore. I leave my ales in the primary for two weeks or even more with no ill side effects. I transfer into kegs that I have shortened the dip tubes in and crash cool them to 32 degrees. After a couple weeks, I transfer into my serving kegs. Because of the shortened dip tubes (I cut about an inch off), any remaining trub and yeast is left behind and I end up with clear beer in my serving kegs.

The thing I always try to stress to new brewers is patience. I know it's hard to wait to try those first few batches, but a little patience goes a long way when making beer.

[bwarbiany]

If the airlock was still bubbling when you transferred, you may be still doing some fermentation. I'd consider venting CO2 in that case...

Note -- if so, it also means you transferred it too early, as you should never transfer to secondary until you're essentially at your final gravity.

Like the other Brad, I don't use secondary. I typically go anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks in primary, then straight into the keg. Often secondary can help you to produce "clear" beer, but if you're kegging it's far less important for that purpose than bottling.

[brahn]

I'm with the Brads. No secondary for me...2-4 weeks in primary and keg.

[lexuschris]

I'm with the Brads. No secondary for me...2-4 weeks in primary and keg.

+1 here.