I just picked up a ½ keg from an auction and will turn it into my primary fermentor. I have been reading a ton of good stuff posted on transfers etc. Has anyone installed a ball valve on the bottom of the keg? MY thought is if this is large enough, but still shielded by the bottom ring, it could be used to dump trub and yeast and help with cleanout when empty. Obviously it would have to be raised of the bottom to do this. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Gary

From what I understand about the shape of fermentation vessels, there won't be a steep enough decline on the bottom of the keg to allow you to efficiently dump yeast or trub. You get what is just above your output but once that is gone you'll be pulling beer instead of the sediment around the walls. But I could be wrong.

I ferment in a keg and love it but i don't think it would work for trub dumping for the reasons posted above. there is a reason conicals have that 60 degree slope and a keg just doesn't have that capability. i would also think it would be hard to get a sanitary weld due to the enclosed nature of the keg.

do look at the brewershardware.com kits though if you have the cash, they sure make it nice.

Gary,

I often use a Sankey keg to ferment brews. I've tried three options.

1) The obvious is simply removing the valve and inserting a standard #12 plug and air lock. No trub removal or yeast harvesting.

2) Same as above but using a brewers hardware tri-clamp with thermal well, blow off tube and pressure fitting. This is my prefered method. When fermentation is complete, I use a solid tri-clap car to seal the keg and force some natural CO2 back into the beer.

3) Invert keg, (I put mine on a storage rack so the top is 5ft off the ground) - using 2'' tri-clamp NPT threaded into a ss ball valve. I drilled the botton of the keg and inserted a plug/airlock.

Option 3 allows for the trub to be dropped but certainly not as well as a 60deg conical. However, it works fine for homebrewing. The downside with option #3 is that it's a real goat-F to try to get a fitting near the airlock that will allow you to hold pressure. Think Better Bottle w/o any good way to hold a ss nut.

Brew on!

-Shark

I'm fermenting 11 gallon batches in 15.5 gal kegs but I'm using the spear intact with a modified keg coupler (gas check valve removed). I trimmed the spear to leave about a gallon of beer behind for transferring. When the yeast settles out it's about 1/3 yeast and 2/3 beer.

May or may not apply to your system for ball valve placement.

I just pieced together a half barrel fermenter. Assembled some fittings to use a spunding valve, thermowell and adjustable height racking tube. The thermowell can be removed and replaced with the racking tube that has a valve on the end without loosing any pressure. I haven't tried harvesting yeast yet but I think after transferring the beer, swirl the keg and CO2 push the majority of the yeast out.

AWESOME! This is exactly what I want to build. Can you supply a parts list / source? The s-s 4- way looks the hardest to find. Great work, Gary

Everything was readily available except the 2 tail pieces I had to modify to accept a 1/4" male NPT. I'll put up a parts list when I'm not posting from a phone.