Tarp Town wrote:Actually, I'm going to try and use a sanke as a 10 gallon fermenter.
Remove spear/valve, insert wort, use stopper & airlock until fermentation is done, replace spear, transfer to corney kegs.
Just an experiment. Thanks again
I have been using sankes as fermentors for a few years now. But I got to tell you, you can not use a stopper (fyi #11 stopper) without modifying the "hole" after removing the spear.
When you remove the spear take a close look at the hole it leaves. The very top lip is keyed to hold the spear. So when you place a stopper in it, it will not seal because of the gaps that are left in the lip due to the keys that hold the spear. For the stopper to properly seal these gaps must be removed.
So what I have done, using a 4.5 Grinder and a metal cutoff disk, is cut right around the top lip of the hole, cutting all around the lip. You can use the lip as a guide. I cut these free hand all the time. You only need to cut the lip. After a little cleanup you should have a smoth surface for the stopper will seal around.
I transfer beer out of my sanke fermentors using an orange carboy cap. With the lip removed an orange carboy cap fits a keg perfectly. You put your racking cane through the center hole of the orange carboy cap attaching it to a length of hose. Place a 1/4-1/4 tubing splice in the other hole (you may need to trim the carboy cap to get the splice to fit) so that you can splice it to your CO2 line. Then using CO2 just force the beer out to start your siphon. Once the siphon is started I remove the CO2 line from the splice. I guess you could push all of the beer out using CO2 but I never have done that. I usually just get the siphon started and pull the CO2 off after that.
The other challange you must address is how to clean your sanke fermentor between uses. I have built a CIP system using a sump pump. The pump is similar to the one used on the "Doc and Tasty's keg cleaner rig". I have taken the sump pump and attached a 3/4 PVC pipe to the output with a cap on the top with large holes drilled in the top half of the pipe for water to spray out from. I set the pump w/ the pipe attached into a 6 gal bucket (imagine the length of pipe connected to the pump sticking straight up into the air, the height of the pipe is adjusted such that it reaches about 3/4 of the way into the keg when placed on the bucket). I fill the bucket with cleaner and I invert my keg, place the pipe into the hole and rest the keg on the bucket. Then I let it run. The water will cycle from the bucket into the pump, into the keg, and drain back into the bucket in a closed loop. With the pump running in this closed loop it will actually heat the water. I have measured the water temp To sanatize the keg I put fresh water and use "SaniClean" (the low-foam version of Star San) and use the same process.
The perfect fermentation chamber for a sanke fermentor is a kegerator. Think about it a kegerator is built to to hold a sanke keg. I have found kegerators on Craigslist for $300. Slap a temp controller on it and you got a temp controlled fermentation chamber.
