Corny

[jonnyhop]

I am coming up to a birthday and am considering moving from bottles to a corny. I have a few all grains under my belt and the beer is steadily improving. I appreciated the ease of use of a corny over sterilising 40+ bottles, but have a couple of questions before I make the move:

1. Do I just need a corny and CO2 supply and a regulator? What would be the full outlay? Would 1 CO2 supply/regulator serve multiple cornies?

2. Is beer from a corny better/different from that from a bottle? I generally prefer a pub pint to a bottle of the same beer, does the same logic apply in homebrewing?

3. I generally find that my bottled beer improves with age, leaving it to the six month mark if I can has produced the best results, would beer be left in the corny for a similar length of time?

Help is always appreciated

Jonny

[jonnyhop]

Sorry also meant to mention:

4. The main advantage would seem to be that as I would carbonate with CO2 then I could leave my beer in a long secondary, thus eliminating the yeasty taste that can bring a homebrew twang (though nothing compared to the kits but still noticeable in all grain). Is this noticeable?

[Parva]

I am coming up to a birthday and am considering moving from bottles to a corny. I have a few all grains under my belt and the beer is steadily improving. I appreciated the ease of use of a corny over sterilising 40+ bottles, but have a couple of questions before I make the move:

1. Do I just need a corny and CO2 supply and a regulator? What would be the full outlay? Would 1 CO2 supply/regulator serve multiple cornies?

2. Is beer from a corny better/different from that from a bottle? I generally prefer a pub pint to a bottle of the same beer, does the same logic apply in homebrewing?

3. I generally find that my bottled beer improves with age, leaving it to the six month mark if I can has produced the best results, would beer be left in the corny for a similar length of time?

Help is always appreciated

Jonny

Ok, taking these one point at a time.

1) Yes. I use a single regulator to serve multiple cornies by adjusting the pressure based on whether I'm carbonating or serving. You can use a 'Y' splitter to carbonate / serve more than one keg but you can only carbonate or serve with the 'Y' splitter, the same pressure is applied to both kegs so if you set 15PSI then both kegs get the same. You can buy a triple take-off that has different pressures for each line but if you look at my sig I manage to run all of those off the single regulator. A triple regulator would be a little easier for me but it's not impossible on a single regulator. In short, I use a single connect to the cornie and adjust the pressure based on whether I'm serving or carbonating.

2) Yes and no. Tough one to answer. Many prefer bottle conditioned beer but the ease of use and the fact that you don't need to secondary ferment with cornies means that life is generally so much easier.

3) I've got beer that's six months old in cornies and it's fine.

4) Yep, force-carbonating means that you can get a very clear beer that has the required amount of CO2 without resorting to secondary-fermentation and the introduction of more yeast and obviously more cloudiness.

For what it's worth, I don't secondary, ever! The beers that have gone into my cornie kegs have been damned clear but I'll admit they haven't been crystal (though others on here do manage it) and having sampled beers from an AG brewing friend that's been using Gelatine to fine his beer I am trying this with my current brew which is near keg ready.

I'm not saying secondary is bad but to me it's an additional risk. As for bottles, I went there when I did kits 20 years ago and they just don't compare to cornies, I would give up brewing before I resorted to bottling again. There is a difference between the bottled beers and the beer dispensed from a cornie but then there's a difference between a bottle of Summer Lightning and a bar served hand-pulled Summer Lightning. Both are good in their own right but you have to decide which is best and frankly, the ease of use of cornies wins through everytime for me.

[Northern Brewer]

I am coming up to a birthday and am considering moving from bottles to a corny.

"a corny"?

There's no such animal. These are the most gregarious creatures known to man

2. IMHO, once you learn how to use minimal gas, beer from a Corny can be pretty damned close to pub beer and a long way from a bubbly bottle.

3. Beer conditions much quicker in bulk. I normally keg after 10-12 days in the primary then leave it in the Corny for at least 4 weeks before drinking (although plenty of JHB members go for much less). Beyond that, I see little improvement but It will however keep for many months. There would be nothing to stop you using an interim maturation vessel, because you're guaranteed the eventual CO2.

[jonnyhop]

Tks for the posts, I think I will take the plunge. If only to try my beer without washing 40 bottles!

[jonnyhop]

So I took the plunge and got one as a birthday treat! I brewed some fine ale (first go at a challenger and cascade hops combination – very nice) which I transferred to secondary after I hit 1010 (in about a week) and left for a further 10 days. I then sterilised the corny with boiling water, rinsed with cold water and racked the beer. I used a Widget World system with an old soda stream cylinder. I pumped gas in then shook the corny to force pressurise, repeating 5 or 6 times, beer flowing back up the tube towards the cylinder. I left it for a week, a level of discipline of which I am proud given the shinyness of the occasion and poured my first pint which was total foam. It settled from a full pint of foam into a half pint of good beer, if slightly less hoppy than my experiences with bottling beer. The next pint was less foamy, until after the forth pint there was no pressure, resulting in me abandoning the keg and delving into my stash of conditioning bottles. Have I done something wrong?

Would really like to get this sorted, if you can love not doing something I loved not spending 3 hours bottling beer! And, as discussed earlier, I really enjoy the texture of the “pub pint” over the bottle.

Also, how do you all keep your cornies cold? I could put it in the shed in cooler months but it would seem to be of the size that needs its own fridge in summer, which would need the wife to rethink her homebrew priorities!

[Parva]

You have to keep adding CO2 as you drink the beer, there's nowhere near enough CO2 in suspension after force-carbing to dispense a whole keg. Indeed, if the keg is full of beer with little headspace you'll be lucky to get anymore than a few pints out of it without adding more gas. I'm sure that the WW setup has a pressure gauge? You should aim to keep this between 5-10PSI, giving the gas a quick squirt after each pint or two.

Regarding cooling, the fridge is one solution but obviously this takes space. Another alternative that I use is a flash chiller. All my beer is stored at room temperature but is run to the tap via the chiller and I get lovely cold beer no matter what temperature the keg is sat at. It's much smaller than a full fridge setup and only needs turning on for the duration of your drinking time. If you did decide to go this route then you need to keep an eye out on Ebay as they regularly go for a song.

[rick_huggins]

Daft one but you have the gas on; if so is it set around 8psi or is it still up higher for forced carb?

[jonnyhop]

cheers for the quick response parva, much appericated. So should I shake it agian after adding the CO2? would this not spread the yeast around giving a yeasty taste? And I was kinda hoping to serve more than 4 pints a night so do I have to serve 4 then wait?

questions, questions!

[Parva]

No, don't shake it. You have to add more CO2 as you drink it, the aim is to keep the pressure at 5-10PSI in order to have sufficient pressure to push the beer out. After each pint give the handle on the WW setup a quick squeeze to inject some CO2. If it has a pressure gauge on it aim to keep it at 5-10PSI.

[jonnyhop]

will do.

cheers

[jonnyhop]

Just added more co2 and back in business!

Cheers parva – have you been to the cross keys in leeds? Good real ale as I remember.