1st time with corny lager advice please

[e-brewer]

Hi All I have bought two cornys from norm fermented out two kits one is finished one still bubbling .So here the question normally i would rack of into one of my beerspheres wait a few weeks for the sediment to drop clear and the beer to condition up but since i am trying to brew up a lager and want to force carb it i need some help,,,should i rack it into my plastic keg for a few weeks then transfer it to the corny if i put it into the plastic keg should i put a little sugar soln in to heep it fresh? i dont know as its all new to me the secondary /corny thing also should i put the corny in my spare fridge to condition the lager....I do know that i dont want to put the lager straight into the corny ...help please.

cheers

e-brewer

fife

[boingy]

There is no right or wrong way for this. Some folks rack into a keg/secondary, wait for the ale to drop clear then stick it in the corny.

Others rack straight into the cornie (and optionally prime) and then leave it to condition. The yeast will drop to the bottom of the cornie. Some folks shorten the corny dip tube to avoid the sediment (and lose a pint of two in the bottom), others just accept that the first couple of pints will be a bit cloudy. If you prime you get a bit of natural fizz but you still need CO2 to serve up most of the keg.

I've got an ordinary bitter conditioning which is my first experiment with the "straight to corny" method.

[Jim]

I've only used my cornies for 2 batches so far. On both occasions I cleared the beer in a plastic pressure barrel first, then transferred using a closed system to exclude air into a purged cornie direct from the barrel tap via the cornie liquid out post (I think Garth uses the same method, though it was posted on here quite a while ago by someone else as well - can't remember who ).

It works very well, anyway, and minimises to almost nothing cloudy beer from the cornie.

[e-brewer]

HI Jim Can you explain in a bit more detail the transfer from the plastic to the corny ...do you open the lid on the plastic then let gravity drain the lager over or do you force the beer/lager over using c02 into the plastic also how long do you leave it in the plastic keg before transferring complicated stuff these cornys eh!..

Once its in the corny for the lager do i put the co2 on straight away to force carb or should i leave it a few weeks ??

Cheers

e-brewer

fife

[Jim]

The procedure's described in a thread somewhere, but basically it's as follows:

-Gas up the cornie to about 5psi
-Connect a tube from the placcy barrel tap to the cornie liquid in (briefly connect to the cornie before connecting to the barrel to allow a bit of CO2 to purge the tube)
-Make sure the pressure in the placcy barrel is reasonably high (I usually give it a squirt of gas)
-Open the barrel tap (at this stage, if the pressure in the cornie is a bit too high, you might get some gas bubbling through into the barrel, but it's not a problem, as it's CO2, not air).
-Pull open the cornie PRV, which will reduce the pressure in the cornie and allow the beer to flow into it (you will need to open the prv on the placcy barrel to allow all the beer to flow out).
-Once transferred, close the barrel tap, remove the tube and put your cornie away to condition

I leave the beer in the placcy barrel for 4 days to condition (so that it has some CO2 in it before going into the cornie) and then about a week to clear.

Not sure about the lagering process, but I'm sure someone else will reply to that one.