Real Ale in Korny's

[jjs]

I have a beer engine and a bunch of courny kegs. I would like to do some real ale in them. Ant suggestions on sugar type and dosing rate?
Secondly, just let them condition and blow off excess CO2 after a week? Who's done this. Thanks

[James Murray]

Real Ale Corny Style

I have done several real ales in corny keg. You just want to be weary of over carbonation. The kegs are rated for like 60 psi. Make sure you use a hop sock for the extra hop addition and you may want to consider cutting an extra 2 inches or so off the dip tube. This will prevent any of the yeast built up from conditioning clogging your poppit (Learned that years ago homebrewing). Works just fine. I blow off CO2 the day before serving and rig up an open blow off valve to the "in." Good Luck

[beerking1]

Actually, Cornies are rated for 120 PSI!

[jjs]

About how much sugar would you use? For a firkin I did about 1.50 cups. I would think it wouldn't take a whole lot to prime them. Any thoughts? Thanks it's C

[beerking1]

1. Yes, it is a "c." The full name is "Cornelius Canisters." (No, I don't know who Cornelius was.)
2. As for how much sugar, it depends on your conditioning temperature, and to a lesser extent your serving temperature. Assuming you want 1.5-2.0 volumes of CO2 (pretty much standard for British-style ales, I believe, although there are probably some real ales served with 1.0 volumes), and you are going to both condition and serve at 55-60*F, you only need about 1 oz of sugar, and for this amount either corn sugar or cane sugar would do just fine.

There is a pretty good nomograph, which allows you make the calculations for other volumes or other temperatures, here:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

[beertje46]

1. Yes, it is a "c." The full name is "Cornelius Canisters." (No, I don't know who Cornelius was.)

Cornelius was a character played by Roddy MacDowall in Planet of the Apes in 1968.

[beerking1]

Cornelius was a character played by Roddy MacDowall in Planet of the Apes in 1968.

LOL
But I really doubt that is the Cornelius that the cornies are named after.

They were originally manufactured by IMI Cornelius Company, but I still don't know who Cornelius was.

I suppose the company could be named after Yukon Cornelius, the prospector from "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." Or maybe Don Cornelius, creator and first host of "Soul Train."

Personally, I think it is more likely named after Cornelius the Centurion, considered by Christians to be the first Gentile converted.

[twoodward15]

1 ounce? I use 5 ounces in a 5 gallon homebrew batch. If I was doing a cask ale I would reduce it to about 2.5 or 3 ounces.

[grassrootsvt]

metric...

You will want to try adding approximately 2 to 4 grams of sugar per liter. This would equate to 40 to 80 grams of sugar per keg - depending on how lively you want the beer. 40 grams will get you around 1.5 volumes... 80 to around 2...(assuming that there is 1 volume of CO2 present in the beer at the time of conditioning...)

[beerking1]

1 ounce? I use 5 ounces in a 5 gallon homebrew batch. If I was doing a cask ale I would reduce it to about 2.5 or 3 ounces.

A keg requires less than a batch put in bottles, and I was assuming low end for carbonation, since it is supposed to be "real ale." 1 ounze is ~28.5 gms, which is pretty close to the numbers grassrootsvt used. Again, temperature enters into the total equation.

[James Murray]

Sugar

I will agree that 28-30 grams is good for a 5 gallon conditioning. I use evaporated cane sugar from Brazil. This is the same sugar that we use in the making of our Three Sheets Rum. I also try to get our temps up to around 70 degrees to reactivate the yeast. Make sure that your FG on the original beer is down below a 1.020 at the very highest. Trying to serve super-carbonated beer through a beer engine is a nightmare and you end up pouring more down the drain than in a pint. Good luck and i hope your real ale tastes great. Out of curiousity, what style of beer are you doing?

[scruz]

take a pin (corny your case) when your 1 or under a degree plato from cap and crash. id follow all the advice about cutting the dip tube and using a hop sock for dry hops. but instead of adding a priming sugar, close it up and let the beer in the corny attenuate out in a 70F environment for a little less than a week. im sure you would get the amount of CO2 your looking for in the last bit of fermentation. no need to worry about monitoring that final bit of fermentation either. you know its gonna happen if you have a fairly predictable fermentation regime (i.e. from pitch to cap and crash). best of luck.

[Natrat]

When I used to do this I didn't like to modify the kegs too much. Instead I put a blow off on the out spigot, and turned them upside down...then the dip tube points into the headspace. Not only that, but on a standard corny, the gas tube SHOULD be tall enough to clear any settled yeast slurry and you can draw clear beer right off of it. Just unclip your beer/out tube to spund and then open the tap on the gas tube to serve.

Worked well...I know one guy who does it with the keg upside down on an angle....he built a special rack for them.

Me, I like my big unis better!

nat

[twoodward15]

To add to natrat, if one is concerned about running beer through the "gas in" qd of a corny, you can take the posts off, swap the dip tubes and reinstall the posts, then with the corny at an angle, you'll be moving beer through the short dip tube and the "beer out" qd, keeping your gas qd's clean and dry

[Natrat]

What he said...