[RPIScotty]

I'm thinking about the feasibility of the following after some research and time to absorb everyone's comments:

If I were to install some keg posts on my fermentation bucket and purchase a single keg, wouldn't I be able to hook the keg up to my bucket and have it act as a dump for CO2? It could essentially act as my airlock and purge itself through the fermentation process. I could gravity feed the beer into it when ready and even transfer early and use a spunding valve to let the beer carb on its way to FG. Then if I want I could either serve from the keg or bleed off some pressure and bottle from the keg.

[beersk]

Sounds doable. Not sure how much pressure a bottling bucket would be able to handle, depending on what PSI is in the keg. That's essentially what Narcout does, but he uses a SS brewbucket.

[erockrph]

I'm thinking about the feasibility of the following after some research and time to absorb everyone's comments:

If I were to install some keg posts on my fermentation bucket and purchase a single keg, wouldn't I be able to hook the keg up to my bucket and have it act as a dump for CO2? It could essentially act as my airlock and purge itself through the fermentation process. I could gravity feed the beer into it when ready and even transfer early and use a spunding valve to let the beer carb on its way to FG. Then if I want I could either serve from the keg or bleed off some pressure and bottle from the keg.

You would still need to release the pressure on the keg, I think. Otherwise backpressure would build up into the fermenting bucket and force its way out if it's not airtight. Even worse, if it is airtight it would probably blow the lid off. You might as well ferment in the keg, then blow the trub out and use it as your serving keg.

[RPIScotty]

You would still need to release the pressure on the keg, I think.

I was thinking that the spunding valve would do that, no?

[narcout]

I'm thinking about the feasibility of the following after some research and time to absorb everyone's comments:

If I were to install some keg posts on my fermentation bucket and purchase a single keg, wouldn't I be able to hook the keg up to my bucket and have it act as a dump for CO2? It could essentially act as my airlock and purge itself through the fermentation process. I could gravity feed the beer into it when ready and even transfer early and use a spunding valve to let the beer carb on its way to FG. Then if I want I could either serve from the keg or bleed off some pressure and bottle from the keg.

I think that would work.  I don't see that you would need to install keg posts on the bucket though.  Couldn't you just run some tubing from the bucket airlock to the liquid QD on the keg?  Then run some more tubing from the gas QD on the keg into a jar of sanitizer.

If your fermenting bucket has a spigot you can use gravity to rack to the keg through the liquid QD.  Then you can hook up tubing from the gas QD back to the bucket airlock for a closed loop transfer.

If you don't have a spigot, you can use CO2 to rack up through a racking cane and into the keg.  Hook some tubing up to the gas QD that terminates in a jar of sanitizer (or use no gas QD and leave the PRV valve open depending on how much O2 contact you are attempting to limit).

I've been doing all my transfers under CO2 pressure for a long time (first using 10 gallon corny kegs as fermentors and more recently a stainless brew bucket).  I learned how to do it from Dean Palmer's website.

http://thebeerjournals.com/Racking.html

[erockrph]

You would still need to release the pressure on the keg, I think.

I was thinking that the spunding valve would do that, no?

Oops. I missed that.