Poppet Valve for Racking

Is there any reason why you can't attach black disconnect valve to the keg and rack the beer from the carboy through that? It seems like it would cut the risk of contamination and aeration for the beer. The beer would just travel down the dip tube to the bottom of the keg without splashing. Just open the release valve on the lid so the liquid can replace the air or better yet CO2. Of course, I know the disconnect must be clean and sanitized.

I think you would need pressure on the carboy, or start a siphon somehow. Other than that it would work fine. But I don't see the added value of this versus a racking tube laid in the bottom of the keg.

The lid could be on the keg which I said before could reduce the likelihood of contamination or aeration of the beer. I just tried it with some Star San by starting the racking cane as normal and it seemed to work out well.

That's how I transfer all my beers. I purge the keg with CO2 at a few psi, then open the relief valve and start the siphon.

Hey, if it works for you then by all means go with it. It does seem like a simple, sanitary, oxygen-free way to transfer.

The process can be done, but I really don't see it being as advantageous as you think. You still have to move the beer from point A to point B. This involves introducing new equipment. You're still using tubing, etc.

BUT, if it were me I'd get a carboy cap and use CO2 to push the beer from the carboy to the keg. This is how I actually transfer now, but I just use the tubing on the bottom of the keg method. Purge the keg first w/ CO2 that way you have a blanket covering your beer while you transfer.

Yes, lots of people do it. Starting the siphon is an issue but not a big one.

You can either use pressure on the carboy or suction on the keg.

BTW, you are talking about the disconnect. The poppet is the thing inside of the post that seals it.

I push CO2 into my Better Bottle with a carboy cap (CO2 on angled tube, racking cane in straight tube). It's probably a bit dangerous to pressurize a glass carboy.

ndsgr said:

It's probably a bit dangerous to pressurize a glass carboy.

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Doesn't take a whole lot. 1-2psi max.

I did this exact thing. I did a test with a glass carboy, but plan on using it extensively for when I move to a sanke fermenter.

See the details here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/sanke-fermenter-conversion-128262/index5.html#post2067267

Rockweezy said:

Is there any reason why you can't attach black disconnect valve to the keg and rack the beer from the carboy through that? It seems like it would cut the risk of contamination and aeration for the beer. The beer would just travel down the dip tube to the bottom of the keg without splashing. Just open the release valve on the lid so the liquid can replace the air or better yet CO2. Of course, I know the disconnect must be clean and sanitized.

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I do it all the time.
I purge the keg with co2, I usually use co2 to very slightly pressurize the fermenter to start the siphon or transfer completely with co2.
I put the keg on a bathroom scale to weigh as it fills... I have had beer squirt out the pressure relief valve when I overfilled.

Ohio-Ed said:

I do it all the time.
I purge the keg with co2, I usually use co2 to very slightly pressurize the fermenter to start the siphon or transfer completely with co2.
I put the keg on a bathroom scale to weigh as it fills... I have had beer squirt out the pressure relief valve when I overfilled.

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Didn't even think about that. How much does it weight when it is just about full?

Rockweezy said:

Didn't even think about that. How much does it weight when it is just about full?

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5*8.3*FG lb, plus the weight of the empty keg, which varies from one manufacturer to the next.

Corny weighs in about 9lbs. 5 gallons of beer should weigh around 40lbs.

Rockweezy said:

Didn't even think about that. How much does it weight when it is just about full?

Click to expand...

I sit the keg on the scale, then zero it.
Beer weighs about 8lbs/gallon so I usually go to about 38lbs (I don't trust my scale to be 100% accurate).
I started with a digital bath scale, but it only calculated one time when weight was applied... I ended up buying a cheap scale that will change as the weight increases.
Also, if you cold crash, condensation will form on the outside of the keg as it fills, so you can actually see the level of the beer.

I do it that way as a rule. I have a pinlock beer out QD that has a 3/8" barb on it. I hook that up to my autosiphon and pump sanitizer from the keg, back into the QD, post and diptube. The great part is that you don't have to worry about dropping 2 feet of siphon hose down into a keg that could be contaminated. I've also had issue with the tubing curling up on me and spewing the beer in an arc against the keg wall.

It took me so long to do it this way, plus so many air bubbles were in the tube I think it really lost the point of minimizing aeration. It also stopped 3 times during the whole process.

I used a modified method of this the other day. Instead of using CO2 to push the entire volume of beer to the keg, I just used it to start the siphon. No more dealing with broken auto-siphons for me!

I usually don't have enough beer to over fill a keg so I just fill the keg till the carboy is empty. If there is too much, it just comes out the vent on the coupler and I stop transferring.



I also use CO2 to transfer to secondary if I'm using one. The secondary carboy gets purged and left with 1 psi or so before transferring.