kegging beer without taking hydrometer reading

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mattd2

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Ok I broke my hydrometer and this month I am straped for cash so won't be able to get a new one till next month. I have a beer that seems to be calming down after 5 days in the primary, I was thinking of leaving this for another week (2 weeks total) and the bulk priming and into a keg and a few plastic bottles (to avoid any glass bottle bombs just incase). I was also going to take a sample for when I do get a new hydrometer.
Anyone have any concerns with this, i figure the keg should be good to hold the pressure if I have kegged it to early (just have to vent to get correct carbination) and with the bottles I can squeeze them to test and vent if needed. Just need to put my mind at ease as most of the other threads on this topic mainly warn about glass bottle bombs.
Thanks.
 
well what's the beer that you're brewing and what's the hurry to get it out of the carboy? If you're worried about leaving it on the yeast you could secondary it. I have heard numerous times that it's not necessary to worry about autolysis with most of our brews and that leaving it in the primary for 3-4 weeks will cause no harm. So for piece of mind why not just leave it be? Realistically it should be close to it's final gravity easily by day 10 though assuming that it's not a high original gravity. If you're not in a hurry, I'd just wait.
 
I never really "check" FG when kegging. For bottling you are supposed to take two readings 3 days apart and compare to ensure fermentation is finished. I just take a reading while I'm racking to the keg, (siphon a bit into the hydro tube), so I know what %ABV I have, but I've never worried about ensuring fermentation is finished. Of course, I primary for 3+ weeks, so if fermentation isn't done by then, it never will be.

The keg should be just fine. It can hold a crazy amount of pressure, and it has a release vent that will let out excess pressure if it spikes too high. The plastic bottles worry me though, as they too can explode, just like glass ones. Usually, this isn't a big deal, but they can harm you just the same. My friend has a 6 inch scar on his hand from where a shard of plastic sliced deep when a 20 oz pop bottle exploded.
 
The beer was just a pre hopped kit from coopers (1 can Stout / 1 can dark ale). As you 2 have said I might leave it in the fermenter till the end of the month. I am assuming that there should still be enough yeast in suspention to prime it with sugar to carb?
I don't have another fermenter so secondary isn't really an option (unless I use a corny for it)
 
yes, there should enough yeast. If you're going to keg, don't worry about the yeast anyway. Maybe pick up some of the priming drops you can just drop into the bottle before you fill for the bottles, or fill the bottles from the keg with a home made beer gun.
 
One thing you may want to consider is your temp. A beer at a certain temp could be gone, but at priming temps the yeast may still have some of the original malt to eat up, as well as the priming sugar.

I like to try and give most of my ales a day or two at room temp to finish up. It's a necessary for my lagers.
 
Yeah about fermenting temps, I have not yet got myself a nice temperature controlled fridge so mostly my fermenter sits in a fishbox fill of water that I chuck frozen water bottles in if the temp starts getting too hot, and I try to brew when the weather looks to be a bit colder for the first few days of fermenting. All up it might sit a bit high but the beer is still ok. I plan to leave this one in the keg for a while before tapping so hopefully that also helps clear some of the things that high ferm temps create.
One day I will get a better system (showed SWMBO some of the collared keezer builds on here last night and she was blown away, said "why don't you have something like that" - that is basically the same as "sure, you can built a keezer" right?)
 
BIke-for-Sale.jpg
 
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