Traveling with after brew day

Had a quick question.

I currently live in CT and will be traveling to Philadelphia next weekend to brew with some friends. I will be bringing most of my equipment down, we will most likely brew on Saturday.

Here's the question: Will there be any issues if I brew saturday and don't pitch until Monday night? I will need to bring my 1/2 of the batch back to CT to pitch the yeast and let it ferment. To avoid the off chance of breaking one of my glass carboys in transport, I plan on siphoning the wort into a 5 gallon corny keg (sanitized of course) transporting the wort back to CT, transferring into my carboy and pitching the yeast. Will there be any issues if it stays in the keg sealed for 2+ days? I can't imagine keeping it in the keg will do any harm but not sure if anyone has any insight about this.

Thanks in advance for the help

You are gonna have to be super good with your sanitation if you plan to pitch your yeast a few days later, but there are some people (particularly no chill brewers) that do wait a day to pitch with great results.

No-chill brewers seal up their containers when the wort is still near boiling. They are baically canning their wort.
Why not just ferment in the corny for the trip back? Just vent it every hour or so.

bullinachinashop said:

No-chill brewers seal up their containers when the wort is still near boiling. They are baically canning their wort.
Why not just ferment in the corny for the trip back? Just vent it every hour or so.

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i'm a fan of making starters and its going to be a big beer so it will likely have a pretty large blowoff... not sure i want that kind of pressure and build up in the back of my car haha

making everything overly sanitized shouldnt be a problem, i'm nuts about making sure everything is super cleaned as it is.

Can you refrigerate the wort after you cool it?

My main concern, after sanitation, would be temperature fluctuations.

bullinachinashop said:

Can you refrigerate the wort after you cool it?

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I could keep it cooled, but it would be in my car while i'm at work on Monday... depending on the weather it would warm up.

hogwash said:

My main concern, after sanitation, would be temperature fluctuations.

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is temperature fluctuation of boiled wort without a yeast addition really going to change anything? Being in the keg it would be touched by light or anything but it would be difficult to control the temp while it's in my car.

Do you have two kegs? You could split the batch between two kegs and go ahead pitch right away. You could either figure out a way to use a blow off tube while you're driving (although 2.5 gallons shouldn't blow off in a 5 gal keg) or just pull the pressure relief valves once in a while to let off pressure. You could even unscrew the relief valve a little if you kept the kegs tightly secured and strait up and down. I doubt you'd get any leakage that way, and if primary has already commenced you shouldn't have to worry about oxidation.

Edit

I got distracted by the tv and got in late on this one. If you have to leave it your car while you're at work, nevermind.

Can you just leave it at your friends house and have him finish it for you?

As long as you sanitize everything it *shouldn't* be an issue.

Is there no way to stop back by your house before you go to work Monday morning? It'd probably be better to not leave it in your car all day long.

bullinachinashop said:

Can you just leave it at your friends house and have him finish it for you?

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id rather finish it at my house, i dont get the chance to come back very often, i dont know the next time i'd be able to

Camride said:

Is there no way to stop back by your house before you go to work Monday morning? It'd probably be better to not leave it in your car all day long.

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it's a possibility, depending on what my schedule is like. I'm a field service engineer, i have no idea what my monday schedule really looks like until saturday/sunday night.

i could try and make it back but not entirely sure...

i would also prefer not to ferment in the keg due to cleaning reasons... i dont want to have to scrub 3-5" of trub out of the bottom of the keg. I just feel like keeping it in a keg prior to pitching would be easier to move and transport than in a carboy, i'd rather not have a 6.5 gallon glass carboy moving around the hatch of my car for a day

Why not no-chill I've done it many times and it works great. You'll have to modify your hop schedule a little, but if you post your recipe, I'll help you with that and your process.
Bull

Warmer temps will give any bacteria a more comfortable atmosphere in which to grow before you pitch.

I say go for it and see what happens, might turn out to be the best beer you've made. At worst, you'll be out 5 gallons of beer which isn't really that bad. Sad for sure, but it opens up a fermenter for another batch. And at least you would have had the fun of brewing with your buddies.