Best way to fill corny keg?

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marqoid

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This seems like a basic question, but I can't seem to find an answer.

I am getting ready to keg my first batch, but what's the best way to fill the keg while racking?
Can I leave the keg closed with pressure relief valve open and siphon my beer into the beer out connection? It seems like this would make a near completely closed system and minimize the need for purging an O2, and the dip tube would minimize splashing.

or am I safer to just take the lid off and siphon straight to the bottom of the keg?
 
I've been siphoning into the out post down the spear. I like that I don't have to stick anything else down into the keg (tubing etc.). I've done it both with the lid on and off depending on volume. If I know I have < 5 gallons, I just leave it closed. Otherwise, I leave it off so I can watch the level periodically.

Welcome to the forum by the way.:mug:
 
I siphon into the open lid.

Even if you go down the tube, you will need to open the keg for cleaning (wear on gaskets) and it will be full of o2 (as soon as you disconnect the C02 to allow siphon)

Opening and purging are unavoidable, so you might as well put the beer in the big opening where you can easily monitor the level.
 
I just open it up & siphon. make sure the siphon hose reaches the bottom & there's no splashing. Seal it with CO2, purge & hit it with CO2 again.
 
Rack throught the open lid. Make sure your hose is long enough to touch the bottom. Since the beer is filling from the bottom (just like bottling) the beer will push out the air in the keg. The only air left is at the top. Seal, purge a couple of times with CO2 and your done.
 
Open it up and place the end of your hose on the bottom. It is imperative that you avoid splashing at this point or youll oxygenate the beer so trying it through the pressure relief is going to cause it to splash when it hits the bottom.

I also wouldnt try and put it through either of the posts because theres just too much that could go wrong unless youre transfering from keg to keg.

Remember to lube your o-rings and seal it with about purge at least twice with 30 PSI and then seal it with 30 PSI if you are naturally carbing. If not youll need to leave it hooked up to the CO2 so the keg seals dont start leaking as the CO2 gets absorbed into the beer.
 
I also siphon into the lid opening. co2 is heavier than air so you could just open the relief valve and run some co2 through if you're worried about oxidation. I usually don't bother but I've had oxidized beer before so I understand being cautious there.
 
I siphon through the opening and after my first keg fill using just an autosiphon and tubing, I was unhappy with how the tubing moves around and coils up from the bottom of the keg. Now I attach the keg end of the tubing to a spare racking cane which sits nicely on the bottom of the keg and minimizes splashing/movement during transfer.
 
I leave my clean kegs with about a quart of StarSan in them.. so, I bust out the keg, swirl, open the lid and dump the StarSan. Ill put the lid back on, open the relief valve and hit the keg with 20psi through the inpost for a couple of seconds, open the lid and siphon down the side of the keg wall. Seems to work for me.
 
I'm with the lid off camp. Plenty of residual CO2 in the brew to push out any oxygen in the keg.

With my cleaning routine and keg turnover it doesn't makes sense to leave the beer out post disassembled for a few weeks before there is something to put in it.
 
Rushis said:
...it doesn't makes sense to leave the beer out post disassembled for a few weeks before there is something to put in it.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, I don't really think it'll make that much difference siphoning down the lid vs. into the dip tube. I've done it both ways, but the last couple of batches I've

- added sanitizer to keg
- closed lid
- swirled around and let it sit both right side up and upside down for a few minutes
- took lid off and poured out almost all sanitizer
- put the lid back on and forced the rest out of the out post with CO2 (picnic tap)
- Then I simply hooked my auto siphon to my bottling wand (w/o the spring etc.)
- Stuck the other side of the bottling wand into the open picnic tap (fits perfectly)
- Started auto siphon with relief valve locked open
- Waited until done (Again this is assuming I know I have < 5 gallons and don't need to monitor it).
- purge headspace

I only started doing it this way because it seemed simple and the dip tube is already at the bottom, so why not. The inside of the bottling wand gets sanitized when I force sanitizer out of the keg, and I don't have to worry about handling the outside of any tubing because it's not coiled up down in the beer.

I really don't think there's much if any difference in oxygenation this way compared to sticking a tube down to the bottom. It just seems to work for me.
 
1234567890

Clayton said:
i do that now with carboys in to kegs.
i use a medical vacume pump and hook it to the IN on the keg and then hook OUT to my racking cane with a carboy cap
it works so damn good and is fast.
mvac2.jpg
Click to expand...


Clayton said:
i have been doing this for a few years and it works great. i use a medical aspirator
just make sure you have a fuild trap in line before the pump or you will wreak your pump and have to tare it down and clean it all out.

the way i do it is i use a SS racking cane with a carboy cap. I set the racking cane depth. if i am rack to secondary i use a second rackign cane and cap. but i dont do seconderys very much just long preomarys and hearty cold crash.

So the tube off my racking cane has a Bev Out connector on it.
My aspirator has a gas in connector. Hook the pump to the keg first
and draw a little bit of vacume , about 15 bars or so, them hook up the carboy
this get the flow to start real fast.
The best part is that you can vacume the beer off the bottom so you can tilt and get it all and not worry about losting siphon.
after a nice long primary and cold crash the yeast cake is so solid, that with the pump you can carefully get almost all the beer and none of the yeast.
Click to expand...


Bsquared said:
I've also been using a vacuum pump to move my wort from the kettle through my CFC in to the carboy. I've been using it for about 2 years and have not had any issues with carboys not being able to handle the negative pressure needed to transfer.

Like Clayton said, set up a filter to prevent liquid getting in to the pump.

One good benefit of using a vacuum pump, it that by lowering the pressure in the carboy O2 is more readily absorbed in to the wort,and you are effectively aerating your wort during the transfer.

Edit-with changes The way I had this worded before violates Henry's gas law which is the principle of force carbonation. sorry if I caused any confusion, the Wort wizard website has a good explanation for how creating a vacuum in the carboy facilitates aeration.
Click to expand...
 
carrotmalt said:
I only started doing it this way because it seemed simple and the dip tube is already at the bottom, so why not. T/QUOTE]

Nice solution.

You don't have any problems with trub/hops getting stuck in the poppet while filling? Ideally none of that gets transferred, but I inevitably transfer a small amount of gunk.
Click to expand...
 
Rushis said:
You don't have any problems with trub/hops getting stuck in the poppet while filling?
Click to expand...

I actually wrap a little piece of wire mesh around the end of the siphon held on with a worm gear hose clamp. It does a pretty good job of filtering any particles that might cause a problem in the dip tube and it hasn't stopped up the flow yet. Like I say I've only done it a couple times so far, but after a cold crash, I really haven't seen any floaties even during the first couple of pints out of the keg. So far so good.:)
 
I push...
Sanitize keg and purge, also taking the time to blow some Star-san down the beer line. Add any priming sugar if you're into that ( I am, call me a purist, but that's how I like to naturally carb.) Then using a better bottle lid with a racking cane in one hole and a gas line in the other. Adjust the cane so it's off the trub, and connect the other end of it with a balck ball lock to the sugared and CO2'ed keg. Turn on the gas for a soft burst at about 2 spi to the carboy until the beer makes it over the cane hook. Now just pull the pressure relief valve on the corny every so often. Closed system, no oxidation. You can hit the keg with gas once the beer is transferred if you want (force carb)..
 
I clean and sanitize the keg, drain out all of the sanitizer, install the lid, pressurize to seat the seal and leak check the keg. When it's time to fill I dump the pressure, install an open gas in ball lock, connect a beer out ball lock with siphon hose and fill with 40 pound of fresh brew. No O2 exposure. No purging.
 
I fill the keg with StarSan, install the lid, then invert the keg for a minute to sanitize the top. I then turn it back upright, and pump the StarSan under CO2 pressure to another keg. I use a jumper line from one liquid out port into the next liquid out port. This leaves me with a sanitized keg full of CO2. To keg the beer I just remove the lid and drop a sanitized hose to the bottom of the keg. I seldom see much splashing, but I don't worry much about oxidation in a CO2 filled keg. When the keg is full I replace the lid and start carbonating promptly, to seal the lid and to get on with things. It's worked well.
 

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