Closed-system pressurized fermentation technique!

OK, can I get some more advice please - .

I'm fermenting a simple 1.040 pale ale in a corny. It was up to the top, so I used a blow-off for the first 2 days after pitching. Now it is fermenting at a constant 15 psig. I'll leave it alone for a full week total fermentation.

As I understand it, then the beer is crashed cooled.
At what temp?
Do I leave the spunding in place?
If so, at what pressure limit?
For a couple of days?

Then I transfer to serving keg:
With the serving keg 5 psig below that of the primary?
Serving keg is closed, or do I attach the spunding?

I prefer a serving temp of 55F, by the way.

(I tried reading this thread through, but it is just too long! )

1. I crash as close to 32F as my fridge will get.
2. I do not. Reducing the temperature will reduce the pressure, no co2 will be generated by the inactive yeast, and I don't want anything sucked back into the fermenter.
3. You have to attach the valve to the serving keg. Otherwise pressures will equalize and the flow will stop. I start out with equal pressures, then reduce the pressure on the serving keg. I go slow so I don't disturb the sediment in the fermenter. 5 psi is OK.

I prefer to draw a little off before transferring, so I don't transfer as much yeast.

I'll take a stab at your questions Octavius.
The answer is yes to all your questions and as for cold crashing temp I believe you go as close to freezing or at least go below your serving temp for a few 3-5 days.
One comment as to your pressure during fermentation one method is to ramp the pressure up towards the end of the active fermentation so as to reach your desired carbonation when serving.
So if aiming for 2 volumes of CO2 at 55F you can use the carbonation chart to determine what pressure of CO2 that would correspond to at your fermentation temperature.
Hope that helps.

dbayub and truanthony,
OK, many thanks for the advice - I think I've got it now!
Cheers!

JuanMoore said:

I use 15 psi for the entire fermentation. Higher than that can cause some issues with some strains during early fermentation.

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Juan or anyone, is there any literature on this effect? I'm just wondering how solid this advice is.

Brewer's Best Mini-mash American Pale Wheat Kit
Batch Size = 5 gallons
OG= 1.060
Expected FG = 1.016-1.018
Desired Carbonation = 2.5 volumes
Yeast = Danstar West Coast (BRY-97) (62-73 degree F Ideal range, Highly flocculant)

Brewed on 2/2/14. Wort over-chilled to ~ 57 degrees, yeast rehydrated and pitched.

Primary fermentation will take place in an unmodified corny keg filled to top weld mark. Gas port of primary connected to liquid port of keg #2. Spunding valve and gauge attached to gas port of keg #2. Having never used this setup, I tightened the spunding valve completely (rated for 30psi, max) in hopes to dial down pressure once 10-15 psi achieved.

2/3 – Primary temp still below ideal, temp controlled heating pad secured to keg to raise temperature to ~66 degrees. I disconnected the primary keg to ensure proper seal and rule out leaks resulting in no pressure shown on gauge.

2/4 – Pulled pressure release on keg lid to verify pressure build up and confirm fermentation start. Kegs returned to their original configuration. Gauge pressure jump to .5 psi. I sprayed Star-San over all connections, finding a leak at a barbed connection of my keg-keg jumper, all hose clamps re-tightened and 2nd spray confirmed no leaks. Gauge pressure now showing zero.

I'm planning to run primay fermentation at 66 degrees and 10 psi until I reach 1.020, then raise pressure to 25 psi. After fermentation is complete, I'll remove my spunding valve and crash to ~33 degrees and force transfer to a serving keg.

Questions:

Does this sound like a sensible plan? What would you experienced pressurized-fermenters do?

What about a “diacetyl rest” at a reduced temperature (and thus pressure) with a highly flocculant yeast?

Would 2-4 points from FG result in enough CO2 to raise approx 5 gallons of head space (keg #2) 15psi?

Lennie said:

Juan or anyone, is there any literature on this effect? I'm just wondering how solid this advice is.

Click to expand...

There's lots of literature, but you're gonna have to find it yourself as I'm on my phone right now. There's some references to it in the links I posted just a few posts above IIRC. There were a few brief mentions of it in the wiki too, if someone can figure out where it disappeared to.

Some claim that it's only of importance if you plan on harvesting or reusing the yeast, since pressures over 15 psi result in much higher than normal mutations between generations. Some claim that this mutation effect is enough to impact the current beer if it's applied early enough in the fermentation process. Other literature states that 7.5 psi is the ideal early fermentation pressure, and that anything above that can cause unnecessary damage to the cell membranes, and limit reproduction to a greater than desirable degree. While there are a lot of conflicting opinions regarding what effects various pressures have, there seems to be a consensus that anything over 15 psi during the early stages of fermentation is not desirable.

Keep in mind that one of the primary mechanisms through which pressure reduces esters and high alcohols is by reducing yeast reproduction. This means that having a good pitching rate is critical for pressurized fermentations, as a low pitch rate combined with low yeast production can create excessive lag and stressed yeast, leading to the very off flavors you may have been trying to avoid. IMO the higher the head pressure you plan on using during the early stages of fermentation, the higher your pitch rate should be.

I was just reading one of the papers on fermenting lager under top pressure. One thing that stuck out more than before was the point about CO2 saturation being the limiting factor in yeast growth.

If that's so, then it would make sense to use different pressures based on that, rather than a blanket approach. Cold fermented lagers should probably be kept at lower pressures than warmer ale fermentations.
Just a thought.

Awesome thread! I'm sure the question I have has already been answered, but I've read about 20ish pages so far and haven't figured it out, getting fatigued so if anyone could humor me...

I'm curious as to why moving to a "serving keg" is necessary. If you ferment with the dip tube in then cold crash, shouldn't you just be able to suck the yeast and trub up w/ a cobra tap till it pours clear then serve from same keg? Definitely would have to be careful not to get hop particulate in the primary like this, but I can't think of why else this wouldn't work - and if it is cause of clogging, I'm not sure how you would go about transferring to a serving keg anyway, unless you cut your dip tube. But again if your cutting your dip tube why not just serve off that keg? Autolysis?

Thanks in advance, I'm really looking forward to trying this method! Seems super streamlined and also sounds like it works well with the styles of beer I enjoy.

Hello,
I have been using this process now for about 7 batches and seem to have it down for the most part.

I make up about 11 gallons of wort, put it in a 16 gallon sanke keg and then connect the sanke connector to it with my spunding valve on the gas side and a picnic tap/sanke out connector on the liquid side.

The issue is that I dont usually get the pressure cranked up in the last week or so to get full carbonation.
I get partial carbonation obviously, last time my fermentation sanke was at 15 pounds and temp before cold crashing was at 65, so that beer was somewhere around 1.5 volumes, assuming maybe incorrectly it was at that pressure level long enough to become fullly carbed.

So anyway...
how can I measure/guess what the carbonation level is of my beer when put into serving kegs?
Then how can I force carb it up the rest of the way in days, not weeks and not get over carbed?

Before when I fermemented in caboys, 30 pounds at 24-30 hours at 33 degrees would get me close to fully carbed at 2.6 volumes.
What should I do know to get fully carbed quicker?

Surely someone else has cranked up the CO2 at some successful level?

thanks Kevin

brigadierpudding said:

Awesome thread! I'm sure the question I have has already been answered, but I've read about 20ish pages so far and haven't figured it out, getting fatigued so if anyone could humor me...

I'm curious as to why moving to a "serving keg" is necessary. If you ferment with the dip tube in then cold crash, shouldn't you just be able to suck the yeast and trub up w/ a cobra tap till it pours clear then serve from same keg? Definitely would have to be careful not to get hop particulate in the primary like this, but I can't think of why else this wouldn't work - and if it is cause of clogging, I'm not sure how you would go about transferring to a serving keg anyway, unless you cut your dip tube. But again if your cutting your dip tube why not just serve off that keg? Autolysis?

Thanks in advance, I'm really looking forward to trying this method! Seems super streamlined and also sounds like it works well with the styles of beer I enjoy.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that a serving keg is necessary.
Keep in mind that every time you pull from the keg you will disturb the yeast cake; so you will get some trub in you glass for a while.
You will also get trub in your lines, quick connects, and faucet too. You will run a risk of clogging your system up.
If this doesn't bother you, then go for it and let us know.

Autolysis?
From what I read on this, yeast is more prone to breakdown under the high pressures that you will be putting them under.
I imagine if you drink the keg pretty quick you won't have to worry, but I am no yeast expert.

+1 on mredge response.
My top 3 reasons are:
1. not tying up my fermenter w/ the shortened dip tube
2. Disturbing trub/yeast every time the keg gets disturbed
3. Chance of off flavors from autolysis/trub/yeast with prolonged storage

mredge73 said:

I wouldn't say that a serving keg is necessary.
Keep in mind that every time you pull from the keg you will disturb the yeast cake; so you will get some trub in you glass for a while.
You will also get trub in your lines, quick connects, and faucet too. You will run a risk of clogging your system up.
If this doesn't bother you, then go for it and let us know.

Autolysis?
From what I read on this, yeast is more prone to breakdown under the high pressures that you will be putting them under.
I imagine if you drink the keg pretty quick you won't have to worry, but I am no yeast expert.

Click to expand...

haeffnkr said:

The issue is that I dont usually get the pressure cranked up in the last week or so to get full carbonation.
I get partial carbonation obviously, last time my fermentation sanke was at 15 pounds and temp before cold crashing was at 65, so that beer was somewhere around 1.5 volumes, assuming maybe incorrectly it was at that pressure level long enough to become fullly carbed. So anyway...
how can I measure/guess what the carbonation level is of my beer when put into serving kegs?
Then how can I force carb it up the rest of the way in days, not weeks and not get over carbed?

Before when I fermemented in caboys, 30 pounds at 24-30 hours at 33 degrees would get me close to fully carbed at 2.6 volumes.
What should I do know to get fully carbed quicker?

Surely someone else has cranked up the CO2 at some successful level?

thanks Kevin

Click to expand...

1.5 volumes @ 65*F = 10.7 PSI, and 15 PSI @ 65*F = 1.78 volumes. If you took the 1.78 volumes @ 65*F you had, since you measured the psi on a gauge and the temperature as well as estimating your volumes, and did nothing to it except drop the temperature... you'd have 33*F beer @ 1.78 volumes and 1.8 psi. I'm going to assume you want a lot higher finishing volume of CO2 here and say you need to increase your pressure before cold crashing. Do you D-Rest? Since fermentation is faster at higher temps, trying to get your pressure up then is easier. When I used the original valve (wouldn't work above 15 psi), I had to "carbonate" during fermentation without my spunding valve and then add it only when the beer got down to cold crash temps to vent out excess.

Thanks for the feedback - i suppose i'll just give it a try once my spunding valve and extra kegs come in. I kinda just figured with the way the dip tube is centered right at the very bottom that one good, slow (low psi) suck might just clear 90% of the trub/yeast, but we'll see!

Thanks again!

I'm almost 1 week into my first pressure ferment and things are going good. I'm finishing up a D rest and I'm at 30psi so I'm slightly over carbed.

One question I have is with using cobra taps to take samples. I have one on a short hose shown below. The first sample was fine at 7psi but the second and third samples weren't so smooth. After attaching the tap and pouring off the yeast I closed the tapper but foam still comes out until I remove it from the keg. Have other people experienced this? It was happening at 15psi which I would think a cobra tap could handle just fine since serving pressures aren't much lower. I took it apart and there was nothing in the way to prevent a good seal.

The picture below is from the first sample so no leaking foam there.

WortMonger said:

1.5 volumes @ 65*F = 10.7 PSI, and 15 PSI @ 65*F = 1.78 volumes. If you took the 1.78 volumes @ 65*F you had, since you measured the psi on a gauge and the temperature as well as estimating your volumes, and did nothing to it except drop the temperature... you'd have 33*F beer @ 1.78 volumes and 1.8 psi. I'm going to assume you want a lot higher finishing volume of CO2 here and say you need to increase your pressure before cold crashing. Do you D-Rest? Since fermentation is faster at higher temps, trying to get your pressure up then is easier. When I used the original valve (wouldn't work above 15 psi), I had to "carbonate" during fermentation without my spunding valve and then add it only when the beer got down to cold crash temps to vent out excess.

Click to expand...

Yes I D-rest my lagers at 65ish.
I have a few leaks somewhere also that I have never found... so there for I dont have my spunding valve on during the later stages of fermentation/d-rest.
I understand I need to crank up the spunding valve sooner to get more carbonation.

I was hoping someone could tell me how long to force carb my beer in the serving kegs.
If so, what pressure do I need to get from some level to the desired finish carb of 2.6 volumes at 33 degrees. (not using the "set it and forget" method)

thanks Kevin

haeffnkr said:

Yes I D-rest my lagers at 65ish.
I have a few leaks somewhere also that I have never found... so there for I dont have my spunding valve on during the later stages of fermentation/d-rest.
I understand I need to crank up the spunding valve sooner to get more carbonation.

I was hoping someone could tell me how long to force carb my beer in the serving kegs.
If so, what pressure do I need to get from some level to the desired finish carb of 2.6 volumes at 33 degrees. (not using the "set it and forget" method)

thanks Kevin

Click to expand...

This is the only thing I know to tell you about anything force carbonating. Here is a link to a conversion chart for future reference. I hated force carbonating because of all the what-ifs that I had to worry about.

I hate you have leaks, that would have ruined it for me just starting out with pressure. Get those fixed and you should have no problem ramping to 2.6 volumes/27.4psi@65*F for your D-rest, then just drop the temps and watch that pressure gauge drop too. I show you should be at 9.7psi on your dial when you hit 33*F. This is the time I release any over pressure to get my wanted volumes, because I always overshoot a little pre-crash cooling to have some to spare in the end. I love this probably the most about this technique. It is set it and forget it, But... it starts at fermentation and is done prior to going into a serving keg for me. Think if you had to wait for set it and forget it after transferring to a serving container? Man I love this technique.

haeffnkr said:

I was hoping someone could tell me how long to force carb my beer in the serving kegs.
If so, what pressure do I need to get from some level to the desired finish carb of 2.6 volumes at 33 degrees. (not using the "set it and forget" method)

thanks Kevin

Click to expand...

Use a calculator like this one to determine the required pressure at the fermentation temperature. Once fermentation starts to die down, set your spunding valve to that pressure. Let it sit for a few weeks, and as long as the keg stays sealed, the beer will still have that level of carbonation.

I'm having a problem with my spunding valve, using the better valve from McMaster (link). It'll maintain my pressure up until the set-point, but then, once the pressure is too high and it starts to vent, it continues to vent until there is only 1-2PSI left in the system. Any ideas?

Mine only did that when foam came out of it making it sticky. Maybe check that it is clean. Even the gas coming out has some sticky beer in it, so it should always be thoroughly cleaned before, during, and after use.


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WortMonger said:

Mine only did that when foam came out of it making it sticky. Maybe check that it is clean. Even the gas coming out has some sticky beer in it, so it should always be thoroughly cleaned before, during, and after use.


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Click to expand...

So how would you go about cleaning the spunding valve? Force some PBW through it perhaps?

Some blowoff just made it though mine so I was hoping to clean it without damaging it (its the mcmaster one).

WortMonger said:

Mine only did that when foam came out of it making it sticky. Maybe check that it is clean. Even the gas coming out has some sticky beer in it, so it should always be thoroughly cleaned before, during, and after use.


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Click to expand...

I bet you're right. I have mine attached to a water filter housing to trap any blowoff, but the last beer I made filled the corny a bit too full, and I got almost a full filter housing. Do the valves come apart pretty easily?

The one I use only needs a screw removed and then I unscrew the whole thing revealing a spring and plug. My other one had a spring and ball. I've had the ball and plug stuck sometimes so bad I had to poke it from the other end to remove it. It does get sticky on its own, but if foam is ever seen... it needs to be cleaned.


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I am just on my first attempt at this. One larger brew split into two kegs, to test two types of yeast. I went faster than I thought!

On day 5 now and have raised the temp from 65 to 73 and pressure is very slowly climbing to 15 PSI. Don't know if there is much left to ferment so I may not get much higher.

Thinking I will leave it at 73 for a week and then crash to 32. I will then "top up" the Co2 keg to 8 PSI and a few days later I should have clear carbonated beer at 2.5 to transfer to serving kegs.

No more slugging 65 pound carboys!

Tom

the last 2 times i did this i had a lot of trouble transferring to the serving keg. when i pulled the pressure release on the serving keg after a couple seconds a ton of foam starting to come out the relief valve. it took forever to fill the keg.

i don't think the serving keg was pressurized. could that have been the problem?

gmtech825 said:

the last 2 times i did this i had a lot of trouble transferring to the serving keg. when i pulled the pressure release on the serving keg after a couple seconds a ton of foam starting to come out the relief valve. it took forever to fill the keg.

i don't think the serving keg was pressurized. could that have been the problem?

Click to expand...

I had this problem the first time I transferred to a non-pressurized keg. When transferring the serving keg needs to be very close in holding pressure as the fermenter. Here is what I do:

1. Connect the co2 tank to the fermenter with a higher PSI (lets say 20 psi) than what i reached for fermenting (15 psi).
2. Pressurize my serving keg at the same level as the fermenting keg (20 psi, both kegs are now at 20 psi).
3. Place spundling valve with higher setting than the co2 tank gauge (22 psi) and connect it to the serving keg.
4. Connect the co2 tank back to the fermenting keg.
5. Slowly start turning down the spundling valve till you get just below the serving keg and let the beer flow.
6. when the fermenting tank is almost empty I hold the disconnect to the serving keg until its all gone then quickly disconnect the serving keg.

Pulling the pressure release valve will work as long as you do it quickly every 20 sec or so. If you hold it open too long the pressure will drop too low and the beer will foam very quickly. Although transferring under pressure is awesome it is slow.

ekjohns said:

I had this problem the first time I transferred to a non-pressurized keg. When transferring the serving keg needs to be very close in holding pressure as the fermenter. Here is what I do:

1. Connect the co2 tank to the fermenter with a higher PSI (lets say 20 psi) than what i reached for fermenting (15 psi).
2. Pressurize my serving keg at the same level as the fermenting keg (20 psi, both kegs are now at 20 psi).
3. Place spundling valve with higher setting than the co2 tank gauge (22 psi) and connect it to the serving keg.
4. Connect the co2 tank back to the fermenting keg.
5. Slowly start turning down the spundling valve till you get just below the serving keg and let the beer flow.
6. when the fermenting tank is almost empty I hold the disconnect to the serving keg until its all gone then quickly disconnect the serving keg.

Pulling the pressure release valve will work as long as you do it quickly every 20 sec or so. If you hold it open too long the pressure will drop too low and the beer will foam very quickly. Although transferring under pressure is awesome it is slow.

Click to expand...

thanks, i hope this works because i have to keg a 12 and 10 gallon batch soon.

gmtech825 said:

thanks, i hope this works because i have to keg a 12 and 10 gallon batch soon.

Click to expand...

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Hi guys,

This is my second attempt at pressure fermenting. Here's what I did, please let me know if I messed up:

Brewed on sunday, I've always used a hop spider but on the new system I got I'm using a recirculation port and side pickup, so I assumed all hops would stay in the middle. Wrong, my chill plate got clogged. I had to transfer at 125 degrees to the conical and then let it chill overnight in the stand up freezer.

Anyway, pitched yeast at 4 am on monday, by tuesday 6 pm, pressure was already at 10 psi, as I was targeting 15 psi, I turned it up a bit. Checked it again at 4 am today (wednesday), it was at 24 psi! so I relieved pressure so it could go back to 15 psi and adjusted the valve.

Questions:

Did I mess something up because of the higher than 15 psi pressure at the beggining stages of fermentation?

Did I mess something up for releasing the pressure quite fast (went from 25 to 20 psi in around 2 seconds), after that I tried to release a little slower?

You're fine. Next time adjust the pressure up slowly, there is plenty of time to get to 15psi. You also don't have to hit 15. 10 would be fine until you are ready to carbonate at the end during a d-rest or carbonation period.

You released fine, but you avoided what typically happens to me (see foam blowing everywhere during the purge) so you got lucky. It takes a while to saturate the beer with CO2 which is the worry with yeast health. Keep on truckin' my man! Let us know so we can brew vicariously through you, lol.


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WortMonger said:

You're fine. Next time adjust the pressure up slowly, there is plenty of time to get to 15psi. You also don't have to hit 15. 10 would be fine until you are ready to carbonate at the end during a d-rest or carbonation period.

You released fine, but you avoided what typically happens to me (see foam blowing everywhere during the purge) so you got lucky. It takes a while to saturate the beer with CO2 which is the worry with yeast health. Keep on truckin' my man! Let us know so we can brew vicariously through you, lol.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess I wanted to get to 15 in a hurry, last brew I only made it to 10 after a few attempts at getting to know how my spunding valve works (it's labeled but 30 psi actually means 10 psi), then after a week when I tried to get to 30 for finishing carbonation I found that I had a stuck fermentation, 10 points above my goal. A little sweet but it still tasted great, I'm loving this technique, I could have drank the whole thing 1 week after I brewed it. No green flavor at all!

I'm brewing 15 gallons in a 22 gallon conical, my kraussen is a few inches below the spunding valve, I guess that's why I didn't get foam.

Can anyone recommend me a valve/gauge that has good precision. Ex: if I wanted 7 psi I could dial it in fairly quickly and If I wanted to bump it to 8 psi or even 30 psi it would be fairly easy and repeatable?

Hello,
I am going to add a 6" tri clamp fitting to my sanke fermenters.

I am struggling with the best way to plumb up the gas and liquid side ports in the 6" tri clamp cap.
Do I use a racking cane and how to fasten it to the lid to hold pressure?
Do I try to use ball lock fittings for gas and liquid? Seems like yeast would make a mess if I tried this on the liquid side and would be pain to clean up afterwards?

Can I get some feedback from those who have done this and built tri clamp kits and what they would do over again?

thanks Kevin

grathan said:

Can anyone recommend me a valve/gauge that has good precision. Ex: if I wanted 7 psi I could dial it in fairly quickly and If I wanted to bump it to 8 psi or even 30 psi it would be fairly easy and repeatable?

Click to expand...

Man I wish! The problem is that unless you were at the same temperature all the time it couldn't be repeatable with settings. Temperature and pressure are directly relative to each other. Now if you could have a valve that measured both at the same time, then you would have something... but it wouldn't be cheap. It is best to get to know your system and the settings that are on your valve. I always shoot low on fermentation and then bump up. Then on the carbonation cycle I shoot high and bump down. Then all you have to read is the gauge and the thermometer.

haeffnkr said:

Hello,
I am going to add a 6" tri clamp fitting to my sanke fermenters.

I am struggling with the best way to plumb up the gas and liquid side ports in the 6" tri clamp cap.
Do I use a racking cane and how to fasten it to the lid to hold pressure?
Do I try to use ball lock fittings for gas and liquid? Seems like yeast would make a mess if I tried this on the liquid side and would be pain to clean up afterwards?

Can I get some feedback from those who have done this and built tri clamp kits and what they would do over again?

thanks Kevin

Click to expand...

This would probably be best for someone else to answer since I don't see the need for anything but standard keg equipment. I will say that I am looking to swap the standard tap connector for a keg-cleaning connector, due to the larger diameter hole on what would be the gas port.

chapusin said:

Yeah, I guess I wanted to get to 15 in a hurry, last brew I only made it to 10 after a few attempts at getting to know how my spunding valve works (it's labeled but 30 psi actually means 10 psi), then after a week when I tried to get to 30 for finishing carbonation I found that I had a stuck fermentation, 10 points above my goal. A little sweet but it still tasted great, I'm loving this technique, I could have drank the whole thing 1 week after I brewed it. No green flavor at all!

I'm brewing 15 gallons in a 22 gallon conical, my kraussen is a few inches below the spunding valve, I guess that's why I didn't get foam.

Click to expand...

What brand conical? I ask because I hope it is one of the pressuriz-able ones:cross:! Otherwise it could be leaking at higher pressures or worse, hold the pressure until it can't hold any more and BOOM!

WortMonger said:

.
This would probably be best for someone else to answer since I don't see the need for anything but standard keg equipment. I will say that I am looking to swap the standard tap connector for a keg-cleaning connector, due to the larger diameter hole on what would be the gas port.

Click to expand...

I want to swap to a tri clamp setup because I am still struggling with getting the kegs clean.

I tried last night heating up about 4 gallons of water to 205 degrees with about 8 oz of PBW in it and pouring it in the keg, then adding the spear and rolling it around setting upside down overnight.
If when I look at it tonight and there is still crud in there I am at a loss, other than getting my hand in the keg, to get these clean... ie 6" tri clamp.

Believe me... if I would not have to add the $200 of expense to put on the tri clamp and assorted fittings I would/will not

more to come
Kevin

haeffnkr said:

I want to swap to a tri clamp setup because I am still struggling with getting the kegs clean.

I tried last night heating up about 4 gallons of water to 205 degrees with about 8 oz of PBW in it and pouring it in the keg, then adding the spear and rolling it around setting upside down overnight.
If when I look at it tonight and there is still crud in there I am at a loss, other than getting my hand in the keg, to get these clean... ie 6" tri clamp.

Believe me... if I would not have to add the $200 of expense to put on the tri clamp and assorted fittings I would/will not

more to come
Kevin

Click to expand...

Have you considered building a keg washer with a sump pump, 5 gallon bucket, and some plumbing? Mine works great. There are a number of threads on here for keg washers

or use one of the drill operated brushes so you can actually get a scrubbing action

I have used both of the approaches... is not getting all the crud off.
I have some old crud on some of these sankes that is on tough.

My keg washer did not even get all the crud off a fresh corny keg.
Apparently you need a BIG motor to make these effective.
Mine does no more than my sink spray faucet.

thanks for the ideas though !
Keep them coming.

Kevin

WortMonger said:

Man I wish! The problem is that unless you were at the same temperature all the time it couldn't be repeatable with settings. Temperature and pressure are directly relative to each other. Now if you could have a valve that measured both at the same time, then you would have something... but it wouldn't be cheap. It is best to get to know your system and the settings that are on your valve. I always shoot low on fermentation and then bump up. Then on the carbonation cycle I shoot high and bump down. Then all you have to read is the gauge and the thermometer.

Click to expand...

What about temperature aside. I know you were recommending a specific gauge earlier on, but the link doesn't work anymore. Do you still like that one and know of another one like it?