Transferring beer from keg to keg

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Dixievet

Dixievet

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Question:

Local brewery has gone up on their keg deposit fees from $35 to $110 due to the fact of people are not returning their kegs. Therefore, they are charging you for the keg - and you can bring it back for a refund at any time for an $80 refund. (I have no issues with this)

However - in order to slide through this - I bought 4 cornies here.

My question is - Can I just pump the beer from my local brewery keg into one of these cornies without the loss of beer/carbonation/quality?

Second question: My current setup has Type D sankeys - what adapters do I need to be able to use these cornies I recently purchased? From what I can tell - it is just a simple $5 part to convert but I just want to make sure.

I am still trying to see if they will just fill my cornies - but I am not counting on it.

Thanks -

Dixievet
 
No idea about the carbonation/quality loss from transferring keg to keg. Have you talked to anyone at the brewery personally?

As to the adapters, you just need to swap from the sankey screw-on's to the ball/pin lock adapters for the corny. Usually all that takes is loosening a clamp, but I have seen the sankey's with a fitting instead of a barb/clamp so you may just need to cut them off the line.
 
You won't loose much carbonation, and really once you get it in the corny you'll have it dialed in to the proper Co2 setting with a regulator so you can adjust the carbonation level that way. I've transferred between corny kegs before and have had no issues. I just slowly release the pressure on the keg I'm filling. It may be difficult for you to know when the corny keg is full.
 
If you never plan to put a commercial keg back in your kegerator you can swap out the fittings pretty easily and build a transfer rig with the sankey coupler by connecting the liquid out to a ball lock liquid connector. If you think you will want to occasionally put a commercial keg in then you might want to go this route: kegerator homebrew conversion kit. @ Williams Brewing those two 1/4" MFL tailpieces go on the sankey coupler and the 1/4" MFL barbed connectors go on the hoses, then you can easily swap between the ball lock and sankey couplers.
 
i have a dedicated line with sanky tap and it works great. me and buddy buy full size kegs and split them into cornies all the time. sometimes we go to breweries and split the beer right in the parking lot so we dont have to travel back to return the keg. if you have someone to split the beer with you can save some money by buying a full keg
 
Hook liquid out stem of sankey fitting to liquid out quick disconnect for corny (minimizes splashing). There's a picture somewhere of the same for corney to corney transfers. Purge corney with c02 before beginning transfer.

As for knowing when full - I'd fill up each keg with water to the height you want the beer, put on scale - then you know what approx weight you need to stop at. The difference in density between beer and water shouldn't be significant enough to matter at the scale (pun intended) we're working at.
 
curtis97322 said:
Hook liquid out stem of sankey fitting to liquid out quick disconnect for corny (minimizes splashing). There's a picture somewhere of the same for corney to corney transfers. Purge corney with c02 before beginning transfer.

As for knowing when full - I'd fill up each keg with water to the height you want the beer, put on scale - then you know what approx weight you need to stop at. The difference in density between beer and water shouldn't be significant enough to matter at the scale (pun intended) we're working at.
Click to expand...

Good idea with weighing the water.
 
conpewter said:
You won't loose much carbonation, and really once you get it in the corny you'll have it dialed in to the proper Co2 setting with a regulator so you can adjust the carbonation level that way. I've transferred between corny kegs before and have had no issues. I just slowly release the pressure on the keg I'm filling. It may be difficult for you to know when the corny keg is full.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much. That is what I was hoping to hear. (Im still a noob when it comes to all of this - so my questions may be a bit juvenile)

camiller said:
If you never plan to put a commercial keg back in your kegerator you can swap out the fittings pretty easily and build a transfer rig with the sankey coupler by connecting the liquid out to a ball lock liquid connector. If you think you will want to occasionally put a commercial keg in then you might want to go this route: kegerator homebrew conversion kit. @ Williams Brewing those two 1/4" MFL tailpieces go on the sankey coupler and the 1/4" MFL barbed connectors go on the hoses, then you can easily swap between the ball lock and sankey couplers.
Click to expand...

I will be swapping between commercial and non for now - at least until this new hobby becomes more of a fetish :D

As for this conversion kit - I have 2 taps currently on my kegerator - I am looking for the sankey adapters for just hooking up to the keg - not necesssarily for the beer transfer.

Can I not just pop the top of this new corney and pour it as I would pour a pint? Just a really big pint? Then seal it back, pressurize it - and pour - or is this a bad idea?

If I do have to do a direct transfer from keg to keg - is this the steps that I should be using?

1. Purge the corney with CO2.
1.5 If you can, release the pressure on the sankey.
2. Connect the sankey output to the corney output. This will push the beer in through the diptube and fill from the bottom rather than spraying from the top through the corney input.
3. Dial the CO2 down very low and add gas to the sankey. You don't really want to fill too fast. You are going to need a way to monitor the level in the corney keg. Condensation works, sort of. I'd just leave the lid of the corney and keep an eye on it. As long as the keg has been primed well with CO2, you won't have too much risk of oxygenation.
4. When the corney is full, cut the pressure to the sankey and disconnect.
5. Put the lid on the corney.
6. Add the gas to the corney. Still low pressure. Release the pressure valve and run the gas for 10-20 seconds just to make sure.
7. Close pressure valve and pressurize the corney.
8. Connect to the tap and claim it as your own?
Click to expand...

Or this link:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/285822-post19.html

curtis97322 said:
Hook liquid out stem of sankey fitting to liquid out quick disconnect for corny (minimizes splashing). There's a picture somewhere of the same for corney to corney transfers. Purge corney with c02 before beginning transfer.

As for knowing when full - I'd fill up each keg with water to the height you want the beer, put on scale - then you know what approx weight you need to stop at. The difference in density between beer and water shouldn't be significant enough to matter at the scale (pun intended) we're working at.
Click to expand...

I like the weighing idea.

Thank you all.
 
Sound about right? I just found these.

1. Purge the corney with CO2.

1.5 If you can, release the pressure on the sankey.

2. Connect the sankey output to the corney output. This will push the beer in through the diptube and fill from the bottom rather than spraying from the top through the corney input.

3. Dial the CO2 down very low and add gas to the sankey. You don't really want to fill too fast. You are going to need a way to monitor the level in the corney keg. Condensation works, sort of. I'd just leave the lid of the corney and keep an eye on it. As long as the keg has been primed well with CO2, you won't have too much risk of oxygenation.

4. When the corney is full, cut the pressure to the sankey and disconnect.

5. Put the lid on the corney.

6. Add the gas to the corney. Still low pressure. Release the pressure valve and run the gas for 10-20 seconds just to make sure.

7. Close pressure valve and pressurize the corney.

8. Connect to the tap and claim it as your own?
Click to expand...
 
Dixievet said:
...
Can I not just pop the top of this new corney and pour it as I would pour a pint? Just a really big pint? Then seal it back, pressurize it - and pour - or is this a bad idea?
...
Click to expand...

Really increases the risk of oxygenating the finished beer. If you can swing it it is better to build a transfer rig.
 
You likely get lots of foam. Set both kegs to same co2 pressure. I rig liquid to liquid and gas to gas from both kegs. Place donor keg higher than recieving keg. Pop the release valve on recieving keg until beer starts to flow then close release valve and wait. If the beer is cold you can tell by the sweat where the beer level is. Good luck.
 

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