First time kegging - timing / procedural question

Hoping the home brew gods are willing to offer some advice. I have two corny kegs and two batches- a cream ale and a nut brown ale fermenting right now (racked to carboys this past Saturday).
Two weeks from initial racking to carboys I will be heading out of town for a week. My questions are:
1) just before I leave should I rack the two batches to the corny kegs or leave the two batches in the carboys for another week? I imagine this is to some degree preference but i would like your feedback.
2) if I rack to the kegs I will add just a bit of co2 and burp / bleed o2 out and then leave at room temp while away? Then upon return add co2 and put in kegerator?
3)if i want to bottle some is it ok to make a reduced dextrose solution based on amount of bottle volume.

Just leave it on the yeast for another week. 3 weeks is perfect. Only reason I would suggest to keg is if you are ready to carb, so it'll be ready you drink when you get back, or if you need the carboy for another batch, you can just condition them in the keg for a week or so before carbing. I would just leave it on the yeast though, so when you come back, they've cleaned up really good, and you have a clearer beer to keg!

chapa said:

Just leave it on the yeast for another week. 3 weeks is perfect. Only reason I would suggest to keg is if you are ready to carb, so it'll be ready you drink when you get back, or if you need the carboy for another batch, you can just condition them in the keg for a week or so before carbing. I would just leave it on the yeast though, so when you come back, they've cleaned up really good, and you have a clearer beer to keg!

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I will not be able to control my carboy temp for the week I am away - I live in FL. Likely the carboys will get up to 75-78 degrees. I am fermenting now at 65 in a ferm chamber I made. I planned on bringing temp up late this week after making sure initial fermentation has finished. You think no problem if in week 2-3 the temp is up while i'm away?

diannotti said:

I will not be able to control my carboy temp for the week I am away - I live in FL. Likely the carboys will get up to 75-78 degrees. I am fermenting now at 65 in a ferm chamber I made. I planned on bringing temp up late this week after making sure initial fermentation has finished. You think no problem if in week 2-3 the temp is up while i'm away?

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Probably ok, the temp is mostly important during the initial stages is fermentation, but upwards of 80 is pretty high. Maybe cold crash them while you're gone, especially if you have room in the kegerator for the carboys, so they can cold crash on the yeast...but yeah, if nothing else, just cold crash in the kegs, and when you get back, pour off the first pint to get out anything that might have settled out. I'd personally be tempted to hook up the co2 while I was gone though, so they were carbing up in the meantime.

diannotti said:

I will not be able to control my carboy temp for the week I am away - I live in FL. Likely the carboys will get up to 75-78 degrees. I am fermenting now at 65 in a ferm chamber I made. I planned on bringing temp up late this week after making sure initial fermentation has finished. You think no problem if in week 2-3 the temp is up while i'm away?

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I might be a bit slow this morning, but if you have a ferm chamber that appears to be holding your beer at a fine temperature, why can't you just leave the beer in the ferm chamber for the week you're away, then deal with it when you return? The beer will be better for it verses an uncooled alternative.

One thing to consider wrt kegging now then leaving for the week (aside from the temperature thing that is confusing me) is if this is the first time you've used these kegs, there's the chance one could spring a leak at the Out post, and you'd return to a puddle of brew...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

I might be a bit slow this morning, but if you have a ferm chamber that appears to be holding your beer at a fine temperature, why can't you just leave the beer in the ferm chamber for the week you're away, then deal with it when you return? The beer will be better for it verses an uncooled alternative.

One thing to consider wrt kegging now then leaving for the week (aside from the temperature thing that is confusing me) is if this is the first time you've used these kegs, there's the chance one could spring a leak at the Out post, and you'd return to a puddle of brew...

Cheers!

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My ferm chamber is requires me changing ice in the bottom of it to keep temp. My house while away will likely be 78, so if it's ok to leave at that temp in the carboys I can do that.
If I leave the beer in the kegs why could it spring a leak at the outpost? I wouldn't actually "tap" just fill and purge 02, correct?

If the keg is under pressure (which it should be) then there is beer under pressure at the beer-out post, whether it's tapped or not.

If you've pressure tested your kegs, you are probably good to go. Just check it a day after you keg it and make sure it's not leaking.

If primary fermentation is over, I wouldn't be concerned with leaving beer at 78 degrees for one week. I've done it with no harm. I wouldn't leave it for a month at that temp.

Sounds good. I don't think a 3rd week in the primary at 78 or so will hurt anything either. I will wait till I am back to keg it up.

Any advice on my original posts question 3? What do most people do who want to reserve some beer when kegging for bottles?

diannotti said:

Sounds good. I don't think a 3rd week in the primary at 78 or so will hurt anything either. I will wait till I am back to keg it up.

Any advice on my original posts question 3? What do most people do who want to reserve some beer when kegging for bottles?

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They bottle with carbonation tabs so you do not have to mix up a solution of sugar for the entire batch or try to figure out what is needed for only a percentage that you want to bottle.

I would look into the counter pressure beer gun so that you can keg everything and then just bottle from the keg.

Before I had my larger chest freezer, I always racked to a keg, purged the O2, and just let them sit at room temp until space opened up. Never had any issues.

And +1 on the comment about filling your bottles from the keg. Check out BierMuncher's bottle filler:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

I put one of these together and it works great. I use it for filling bottles and growlers... and it cost me about $10 in parts.

FermentedTed said:

Before I had my larger chest freezer, I always racked to a keg, purged the O2, and just let them sit at room temp until space opened up. Never had any issues.

And +1 on the comment about filling your bottles from the keg. Check out BierMuncher's bottle filler:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

I put one of these together and it works great. I use it for filling bottles and growlers... and it cost me about $10 in parts.

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Appreciate the feedback but it looks like I would need the gun, as I went and bought 525 Perlicks which apparently don't work with the work around?

barhoc11 said:

They bottle with carbonation tabs so you do not have to mix up a solution of sugar for the entire batch or try to figure out what is needed for only a percentage that you want to bottle.

I would look into the counter pressure beer gun so that you can keg everything and then just bottle from the keg.

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Cool, thanks, I forgot about the tabs - that will work for now at least. I probably will get the beer gun, or maybe. Seems lots of people complain about it being foamy - course people complain about everything. I have 525 faucets so the work arounds I have read about dont seem to apply.

diannotti said:

Appreciate the feedback but it looks like I would need the gun, as I went and bought 525 Perlicks which apparently don't work with the work around?

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I just have a beer line with a disconnect and a picnic tap that I use for filling bottles and growlers. I just disconnect the line to the faucet, hook up my BMBF to the keg and do my bottle filling, and then just hook the faucet line back up when I'm finished.

FermentedTed said:

I just have a beer line with a disconnect and a picnic tap that I use for filling bottles and growlers. I just disconnect the line to the faucet, hook up my BMBF to the keg and do my bottle filling, and then just hook the faucet line back up when I'm finished.

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Hadn't thought of picking up a picnic tap for that purpose. Love it, thanks.