Hey all, so i recently purchased a blichamann conical with the hope of being able to reduce the amount of transfers and reduce oxygen exposure to my homebrew. Ive put 3 batches through my conical but I seem to be missing something when it comes to transferring my finished beer out of the conical and into the kegs. My typical procedure goes as follows, dump yeast 3 or 4 times as fermentation slows,crash cool for a few days, hook up gas to the top port, connect my tubing from the racking port to the beer out post on my keg, open up the vent on the keg and open up the racking valve. Now the problem I'm having is when i open the valve the flow of liquid out of the conical is extremely slow and will stop multiple times during the transfer which is a total pain in the ass. Most recently i was transferring a pale ale out of the conical and had the same low to no flow onto the keg, so i abandoned the closed transfer and just placed my tubing into the bottom of the keg. When i did this i was still experiencing the same low flow until suddenly air was sucked back through the racking arm into conical which bubbled up through my beer. After that happened magically it seemed to create a siphon and then i had a full flow of beer out of the conical into my keg. The only thing i could think is that trub and or dry hops may be impeding the flow out of the conical. Anyone have any insight as to what I could change for my transfers to work as they should ?
Conical Racking Issues
- Thread starter Daves1186
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Dcpcooks
Well-Known Member
It sounds like a vacuum is being created. Are you pushing the beer with co2? Are you removing the airlock? Id try both of those solutions, it should help.
I agree that it sounds like there's a vacuum from it sucking air back into the conical. But it doesn't make sense if you're pressurizing the head space. Not sure I can reconcile this at the moment.
Besides that, are you venting the keg as you're filling it with beer? If not then you're pressurizing the keg as it fills with beer and that's going to limit your flow. Fluids flow from high pressure to low pressure. So in order to push out beer using CO2 into an unvented keg you would need to progressively increase the pressure which is not feasible. That's why i think you're getting limited flow. the hose is acting like a vent and a feed tube cutting off flow. Similar to turning over a gallon jug of water and seeing it gulp out but if you stick a straw in to vent it flows nicely. If you are venting the keg then I have no idea and good luck.
Besides that, are you venting the keg as you're filling it with beer? If not then you're pressurizing the keg as it fills with beer and that's going to limit your flow. Fluids flow from high pressure to low pressure. So in order to push out beer using CO2 into an unvented keg you would need to progressively increase the pressure which is not feasible. That's why i think you're getting limited flow. the hose is acting like a vent and a feed tube cutting off flow. Similar to turning over a gallon jug of water and seeing it gulp out but if you stick a straw in to vent it flows nicely. If you are venting the keg then I have no idea and good luck.
Thanks guys, yeah it does seem like there is vacuum being created for some reason. What Ive been doing prior to transferring is to remove the airlock and hook up co2 to the airlock port. I pump around 2-3psi into the conical and then open up the racking port. I did notice that the fermenter lid was leaking co2 upon pressurizing and yes I do open up the vent on the keg. Could My issue have something to do with me not properly sealing the fermenter lid? Also after I hook up the co2 I attach my hose to the racking port and then to the out port of my keg. When I open the racking port the flow seems to just barely trickle into the hose. Do I need to start the flow before hooking up to the keg. Does it make sense that having air in the hose at the beginning of the transfer instead of liquid would impeed the flow?
Goolsbymd
Well-Known Member
What's the height difference? Is your keg higher, lower or same level as the conical?
I have a 14.5 gallon Blichmann conical and I use Co2 during transfer into my kegs. I open up the racking port ball valve and start the flow into the tubing and into the keg. I fill the keg in through the out post/dip tube. I turn on the gas after the beer fills the tubing and starts to flow into the keg and it works fine for me. If you have a poor seal on the top lid and are leaking Co2 this might be part of the problem. Try putting some oil on the threads of the T-handle and this will enable you to really crank down on the metal lid band and hopefully seal the lid with no leaks. If you don't put oil on the threads you will risk galling the threads and it will be very hard to tighten the lid enough to not have it leak. Something to try anyway......
John
John
