Failureat CO2 transferring.

[NaymzJaymz]

Friends,
In the brewing of my latest beer, a double IPA, I decided to get picky about oxidation. I purged all my tubing, headspace, and secondary fermenter with CO2 and felt good about the process. When it came time to transfer to the keg(my first ever time kegging), I purged the keg and applied CO2 to the carboy(about 3 psi) and open the pressure relief valve on the keg lid simultaneously. A couple of inches of beer went into the keg rather quickly, then the flow dramatically stopped, and the orange carboy cap popped off, as if the tube were clogged. The beer in the tube was crystal clear, having been cold crashed, and there's a protective cap on the bottom of the siphon tube. I finally gave up and examined the tube, and there wasn't the slighted hint of a clog. I ended up finishing the old fashioned way with an auto siphon, totally disgusted at my failure after being so anal about oxidation all along. Any ideas? I want to learn from this wasted CO2, Thank You!!!

 

[raouliii]

Maybe pressure relief valve closed? Did you try depressing the gas in post valve?

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I use a large SS worm clamp on the carboy cap when I do a CO2 push.
I also make sure the beer QD is latched on the keg securely and the keg manual PRV is latched open before turning on the CO2.

I start with the SS carboy dip tube above the beer and let the gas purge the tubing and keg, then I lower the dip tube and get the flow started. The receiving vessel (keg or another carboy) sits well below the carboy so once the beer is moving the gas is just nudging it along. The pressure never goes above 1 psi...

Cheers!

 

[NaymzJaymz]

Raoulii, yes I did open the pressure relief valve, but not the gas post. Thanks for the excellent picture, day tripper. That is similar to my set up, but mine is a bit more primitive in that I simple use hoses on the carboy cap. No valves. It seemed to work fine when I "practiced" using starsan. I'm pretty stumped. Even the siphon aspect should've worked with just a CO2 push.

 

[f_stepanski]

Could have been couple factors, some ideas to look at... Was the Keg and carboy on same level? (keg higher = back pressure. Does the pressure relief valve allow the flow of escaping gas = the supply? (could create back pressure). Suggest running a couple trial runs using water. Transferring water from Carboy to Keg a couple times to give you optimal settings, plus you don't have to worry about oxidation of the water.

Added note (may may not help) to accommodate keg-keg beer transfers I built a liquid to liquid transfer tube, for the receiving keg on the gas side I attached a gas connector with 3 inches of beer line then attached a picnic tap, opening the tap allows gas to escape & I don't have to pop the relief valve.

 

[Takuie]

with a small investment, or enough craftiness and junk laying around, you could switch to vacuum racking. I do it with my wine, never thought of trying it with beer.

 

[NaymzJaymz]

f stepanski, yes the keg was at a lower level and the pressure relief valve was pulled up and twisted in the open position, which makes it even more of a puzzlement in that it should have worked from the siphon effect. Here's a thought, I didn't mention that I was attempting to fill the keg through the serving tube to avoid splashing. Was I right to do that? Was the beer being "slowed down" too much going through the poppet? Why did it work fine for a half gallon and then stop?

 

[day_trippr]

If you look at my pic you'll see the beer line from the carboy terminates with a black beer QD.
That's definitely the preferred way to go rather than dropping the beer in via the gas post.

I can only guess something got plugged...

Cheers!

 

[chickypad]

I can only guess something got plugged...

That's what I'm thinking too. Did you take apart the black disconnect to see? I've had hops gunk that up before enough to block the transfer.

 

[NaymzJaymz]

So day tripper, we are doing it the same. Chickypad, as I said earlier I pulled the acrylic siphon tube out which had one of those protective plastic debris caps on the end. The beer had been cold crashed and fined with gelatin. There wasn't the slightest hint of debris pick up (including gelatin), nor was there any debris present in the clear tubing going to the black QD. Thank you all for your thoughts. I'm sure your as stumped as I am!

 

[foodgrade]

is the setup in the pic a CO2 extractor type of setting?

fwiw, I use a large SS worm clamp on the carboy cap when I do a CO2 push.
I also make sure the beer QD is latched on the keg securely and the keg manual PRV is latched open before turning on the CO2.

I start with the SS carboy dip tube above the beer and let the gas purge the tubing and keg, then I lower the dip tube and get the flow started. The receiving vessel (keg or another carboy) sits well below the carboy so once the beer is moving the gas is just nudging it along. The pressure never goes above 1 psi...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

is the setup in the pic a CO2 extractor type of setting?

No idea what that means.

What it is is a carboy cap with a gas post to accept CO2 from a standard regulator, with an SS dip tube in the other cap hole for the beer to be forced through....

Cheers!

 

[f_stepanski]

So many variables.. My guess as to why it did not blow immediately... As the gas was entering the carboy the pressure in carboy was low, over time pushing beer into the keg the pressure (granted though small) was building, and gas, like electricity & water look for the path of least resistance; which in this instance was the rubber cap atop the carboy.. So what to to to prevent in future. You mentioned "A couple of inches of beer went into the keg rather quickly" maybe the transfer was too quick, a reduction in pressure may fix this..

Now the the beer has been transferred I'd recommend you do same setup again only this time use water. If you repeatedly blow the rubber cap off the carboy maybe you need to slow down transfer rate.. Yeah putting a clamp on the carboy rubber seal will help keep it in place, what I'm not sure of is just how much pressure a carboy can handle. If you build up too much pressure inside a glass carboy & I would not want to be around to see the results..