I am just getting into kegging and today was my first attempt at a closed-loop transfer. I ferment in glass carboys, so to make a closed loop, I got an orange carboy cap and fit it with a carbonator cap and a stainless racking cane. I hooked the carbonator cap to the gas post of my keg and the racking cane to the beer post.
I tried to get the siphon started by hooking my tank to the carbonator cap and pushing co2 into the carboy, but the siphon just wouldn't go. (I had the purging valve popped open, so pressure in the keg wasn't the problem. And there seemed to be some pressure in the carboy, but I guess not enough.) While I was hoping for a totally O2 free transfer, I had to resort to blowing into the carboy cap to get it started and then popping in the carbonator so the rest of the carboy headspace would fill with Co2 from the keg.
It worked great until it got to the last few inches of beer. It started moving really slowly, which sucked because I was holding the carboy at an angle by this point. At some point, I accidentally moved the siphon end above the beer and it stopped flowing. I still had a good bit of beer left in there that I really wanted to transfer. (I brew small batches, so it really adds up.) I tried once again to hook up the tank and see if I could get things flowing, but it only made a tiny trickle of beer come up the hosing. I had enough pressure by the end that the cap popped off, but no siphon. I had to waste a good bit of beer because I had no way to get it into the keg without popping the lid.
Any ideas on what's going on? I don't understand why I can start the siphon with my breath but not a rank. And I hate the idea of losing so much beer in the transfer. My first instinct was just to get rid of all my glass carboys and switch to fermonsters with spigots. I can put some posts in the lid and make life easier on myself. I expect that my risk of losing beer is a lot less with that type of setup, too. But before I go through the effort of swapping out all my fermenters, any suggestions on how to improve my system for carboys? Any advice is appreciated!
I tried to get the siphon started by hooking my tank to the carbonator cap and pushing co2 into the carboy, but the siphon just wouldn't go. (I had the purging valve popped open, so pressure in the keg wasn't the problem. And there seemed to be some pressure in the carboy, but I guess not enough.) While I was hoping for a totally O2 free transfer, I had to resort to blowing into the carboy cap to get it started and then popping in the carbonator so the rest of the carboy headspace would fill with Co2 from the keg.
It worked great until it got to the last few inches of beer. It started moving really slowly, which sucked because I was holding the carboy at an angle by this point. At some point, I accidentally moved the siphon end above the beer and it stopped flowing. I still had a good bit of beer left in there that I really wanted to transfer. (I brew small batches, so it really adds up.) I tried once again to hook up the tank and see if I could get things flowing, but it only made a tiny trickle of beer come up the hosing. I had enough pressure by the end that the cap popped off, but no siphon. I had to waste a good bit of beer because I had no way to get it into the keg without popping the lid.
Any ideas on what's going on? I don't understand why I can start the siphon with my breath but not a rank. And I hate the idea of losing so much beer in the transfer. My first instinct was just to get rid of all my glass carboys and switch to fermonsters with spigots. I can put some posts in the lid and make life easier on myself. I expect that my risk of losing beer is a lot less with that type of setup, too. But before I go through the effort of swapping out all my fermenters, any suggestions on how to improve my system for carboys? Any advice is appreciated!
