Ok, I decided to keg tonight at day 11. Loosely followed the original recipe. I used 2.5 oz Citra and 0.5 oz Galaxy at flameout (0 min), whirlpool at 165 F (30 mins), and double that on dry hop at day 4 for a total of 10 oz Citra and 2 Galaxy. It’s not carbed yet but one of the best beers I have made in 20 batches or so. I attempted to rack from primary (6.5 G carboy w/carboy cap) to keg under for the first time. Let me tell you, that was a disaster. The racking cane, the beer line, and the keg quick disconnects kept clogging, then the pressure would build high enough to blow the carboy cap off the keg. Halfway through racking I decided to just open the keg and bypass the quick disconnect. Maybe I didn’t expose my beer to to much oxygen. Needless to say I had beer from one end of the kitchen to the other. Can someone with more experience than I shed some light on how you successfully do a closed from carboy to keg without clogging issues due to dry hops? Joys of homebrewing. Lol
I don't do closed transfers with this beer....... I have found it to a be a monumental PITA because of clogging issues.....
Some things you can do if you want to do closed transfer....
1.) Make sure you get the fermenter up on the counter you are using and set in place a couple days before transfer to let things settle out. (Actually - do this no matter how you transfer)
2.) Keep siphon away from the bottom
3.) Maybe cold crash
4.) Some people use a filter
5.) Take the poppets out of the keg posts and take the "guts" out of the black disconnect going on the post
Personally, I just fill the keg with star san, push it all out with CO2. Get everything in place. Release the pressure from the keg, pop the lid, run the tubing from spigot on my fermenter (racking cane for you) and make sure it is long enough to go to the bottom of the keg. Transfer via gravity. I set the lid back on during transfer to minimize the opening. Once the keg gets about half full or 2/3 full, I turn the CO2 on to the keg at a low 2-3 psi to minimize O2 as much as I can. Fill to just below the the CO2 tube. Stop transfer, pull out tubing, Put lid on, open pressure release and let CO2 run through the small head space for 30-60 seconds at low pressure to purge any 02. Then close pressure release and crank up CO2 to 20psi to seal the lid.
** Also, find ways to minimize hop material that is getting moved from one stage to the other - that is a big help. That is why I brew 6.5 gallons and leave wort/beer behind at various stages.
This is what I do and it works perfectly fine. Doing it several times and getting the process you use down is honestly about 80% of the battle. Once you get a process in place and use it, you become very efficient at it.