pressure transfer from Fermzilla w/floating dip tube to purged corny keg

[ebbelwoi]

I'm hoping to transfer a pilsner into a corny keg tomorrow. Normally, I wouldn't give it much thought, but my CO2 tank is running low, tomorrow's Sunday, and my CO2 supplier isn't open on Sundays. I'm worried about running out of CO2 mid-transfer.

How should I go about this?

If possible, I'd like to purge the keg first. If I run out of CO2 while purging, I can just leave the beer in the fermenter until I get a refill. But if there's enough left in the canister to complete the purge, do I really need all that much to push the beer out of the Fermzilla, or will gravity and siphoning action help me out? Will the floating dip tube (SS ball) complicate matters?

I'm trying figure out a way to use a little higher pressure in one of the vessels, and connecting the gas to gas and liquid to liquid in a sequence that will get the ball rolling (and the beer flowing). The keg will be on the floor, and the Fermzilla is at about waist height. I'd like to feed the CO2 from the purged keg back into the Fermzilla to replace the lost volume as the beer is transferred out.

This should work, right? Can anyone give me the correct process, in the correct order?

 

[Elric]

Have your fermzilla a few psi higher than the keg. Hook up liquid to liquid then hook up gas to gas. The pressure differential will start the beer flowing from fermzilla to keg And the gravity from the height difference will help.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Thanks! Does it matter which gas post I connect first?

How about chilling the keg first to lower the pressure before I start? Would it make enough of a difference to matter?

 

[Elric]

Since gas won’t flow until both sides are connected it doesn’t matter which connects first. Since the keg will be empty I don’t see any point in chilling it first, you basically only need enough pressure in the keg to make sure your lid is seated tight before you start the transfer, and you just have to make sure the fermenter is at least several psi higher.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Thanks again for the help. I think my liquid-liquid hose was a little too long, and I didn't have enough gravity on my side, so I had to use pressure, but I had enough CO2 left to finish the job.