Secondary with a conical fermenter

[sleev-les]

I have a question that I've been curious about, but have not ever seen any bad come from. I'm using a plastic fast fermenter. After the primary fermentation (most beers about 7 to 10 days I let set) I pull the trub bulb, clean it out, fill with water and reconnect for another week or so. I usually pull the top of the fermenter and take a gravity reading as well. Being that you don't want oxygen to get to the beer, do you guys ever push a small amount of CO2 into the fermenter to protect the top layer of the beer or do you just let it go? I just let it go and haven't had any issue, but I always like to find ways to minimize risk. Especially getting into cooler temps and I want to lager some brews. I know when racking to secondary on carboys you want as little airspace as possible and that isn't possible with the fast fermenter. Just curious how you guys approach this.

 

[Jag75]

I've used fast fermenter for years and one of the best additions is a sampling port. Anytime I draw beer out of it hook up co2 through the top of the airlock and push at about 2psi. That goes for closed transfers as well.

 

[sleev-les]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. I'll have to get the sampling port and go that route.