So I'm getting a free vacuum pump

[Hound_Dog]

I wanted to know if anyone has tried to transfer to a secondary in a carboy by pulling vacuum on the carboy and letting it pull the beer over. It seems like it could work very well with little to no chance of aeration. Any thoughts?

 

[Cheeto]

It sounds like a great Idea, you should try it and put up a pictorial about it !!!


-Jason

 

[Hound_Dog]

I think I will. It may be a few weeks before I have it, but I'll try to get some video.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Glass carboys are not rated for positive pressure, as with carbonation. I wonder how they will handle negative pressure from a vacuum? Seems like the sort of thing that could be great, or could be the source of another "I was injured when my carboy broke" threads. I hope not the latter.

Now if you are transferring from a carboy to a Corny keg, and the vacuum is on the keg, it should be pretty much risk free as long as the vacuum is on the keg and the carboy can "breathe".

 

[Clayton]

i have been doing this for a few years and it works great. i use a medical aspirator
just make sure you have a fuild trap in line before the pump or you will wreak your pump and have to tare it down and clean it all out.

the way i do it is i use a SS racking cane with a carboy cap. I set the racking cane depth. if i am rack to secondary i use a second rackign cane and cap. but i dont do seconderys very much just long preomarys and hearty cold crash.

So the tube off my racking cane has a Bev Out connector on it.
My aspirator has a gas in connector. Hook the pump to the keg first
and draw a little bit of vacume , about 15 bars or so, them hook up the carboy
this get the flow to start real fast.
The best part is that you can vacume the beer off the bottom so you can tilt and get it all and not worry about losting siphon.
after a nice long primary and cold crash the yeast cake is so solid, that with the pump you can carefully get almost all the beer and none of the yeast.

 

[Hound_Dog]

Good to hear that Clayton. I'm supposed to order kegging equipment later this week so that was my other thought. I'm glad to hear it works so well for you. I can't wait to give this a try.

 

[Bsquared]

I've also been using a vacuum pump to move my wort from the kettle through my CFC in to the carboy. I've been using it for about 2 years and have not had any issues with carboys not being able to handle the negative pressure needed to transfer.

Like Clayton said, set up a filter to prevent liquid getting in to the pump.

One good benefit of using a vacuum pump, it that by lowering the pressure in the carboy O2 is more readily absorbed in to the wort,and you are effectively aerating your wort during the transfer.

Edit-with changes

One good benefit of using a vacuum pump, it the act of lowering the pressure in the carboy O2 is more readily absorbed into the wort because the two are moving past each other,and you are effectively aerating your wort during the transfer.

The way I had this worded before violates Henry's gas law which is the principle of force carbonation. sorry if I caused any confusion, the Wort wizard website has a good explanation for how creating a vacuum in the carboy facilitates aeration.

 

[Benjibbad]

I was thinking about something like this recently. I came across the wort wizzard but I think those are meant to be used with a plate chiller