Temp reduction suckback - Let's brainstorm

bigljd · Apr 7, 2011

This may have suggested already (also didn't read the whole thread), but I crash cool every batch before kegging and just throw one of those $2 S shaped airlocks on and there's no suckback issue with those. No need to overcomplicate things.

Edit: I re-read some of the recent posts and I guess the concern is no longer suckback, but oxygen getting back in. Guess the s airlock won't help with that.

johnnybrew · Apr 7, 2011

bigljd said:
Edit: I re-read some of the recent posts and I guess the concern is no longer suckback, but oxygen getting back in. Guess the s airlock won't help with that.

Yeah, more of a concern with O2 than with bugs. But, I prefer to ensure no goobers are getting in there and use the filter for good measure.

dermotstratton · Jun 6, 2012

I'm getting ready to cold crash my conical and found this thread very useful. I understand the concern about avoiding oxygen and bugs when cold crashing. The thing I'm still confused about, though, is how to avoid oxygen and bugs from entering the brew when you are racking or taking samples from the vessel?

Right now, when I take a sample, I pick my hose out of my StarSan bucket and then use sample valve on conical to take the sample. When I do this, I realize I am pulling in oxygen and potential bugs. I have since thought that I could dip a piece of paper towel in StarSan solution and rubber band it to the end of the hose to act as a kind of filter for macro-sized crap from getting into the conical during sampling and/or racking keg. This will not prevent oxygen from getting in, though.

So, I guess my question is what good is it to come up with this complex solution to cold crashing if you've not already found a better way to sample and/or rack from your vessel? Is there an easier solution to sampling/racking that I am missing?

johnnybrew · Jun 6, 2012

Whenever I take the airlock off and grab a sample, I always purge the carboy with CO2 after I put the airlock back on. Take a look at the previous pic that shows the type of carboy cap I use. All I do is take the little white plastic cap off of the sample line on the carboy cap, put the filter on, and then run CO2 through the filter into the carboy. It makes the airlock bubble like crazy. So, I usually need to add a little more cheapo vodka to the airlock. I do this for about 30+ secs.

Also, every time I rack to the keg I purge my keg with CO2 BEFORE and AFTER racking.

I try and minimize O2 exposure to a great degree and have seen an improvement in my beer. Mostly, I see the improvement for kegs that sit for months; they stay fresher longer and I rarely see any negative effects from O2 / staling.

Good luck.

dermotstratton · Jun 6, 2012

That makes sense, I guess I could come up with an equivalent solution on my conical. I guess all I really need to do is stick a hose down into the head space, blast some CO2 in there for about 30 seconds to displace the O2 I just sucked in and then re-attach the blowoff tube. right?

For racking to a keg, I can just splurge and buy this CO2 adapter. It would be nice if it had 4 outlets instead of 3, though. Then you could have 1 outlet hooked up to conical, 1 outlet dedicated to thermowell, 1 outlet dedicated to airlock and 1 outlet dedicated to CO2 purge. I think that would work, right?

I would be very interested to do a side by side comparison of a beer done with and without this hypersensitivity to O2 and see if you can detect a difference after 6 months of aging.