Gelatin for kegs that will have to be transported.....

I have an event coming up which I'll be bringing (hopefully) 6 cornys of homebrew to serve.

In order to get this all done in time my carboys are all going to be serving primary fermenter duties, so I'd like to age/condition in kegs. My concern is that after they sit and everything settles out, the 3 hour car ride to this event is going to get everything mixed back into the beer pretty well. I plan to pour that first cloudy glass before I load them up, but that will only clear out the sediment around the dip tube, leaving plenty behind to cloud the beer up again.

What I'm wondering is if I rack onto gelatin when the beer goes into the keg, would this help everything re-settle faster once I get to the destination? I know it helps everything settle out in the secondary, but I can't find anything definite on if it will help again once the keg gets shaken up.

The schedule will be a 3 hour car ride (in a Durango with a rather stiff suspension, they'll get shaken up pretty good), then I can let them sit for a day, possibly two, and then about a 20 minute trip to the location where they will be served. Should have at least a few hours, maybe even 6 or so to let them settle again there.

Or am I just overthinking this?

At least a few of the kegs will be darker beers where cloudiness wouldn't really be noticeable, but there will also be some lighter colored batches that I would like to have a nice appearance when served.

Transferring from one keg to another might be possible for a few of the batches, but I'm already spending a ton on new gear to make this happen so I'd like to not have to buy any extra kegs just for the purpose of transferring beer around....

 

The gelatin might help things settle faster the second time around, but I'm not really sure. Transferring works great, and doesn't require much extra equipment. All you need is one empty keg and a jumper made with two liquid QD's and a short piece of beer line. In case you haven't done a counterpressure transfer before, here are the steps:

1) DC the gas from a full keg, and gently vent it to release the pressure.
2) turn your gas reg down to 2-4 psi and pressurize both the full and empty keg with that low pressure (purge the empty if it hasn't been already).
3) connect the kegs together from liquid out to liquid out with the jumper.
4) put the gas on the full keg, and gently pull the pressure relief valve on the empty keg to move the beer.
5) when transfer is complete, disconnect everything and clean/sanitize the now empty keg.
6) transfer the next keg into the freshly cleaned/sanitized keg using the same method.

Obviously you want to avoid disturbing the full kegs for this process, so make sure your jumper is long enough to reach the keg from its current position to wherever the empty keg will be.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable with the transfer process itself, I'm just trying to think it all through and minimize the amount of "extra" equipment I'll have to buy. I currently have 2 kegs, so I'm going to have to buy 4 more. Plus I still have ingredients to buy, and will probably have to spring for another fermenter. With money being tight these days that all adds up to not really wanting to have to buy a 7th keg if I don't have to.

I think if I plan it right, though, I can do it with the six kegs, as long as I fill the last one with a Hefe or something that isn't really supposed to be clear anyway.

Might still do the gelatin anyway just for good measure, although I'm debating that since from what I've read it sort of eliminates my option to naturally carb.

 

Why not just pour the first few pints at home to remove the sediment and gelatin before you have to transfer it? This seems like the easiest method IMO.

 

Because from cleaning empty kegs I've noticed that doing that only clears out the sediment immediately surrounding the dip tube. Even after kicking a keg that poured nice and clear the whole way through there was still plenty of sediment at the bottom except for about a one inch circle around the dip tube.

With all of the moving around I'm going to have to do, that stuff is sure to get stirred back up.

If this was 5 years ago I would probably just spring for a filter system and be done with it. Unfortunately, this recession gave me a good hard kick square in the nuts and cash is a big issue these days, so I'm trying to figure out how to get the best results possible with the gear I already have on hand (or will be having to buy anyway).

 

The first pour only gets the sludge in the immediate vicinity of the diptube. There's still a lot of sludge covering the rest of the bottom of the keg.

Edit: Too slow.

 

OK, makes sense. I've never had to move a keg before.

 

Yeah, it's the fact that I have to transport them that has me worried. I normally just stick them in the fridge and it's not an issue. But transporting them a couple hundred miles in a rough riding vehicle is going to stir up a lot of stuff that I never give a thought to when they're just sitting in my basement fridge.

And it's also a money issue. I can think of several good solutions to the problem, but they all require more money than I can really be spending right now, so I'm hoping that a lack of cash can be overcome by some creativity... (Like using two bucks worth of gelatin instead of $200 worth of filtration gear...)

Also wanting feedback since providing the beer for the reception is our wedding gift (this is at the bride's request). So it's not a situation where I can give it a shot and try something else if it doesn't work. I have a deadline to work with. I figure asking here will at least open up the possibility for someone to say "No, I tried that idea and it doesn't work at all".

In the end, if it's cloudy beer, then it will just have to be cloudy beer. Just trying to figure out way's to avoid that if at all possible within my budget.

 

Do you have an empty fermenter you can rack to long enough to clean out the keg and then rack the beer back into the keg?

 

I might by then, but I'm not positive. Plus I always try to avoid racking whenever it can be avoided. I'm a firm believer that beer is best left alone as much as possible.

That's a possibility, though.

Also, of the 6 batches I'm planning to bring, a Hefe is definitely on the list. I figure this one can be brewed last, and racked straight from primary into the keg at the last minute with just enough time to carb it up. That style is suppposed to be cloudy anyway.

This should give me that extra empty keg I need to transfer the others around.