3-in-1 CO2 tool for Racking, Bottling, and Kegging exist?

[GratefulBear]

Greetings gang,

I am new here, but I've done a fair amount of lurking the past couple weeks. I recently started brewing my own cider with a basic setup (airlock on a Whole Foods jug) and I'm realizing that my setup is not going to cut it for in the long run. I'm fortunate in that I've done a decent amount of traveling and seen what a great cider can be and now I'm a cider snob who's almost completely ditched beer. That being said, I'm trying to replicate amazing ciders and I could really use some help on one topic I'm struggling with. I'm trying to keep oxygen out as much as possible and I'm wondering if there's a tool that can be used to displace oxygen in both the sending and receiving receptacles for racking, bottling, and kegging. Like is there 1 tool that can perform all 3 tasks? (I think the key term I'm looking for is counter-pressure or counter-filling...) The Northern Brewer sale ends on the 22nd so I'm trying to take advantage and add the correct tool(s) to my carboy order. Thanks for sharing any knowledge!

~ GratefulBear

 

[Sessionz]

I just use my c02 system to close transfer from my Speidel 30l fermenter directly to a Corny keg. I installed a c02 post on the cap of my Speidel fermenter, then use ball lock connectors on either end to keep the system closed from 02. Works great!

 

[Beholder]

I have a unitank and spunding valve on fermenter and keg. Like above, I pressurize fermenter to 15 psi and set keg spunding valve to 10 psi that allows for counter pressure filling carbonated beer to the keg.

Without a fermenter that can take pressure, best you can do is run a tube from your blowoff into your receiving receptacle to purge it with CO2. If the tube is sanitized before hand, it can hooked to an auto-siphon to transfer to receiving vessel. While not perfectly oxygen free (due to oxygen in autosiphon and incursion into tubing when moving from blowoff), it would be pretty close.

 

[GratefulBear]

Thanks for the answers guys, all my research keeps leading back to pressurizable fermenters. Thinking about getting Kegmenters instead of carboys and getting the good stuff (Kegmenters are good right?) instead of doing cheap and regretting it. Thinking about getting 2 Kegmenters (one for primary, one for secondary) with spunding valves, a CO2 tank, Beer Gun, and trub filter for filling bottles right off the Kegmenter. Any thoughts on that setup?

 

[Robert65]

Look into 10 gallon cornies, available from Chi Company. Love mine.

 

[Beholder]

Thanks for the answers guys, all my research keeps leading back to pressurizable fermenters. Thinking about getting Kegmenters instead of carboys and getting the good stuff (Kegmenters are good right?) instead of doing cheap and regretting it. Thinking about getting 2 Kegmenters (one for primary, one for secondary) with spunding valves, a CO2 tank, Beer Gun, and trub filter for filling bottles right off the Kegmenter. Any thoughts on that setup?

I am certainly of the buy once cry once camp. There are many pressure holding fermenter options these days. A trend has been to ferment in corny kegs with fermcap or the like to avoid fowling the blow-off and a floating draw tube to avoid picking up trub. There are pressurized conicals that enable trub removal, so many options to look into.

I don’t have a beer gun myself, but instead use a racking cane hooked up to a picnic tap fit through a stopper for the odd occasion I want to bottle. I typically fill growlers and just use a length of tubing off the tap to avoid excessive aeration during filling.

For my serving, I have corny kegs and a keezer since I mainly drink draft with filling of other vessels less common. For fermentation, I have a half barrel jacketed unitank for primary, secondary, and brightening and allows counter pressure filling of the corny kegs.

At the end of the day, your optimal setup depends on your space, equipment you may already have, and what you want to do.

 

[Holy_Grail_Reference]

I agree that I love the beer gun, but with enough patience you can troll craiglist and find people selling Corny kegs on the cheap. Get yourself 3-4 Corny kegs and that will allow you to do a closed air transfer. Use a blow off to keep air out (and a spunding if you want to). Transfer from primary (just bend the dip tube to avoid some trub) and when it hits secondary cold crash it and add gelatin finings. Let that sit, then transfer into the third serving key or just bottle from the second keg. Oxygen never comes into the picture, except maybe a for 7 seconds while you add the finings, but you are going to be immedietly purging with CO2 after reclosing anyways. See the following link which is a pretty good video on it, even if the guy is a little weird. I have been using it for years.

 

[GratefulBear]

Realized I never did a follow-up to this thread. I must have got busy actually brewing (and with many other things) but better late than never. I ended up buying cornies and getting the floating dip tubes from Williams Brewing. I love the flexibility they add. If you're in a pinch you could even serve cider from your primary fermentation keg as it's going to draw from the top. I also did cornies instead of the plastic fermentasaurus because I wanted to stick with stainless and I wanted to be able to use my kegs to both brew and serve. The stainless steel Kegmenter is cool but if you're not getting the half barrel size, the pricing doesn't make sense. The price of the smaller Kegmenter is too high in comparison to getting a used corny and throwing a floating dip tube in it. That and the small kegmenter doesn't have good dimensions for putting multiple in a keezer. A late thank you to those who helped!