can you transfer carbonated beer?

[slcdawg]

Note to self: do not dry hop in the keg without a hop bag.

Working on my process and thought I would save some time by not using a muslin bag when dry hopping in the keg. I figured (incorrectly) that the hops would settle to the bottom and I would just pour off a pint.

Instead, my dip tube got clogged. Got it cleared but several pints later and I still have floaties.

Question: are there any reasons why I can't transfer a carbed beer to a 2nd keg with a siphon? Sounds ok to me, but dry hopping in the keg sounded ok too.

 

[BigB]

Sure can. You might lose a bit of carbonation, but that'll come back after a couple days. I'd wrap the siphon in a sanitized paint strainer bag though.

 

[Psych]

Oh wow you would get SO much foam though if it's a carbed keg...you'd almost want to fully uncarb it first if you're going to try an open vessel to open vessel siphon using your regular siphon equipment. As your beer hits different sizes of hose and bumps and stuff, or as it comes down into the receiving keg, or even as it pulls through whatever you use to filter out the hops. I'd imagine a big foamy mess.

What I'd do if I was in your shoes and had the right equipment, do a pressurized keg-to-keg transfer using a short length of tubing with two liquid ball locks on the ends, attached to both the outs on your kegs. Both kegs sealed, have the receiving keg at the same pressure as the source keg, then pull the pressure relief pin occasionally to start the transfer.

Now you're thinking "But the clog and the hops!" which would get in the way of this. So you'd ALSO have to pull the out dip tube on your source keg and attach something to the bottom of it that'll effectively filter hops. Hopefully you're talking Leaf hops and not pellets. If pellets you're screwed probably...but if leaf, a bazooka screen should do it.

 

[justkev52]

I did it once, at least my kids did.
Party Taps were frozen so they decided to transfer to another keg for some unknown reason.
I came in in the middle of it.
They lost some beer in the transition but there were no problems with the beer after they transferred it.
If I were to do it, I'd uncarbonate it first.
There was a bunch of foam going on

 

[slcdawg]

Good to know. Not sure I want to uncarb it. Might just live with a couple floaties. Live and learn I suppose.

 

[slcdawg]

OK, do it wasn't as bad as I expected. Lines clogged again, so I decided to transfer. The keg foamed some, but was manageable since it wasnt completely full.

I can't believe how much those pellets expand when wet! All kinds of gunk in there. I used a hop bag in another keg... 2oz turned into a softball sized bag!

 

[mors]

I transfer carbonated beer all the time. I often do closed fermentations at 15psi. After fermentation I'm left with beer was carbonated at 15psi at fermentation temp. A regular siphon works just fine. The only time it really causes me problems is if I want to use a vacuum pump to transfer it... then foaming is an issue... ;-)

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

OK, do it wasn't as bad as I expected. Lines clogged again, so I decided to transfer. The keg foamed some, but was manageable since it wasnt completely full.

I can't believe how much those pellets expand when wet! All kinds of gunk in there. I used a hop bag in another keg... 2oz turned into a softball sized bag!

Think about a bowling ball 8oz flameout!!

 

[SpentBrains]

Wish to high heaven I'd have read this about 2 weeks ago... What a funky mess I have now...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7931628#post7931628

 

[frozengator]

Just to be clear, yes you can transfer.from your place to mine.

 

[RevKev]

Yes you can. Second keg can be purged and you can daisy​chain them and purge to fill

 

[jdonley]

I think I read somewhere that both vessels should be chilled.