Closed-system pressurized fermentation technique!

[acidrain]

taking samples from a pressure vessel couldn't be easier. Why the long face?

 

[Firewalker11]

I have a second IPA in the can fermenting from last Fridays brew day. I have the STC 1000+ running an ale profile and the spunding valve set to 7psi.

I learned my lesson about straining hops though, jammed the pickup tube full of hops and can't pull a sample. I'll let it finish the profile and pull the tube after cold crashing, give it more radius and see if I can't keep it clear enough to transfer the beer to a serving keg.

I am planning on filtering this beer though, is going to the state fair so it has to be clear.

 

[wbarber69]

A bit of gelatin finings and a decent cold crash will provide beer just as clear as if you filtered.

 

[Tegra]

Since I have been doing my full carbonation while cold crashing (using store co2 from the ferment) I have had to wait for a couple weeks to clear. This last beer with more hops is not completely clear even three weeks later.

I stopped using gelatine when my beers seemed to clear with crashing alone. It does seem that the carbonating is interfering with the clearing.

I might have to either delay connection of the stored co2 for a week or add gelatine after crashing.

Don't mind drinking it myself but would like to have clear beer to share.

Tom

 

[Firewalker11]

Gelatin isn't an option for me, I have a vegan kid (I know, I know) and that's not going to work. I also have to provide clear beer and can't take the chance of sediment or cloudy beer.

The pressurized system sure has made for a clean and minimalistic brewing setup though. Single pot BIAB, dunk sparge, pressurized fermentation... Clean and fast.

 

[wbarber69]

Vegans eat jello all the time. No one knows that stuff is made of ground up cows.

 

[Mer-man]

Gelatin isn't an option for me, I have a vegan kid (I know, I know)

So keep your kid out of your beer!

 

[Firewalker11]

Can't, he is my brew buddy!

 

[beerkench]

Been reading up on this and wondering what the downsides are? It seems to make perfect sense so I'm wondering why it isn't more popular?
Fast, fizzy and fresh kegged beer with no oxidization and less use of CO2!
I guess dry hopping could be an issue.
I live in Europe so I'm looking at this https://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/beer/...essure-release-valve-gauge-for-cornelius.html

 

[acidrain]

The only down side is cleaning the fermentation vessel. I use Sanke kegs (they have a very narrow bung), so it's difficult. Looks like from the link you are going to use Corny kegs? Those are a lot easier to clean, but difficult to seal since pressure is needed to make a good seal. Typically the poor initial seal lets all the gas escape before a good seal is made.
BTW, I use a pressure washer with a 90 deg. tip to clean my vessels. Works great if you have access to a pressure washer.

 

[beerkench]

The only down side is cleaning the fermentation vessel. I use Sanke kegs (they have a very narrow bung), so it's difficult. Looks like from the link you are going to use Corny kegs? Those are a lot easier to clean, but difficult to seal since pressure is needed to make a good seal. Typically the poor initial seal lets all the gas escape before a good seal is made.
BTW, I use a pressure washer with a 90 deg. tip to clean my vessels. Works great if you have access to a pressure washer.

Yes I have Cornies and they're a dream to clean. I can get my arm almost in all the way. Do you mean that the initial pressure from fermentation isn't enough to seal the gaskets?
If so what tips are there to help it seal?

 

[1MadScientist]

Keg lube and 5 pounds of CO2 for initial seal works for me.

 

[wbarber69]

You can also do the keg lube thing. But instead of doing 5 lbs, you pump it up to 10-15. Once a seal is established you can de-pressurize the corney and it should retain a good seal at the lower psi later. I have some real crappy kegs I got on purpose that were labeled bad when I bought them. I knew I could either fix them or turn them into something. I have one that's nearly perfect but the lid lip is deformed and this is the only way I can get it to seal reliably.

 

[crane]

You can also do the keg lube thing. But instead of doing 5 lbs, you pump it up to 10-15. Once a seal is established you can de-pressurize the corney and it should retain a good seal at the lower psi later. I have some real crappy kegs I got on purpose that were labeled bad when I bought them. I knew I could either fix them or turn them into something. I have one that's nearly perfect but the lid lip is deformed and this is the only way I can get it to seal reliably.

All of my corny kegs are very used and need 10-15 psi to seal. I found that sealing at this pressure then dropping to 3-5 worked, but doing so seamed to compromise the health of the yeast as fermentation was slow and resulted in a higher than expected final gravity. Since then I only use sanke kegs for fermentation and I'm back to faster finishing fermentation and lower FG's.

 

[wbarber69]

I was referring to a keg you were using for blowoff. But since we're on the subject. Basically you would have to transfer into the bad keg from another keg. Or you'd have to pump straight into the keg inlet, which isn't recommended because of the diameter of the fittings. I only use my bad kegs as blowoff or secondary/serving vessels.

 

[beerkench]

Thanks for the tips. Another question:
I only have a couple of kegs so will it be ok to transfer to the keg as a secondary post high krausen and serve from the same keg? Or will there be too much yeast deposit?


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

 

[wbarber69]

Thanks for the tips. Another question:
I only have a couple of kegs so will it be ok to transfer to the keg as a secondary post high krausen and serve from the same keg? Or will there be too much yeast deposit?


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

Sometimes I filter and that's how I do it. When the primary is done I let it sit and crash for a couple days then I filter to the second keg to carb up and clear out further. Then I serve from the same keg.

 

[beerkench]

Sometimes I filter and that's how I do it. When the primary is done I let it sit and crash for a couple days then I filter to the second keg to carb up and clear out further. Then I serve from the same keg.

Sorry I didn't explain my intention too clearly. Due to my lack of kegs, I want to primary in a normal plastic fv and then transfer to the serving keg at the back end of fermentation to carbonate. I'm wondering though if this will leave too much yeast deposit in the serving keg?


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I was wondering how I'd dry hop using this technique. Well, here's an idea: Jack's Abby Brewing: Spunding and Slurming Updates

 

[beerkench]

Sorry I didn't explain my intention too clearly. Due to my lack of kegs, I want to primary in a normal plastic fv and then transfer to the serving keg at the back end of fermentation to carbonate. I'm wondering though if this will leave too much yeast deposit in the serving keg?


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

Anyone tried this way?



Sent from hell
using Home Brew

 

[wbarber69]

As long as you don't intend to be serving out the back of a moving truck. The yeast will settle at the bottom and you'll be good to go.

 

[beerkench]

As long as you don't intend to be serving out the back of a moving truck. The yeast will settle at the bottom and you'll be good to go.

Is there risk of autolysis affecting flavour?


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

 

[crane]

I was wondering how I'd dry hop using this technique. Well, here's an idea: Jack's Abby Brewing: Spunding and Slurming Updates

The method you linked to doesn't seem very applicable or necessary for the home brew scale of brewing.

My method goes as follows. After primary fermentation is done I place my dry hops in a second keg that has a screen on the dip tube to filter out the hops later on. I seal the keg with the hops in it and purge it with CO2. Then I transfer the beer under pressure (fully Carbonated at 30psi) from primary to dry hopping keg. Let sit for a week or so to dry hop then transfer to another keg to cold crash and then serve out of.

 

[Firewalker11]

Anyone tried this way?



Sent from hell
using Home Brew

Yupper, my first and second pressurized fermentation went just like that. Now it's all done in the keg from start to serving.

 

[wbarber69]

Is there risk of autolysis affecting flavour?


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

Of course. If the yeast is still present there will be some activity even at lower temps. I guess it depends on how long it takes to kick a keg. But unless you use gelatin. Then filter and finally pasteurize your beer, you're always going to have some yeast in there. In my opinion, or should I say in my past experiences, I've actually seen some of my beers get better with time while sitting in the keg.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

+1. After fermentation begins the refractometer never agrees with the hydrometer reading. It's close but not reliable. I built an air lock from a water filter housing and cutoff part of a sanke dip tube. Being able to watch the bubbling allows me to gauge where the fermentation is at so I usually only take one sample before cold crashing to make sure I'm at or below the final gravity I'm expecting.

Crane, where did you get that filter housing, and how did you attach the spear to the center? And also, you have MFL fittings on it, what size is the pipe thread for them?

 

[wbarber69]

Crane, where did you get that filter housing, and how did you attach the spear to the center? And also, you have MFL fittings on it, what size is the pipe thread for them?

I can't speak for him but I think I got my filter from Midwest or Austin homebrew supply. It was a while back. The filter housings I see in the big box store are slightly different from this model now a days. What was nice about getting it from a brew supply is it came with barbs for beer line (I think they also sold a more expensive model with the mfl connectors). I bought mine originally as a transfer filter. It looks like he just cut down a spear and shoved it in the hole.

 

[crane]

Crane, where did you get that filter housing, and how did you attach the spear to the center? And also, you have MFL fittings on it, what size is the pipe thread for them?

The filter_housing can be bought on amazon.

The MFL_fittings are from McMaster.

Yes I paid more for the flare fittings than I did for the filter housing. Still comes out cheaper than the filter Midwest supplies is selling (not to mention the fact that midwest screwed up the last 3 orders I placed with them so I am boycotting them from now on). I have a number of hoses for transfers, fermenting, etc. so having everything be a flare fitting is convenient for reuse of hoses.

The spear is cut down from a keg that I cut the top off for a boil kettle. I cut the spear down with a pipe cutter, which turned out to help make a good seal. The spear slides over the center part of the top that holds the filters in place. The uncut end was snug and fit well, but wasn't air tight. The first time I used it no bubbles were pushed through the water. The other end was curved in from the pipe cutter, so I used some needle nose pliers to widen it a bit and then I was able to barely fit it over the end of the center part of the top. A couple of persuasive taps with a hammer and it was bottomed out and was air tight. It works great as a pressure air lock. It saved my spunding valve on one fermentation as I had 6 gallons in a 7.5 gallon sanke and forgot to put fermcap in. A few inches of blow off made it into the airlock that time. I generally use fermcap and that does a good job of keeping the krausen from leaving the keg. I'll post a picture of it in action when I get a chance.

I have also removed the spear to use the filter housing for filtering beer and the spear is still air tight after reinstalling it. I'm sure if I remove and replace it continuously, it will eventually fail to be air tight. When that time comes I will just pay another $16 for a new filter housing.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

Thanks, I went to Home Depot and Lowes to check out their filter housings, and both had smaller centers that wouldn't fit a spear. Plus, the inlet and outlet were 3/4 pipe thread, I would have to buy reducers.

 

[1MadScientist]

The filter_housing can be bought on amazon.

The MFL_fittings are from McMaster.

Yes I paid more for the flare fittings than I did for the filter housing. Still comes out cheaper than the filter Midwest supplies is selling (not to mention the fact that midwest screwed up the last 3 orders I placed with them so I am boycotting them from now on). I have a number of hoses for transfers, fermenting, etc. so having everything be a flare fitting is convenient for reuse of hoses.

The spear is cut down from a keg that I cut the top off for a boil kettle. I cut the spear down with a pipe cutter, which turned out to help make a good seal. The spear slides over the center part of the top that holds the filters in place. The uncut end was snug and fit well, but wasn't air tight. The first time I used it no bubbles were pushed through the water. The other end was curved in from the pipe cutter, so I used some needle nose pliers to widen it a bit and then I was able to barely fit it over the end of the center part of the top. A couple of persuasive taps with a hammer and it was bottomed out and was air tight. It works great as a pressure air lock. It saved my spunding valve on one fermentation as I had 6 gallons in a 7.5 gallon sanke and forgot to put fermcap in. A few inches of blow off made it into the airlock that time. I generally use fermcap and that does a good job of keeping the krausen from leaving the keg. I'll post a picture of it in action when I get a chance.

I have also removed the spear to use the filter housing for filtering beer and the spear is still air tight after reinstalling it. I'm sure if I remove and replace it continuously, it will eventually fail to be air tight. When that time comes I will just pay another $16 for a new filter housing.

Why do you need the spear for pressure fermenting?