CO2 question ...

[Willee]

I have been blowing a quantity of CO2 into my secondary fermenter to try to push out the O2 just prior to filling it with the wort.
Is this effective?
Will the CO2 dissipate over time or will it lay on top of the beer like a protective blanket for the entire secondary conditioning process?

 

[kh54s10]

From my understanding once the wort has fermented and no longer adding co2 the gasses will mix. It will take a bit of time. How long are you going with your secondary? Question 2, if you are not adding fruit or something, why do a secondary at all?

I have never purged anything and have never had any issues, even with secondary of a month or so.

 

[Willee]

From my understanding once the wort has fermented and no longer adding co2 the gasses will mix. It will take a bit of time. How long are you going with your secondary? Question 2, if you are not adding fruit or something, why do a secondary at all?.

Being a newbee reading most of my books ... say to do a secondary.
Howeve, I have also heard from others what you are saying.

I am trying to get the beer as clear as it can be.

 

[IslandLizard]

Flushing a container filled with air, with CO2 will mix the 2 gases. Because of the slight pressure increase the excess gas mixture is being forced out. It takes a lot of CO2 to flush that container to get anywhere near 95% CO2, which means there's still 5% air mixed in, and since 21% of that air is oxygen, roughly 1% of that gas mixture is O2, our nemesis after fermentation has ceased.

Best is to fill container with Starsan and push it out with CO2. Needless to say, no air should be allowed to enter. That way your container will be 100% filled with CO2, no air, no oxygen, at the (small) cost of your container's volume worth of CO2.

There are quite a few threads on this here already.

As @kh54s10 said, why exactly do you need to use a secondary?
OK, saw your answer. Most books and instruction sheets are sheer wrong. Secondaries are rarely needed. Only long term aging/conditioning such as sours and perhaps after adding fruit for a TRUE secondary fermentation the use of a secondary is warranted.

Read more HBT, less (old) books.

 

[bobeer]

I am trying to get the beer as clear as it can be.

I don't use any fining agents or irish moss in my boils and I get pretty darn clear beer. All I do is cold crash for 12-24 hours but the real key to clear beer is to rack it from the top down and not to pull over any trub. After a couple days in the keg the beer is clear.