Ike
nOob for life
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2015
- Messages
- 532
- Reaction score
- 186
Something tells me I'm WAY overthinking this, and a search didn't turn anything up, but...
The local gas distributor is pretty proud of their CO2 fills, with a recent price increase "because the gubmint made us put 'beverage grade' all over everything." Here I am, listening to the "blub blub blub" of a ginger beer batch fermenting away in all its glory, and I got to thinking...
Can I take my kegs, clean/sanitize all the interior workings, leaving maybe a couple cups of starsan in each one. Then, hook the blowoff tube from a primary fermentation to a beer-out ball lock, connect it to the keg, and remove the pressure release valve on the keg? I figure I'd give it an hour or so, come back, disconnect the line and replace the PRV. Pressure would never get over ambient, but given enough time the O2 should be pretty much gone, especially if I'm giving it a push by filling from the bottom.
This SHOULD yield me a keg that's (reasonably) flushed with CO2, with a small amount of starsan in it. Before use, give it a really good shaking to redistribute the star san and re-sanitize the interior, pump out the star san with pressure and fill from primary by any of the "no oxygen exposure" methods you all suggest here.
Anybody else do this?
OR
Anybody else pre-sanitize and pre-flush their kegs by any other means?
OR
Am I COMPLETELY over-complicating things, and I should just forget about the small savings in CO2 fill costs?
The local gas distributor is pretty proud of their CO2 fills, with a recent price increase "because the gubmint made us put 'beverage grade' all over everything." Here I am, listening to the "blub blub blub" of a ginger beer batch fermenting away in all its glory, and I got to thinking...
Can I take my kegs, clean/sanitize all the interior workings, leaving maybe a couple cups of starsan in each one. Then, hook the blowoff tube from a primary fermentation to a beer-out ball lock, connect it to the keg, and remove the pressure release valve on the keg? I figure I'd give it an hour or so, come back, disconnect the line and replace the PRV. Pressure would never get over ambient, but given enough time the O2 should be pretty much gone, especially if I'm giving it a push by filling from the bottom.
This SHOULD yield me a keg that's (reasonably) flushed with CO2, with a small amount of starsan in it. Before use, give it a really good shaking to redistribute the star san and re-sanitize the interior, pump out the star san with pressure and fill from primary by any of the "no oxygen exposure" methods you all suggest here.
Anybody else do this?
OR
Anybody else pre-sanitize and pre-flush their kegs by any other means?
OR
Am I COMPLETELY over-complicating things, and I should just forget about the small savings in CO2 fill costs?