Fermented under pressure, closed loop transfer, spunding valve on keg

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khall12

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So, I am new to kegging and I have read about issues about getting foam when transferring an under pressure ferment.

I saw a video of a closed loop transfer on YouTube where the guy had a T connector splitting the CO2 to the keg and the fermentasaurus to keep them balanced or something. Well, I don’t have that setup.

So, I started by pressurizing both. Keg was at 10psi and the fermentasaurus was 11-12psi. Then, I kept the CO2 hooked up to the fermentasaurus and hooked up a spunding valve to the keg. Kept that set to around 10.

Seemed to work like a charm, if it stalled at all I just let more psi out of the spunding valve. Is this a standard practice? Any concerns?
 
Makes sense to me. Foam happens when there’s too much of a pressure drop at one point - the co2 comes out of solution. A 1-2 psid sounds like the trick!
 
So, I am new to kegging and I have read about issues about getting foam when transferring an under pressure ferment.

I saw a video of a closed loop transfer on YouTube where the guy had a T connector splitting the CO2 to the keg and the fermentasaurus to keep them balanced or something. Well, I don’t have that setup.

So, I started by pressurizing both. Keg was at 10psi and the fermentasaurus was 14psi. Then, I kept the CO2 hooked up to the fermentasaurus and hooked up a spunding valve to the keg. Kept that set to around 10.

Seemed to work like a charm, if it stalled at all I just let more psi out of the spunding valve. Is this a standard practice? Any concerns?

It's pretty much what I do. I pressurize the fermenter to about 12psi, put the spunding valve on the keg at about 10psi, and let it go.

pressuretransfer.jpg
 
Can’t you just leave the gas pressure relief valve open on the keg when transferring from the conical? Add 2/3 psi to the conical and the beer will flow to the unpressurized keg. Is a spunding valve really needed?
 
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Can’t you just leave the gas pressure relief valve open on the keg when transferring from the conical? Add 2/3 psi to the conical and the beer will flow to the unpressurized keg. Is a spunding valve really needed?

It depends on whether the beer is carbonated or not. If it is carbonated, you'll find the beer foams if you do that. The spunding valve provides back pressure that keeps foam down.

If uncarbonated you can use slight pressure to drain in the keg, but you probably have some absorbed CO2 in the beer, so you may get some foam.

I've "racked" or drained a lot of fermenters directly into a keg, but they were not carbonated. Also, the rate of flow was fairly slow, taking 20 minutes or more to fill a keg that way.
 
I transfer fully carbonated beer from the conical to the keg without using a spunding valve with any problems.
I drop the pressure in the conical to about 6 psi, push the beer into the keg through the liquid post and attach a line from the gas post into a bucket of starsan. The beer is at serving temperature when I do this.
I have never had any foaming problems.
 
I transfer fully carbonated beer from the conical to the keg without using a spunding valve with any problems.
I drop the pressure in the conical to about 6 psi, push the beer into the keg through the liquid post and attach a line from the gas post into a bucket of starsan. The beer is at serving temperature when I do this.
I have never had any foaming problems.

Thanks! This is what I was shooting for. I am brewing a NEIPA as I type and using a Spike Conical for the first time.
 
Is this a standard practice? Any concerns?

It works, but uses CO2 unnecessarily. Try having your fermentasaurus raised higher than the receiving keg. Connect the two liquid outs - beer should start flowing (as the fermentasaurus is at a slightly higher pressure) but will soon stop (as the pressure equalises). Now connect the two gas-ins. Beer should continue flowing through a siphon (gravity). No CO2 escapes so none needs to be added. It's a bit slower than the continuous addition of CO2 method, but saves CO2.
 
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