First Keg - Racked Too Much Trub

[chays99]

I tried to search for this first, but can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

I had a pale ale in the primary for four weeks. This was the first brew where I used whirlfloc. It was also my first time kegging. While racking to the keg, I totally under estimated the thickness of the trub due to the whirlfloc and racked some of the trub a couple of times for a couple of seconds each.

The keg has been on CO2 for six days now. I've pulled probably five or six pints and still have some of the "white floaters" as I call it. Is there any way to clear this up at this point?

Thanks!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Patience, patience, patience.

Six days on CO2 isn't near enough anyways...I don't care what anyone says on here. Yes...it may be carbonated, but it's not perfect. Leave it for another week or two and check it again. By that time, it won't be green anymore, and most of the sediment will be firmly compacted at the bottom. Even with a lot of trub in the bottom, I'm usually able to get clear pints after a few glasses.

 

[bruin_ale]

Patience, patience, patience.

You must have missed the part where he said it's his first keg
Easy to have patience when you've got other stuff on tap, but if this is it I'll drink it with floaties and all.

I'm sure you're right though, give it a couple weeks and it'll probably clear up just fine all on it's own.

 

[iaefebs]

Depressurize the keg, add knox gelatin, re-pressure and wait 24 hours.

 

[chays99]

Man, the patience thing is a beating. I thought waiting six days was super patient!

I thought about the gelatin, but wasn't sure if it was OK to add. I'm kegging another batch this weekend and planned to use gelatin for the first time.

 

[sh00t]

iaefebs
Depressurize the keg, add knox gelatin, re-pressure and wait 24 hours.

works great, several posts about this

bruin_ale
Easy to have patience when you've got other stuff on tap, but if this is it I'll drink it with floaties and all.

definitely what I'd do!!!

 

[heferly]

careful adding anything to a carbed-up keg...be ready to pop that lid on real quick!

 

[cyraxx]

How difficult is it to get the gelatin-muck out of the keg once you finish the beer? When I start kegging, I think that I would gelatin any beers that I knew would be travelling (to parties, etc.) so any settled trub/yeast wouldn't get kicked up. If I am serving it at my house, I'd just let it all settle and pour off a couple of cloudy pints. Does this seem like a good course of action?

 

[erikpete18]

How difficult is it to get the gelatin-muck out of the keg once you finish the beer? When I start kegging, I think that I would gelatin any beers that I knew would be travelling (to parties, etc.) so any settled trub/yeast wouldn't get kicked up. If I am serving it at my house, I'd just let it all settle and pour off a couple of cloudy pints. Does this seem like a good course of action?

I generally don't bother with gelatin, just dump the first pint like you mention. So long as you aren't moving the keg around a lot at your place that should be fine. For traveling, you could hit it with gelatin to get rid of a decent amount, but I'm not sure if you can ever suck all the gelatin out of the keg so you still run the risk of swirling it back up when you move it.

I have heard of people making a short (couple ft) connector tube with two liquid QDs to fill up a second keg. Pull the first pint or two to get rid of the immediate yeast, attach the connector and a second keg, then slowly release the pressure in the second keg until its filled with all the clear beery goodness.

 

[chays99]

I added gelatin right to the keg last Friday night. On Sunday, there was still cloudiness and junk floating in the beer. I left town for work for a few days and when I returned last night, the beer was crystal clear.

Thanks for the recommendations!