First time racking to keg, have I left too much head space?

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ILMSTMF

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FV had a hair over the 5 gallon line. Racking into keg, got a lot of it but not all of it in. Racking cane was moving the beer quite slow near the bottom (yes, I tilted the bucket carefully. yes, I raised the cane a bit to get it away from trub). Guests were showing up at the house so had to bail on the last of it. Looked like maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a gallon that did not make it into the keg. Anyway...

I would estimate between 5 and 6 inches of head space. Dangerous?
Further details:

• I'm not set up yet to carbonate the keg with CO2.
• Racked early evening Saturday
• Wednesday evening, boiled half a cup of water with 6 oz of corn sugar. Added to keg in effort to carbonate/clean up any O2.
• The plan was to keep keg sealed in a cool place until I have keezer set up with CO2 supply.

Sorry that I can't depict the depth much better with the angle at which the photo was taken. Thanks in advance.

Screen Shot 2017-08-17 at 2.41.46 PM.jpg
 
Looks good to me. I ferment in kegs so need a little headspace to avoid blowoff from fermentation. So when I rack to the serving keg there is a decent amount of headspace, probably like what you have there.

Question to those that naturally carb in the keg: Should OP "burp" the keg as it starts to carbonate to purge the O2 from the headspace like you would when carving from CO2?
 
I have only done it once, I did burp it but I used CO2. I don't know if you clear the head space if that will affect the final carbonation of the beer. The CO2 in the beer is developed from the fermentation process so it could result in low carbonation.
 
I have only done it once, I did burp it but I used CO2. I don't know if you clear the head space if that will affect the final carbonation of the beer. The CO2 in the beer is developed from the fermentation process so it could result in low carbonation.

Thanks. That's what I was afraid of.
 
Well shucks. What should I do? I don't know what burping is, in keg terms haha
I've got another batch going into keg two this weekend so I'd like to know if I'm doing myself no favors with my process (filling kegs with beer and not adding CO2 supply)
Thanks folks.
 
When you carb with CO2 the process is to pull the pressure relief valve (burp) to expel the O2 and fill with CO2.

But when naturally carbing I'm not sure what the analog to that is. As mentioned above, burping in this case may cause an undercarbonation issue.
 
Ok thank you for clarifying. Since adding the sugar, I haven't pulled the PRV.

All ears for suggestions, thanks.
 
After some reading, I've found that a CO2 blast is necessary to create a good seal of the lid. The problem is, where I have the keg, I don't have CO2 available. I have a keg filled with beer and now some priming sugar. That's it.

I can bring the keg to a friend who welds. It would require the keg to take a trip in the car. And I also don't have a gas QD. Would I be wasting my time bringing the keg to my friend's shop? Thanks.
 
Thank you for that. Sad to say I don't even have keg lube on hand. Leaving town in a few days. Would like to know if I am going to ruin the beer by leaving it without CO2 in there. Recall post above re: welder friend. Thank you.
 
UPDATE - I have the parts I need to get CO2 in but... still waiting on a CO2 tank. Long story, not worth telling.

Meanwhile, I've got some keg lube. Would it be worth opening the lid on the keg to apply the lube then reseat the lid? Or not worth doing without a CO2 supply ready to feed to keg? Thanks.
 
Just leave it. It'll be fine, you are risking it more by mucking around with it. There's a chance that it's sealed, if not the CO2 being produced will slowly purge the head space and you can force carb it when you get your CO2.
 
if you pull the relief and theres gas, its probably sealed. chill out.
 
Thanks folks. Probably just going to leave it until I get a tank. shortyz - SHOULD I pull the PRV?
 
You can test by depressing the gas post briefly too. If you get a blast of pressure the lid sealed fine. I often prime and close a keg then set it aside in my pantry which is cool. Never had one not seal and self carbonate that way.
 
Just curious, as I may be misunderstanding, but why did you wait three days to add the sugar to the keg?

And, what made you decide to use six ounces of corn sugar?

I've only carbed in a keg once, but I used 2.5 ounces and I was over carbed for a NEIPA
 
You can test by depressing the gas post briefly too. If you get a blast of pressure the lid sealed fine. I often prime and close a keg then set it aside in my pantry which is cool. Never had one not seal and self carbonate that way.

Cool. I think I'll give it a try. Do I risk "losing valuable CO2" by doing this?

Just curious, as I may be misunderstanding, but why did you wait three days to add the sugar to the keg?

And, what made you decide to use six ounces of corn sugar?

Because I'm a dumb n00b haha A pal here in this forum suggested putting that sugar in when I posed the question about my methods...three days after racking to keg. Had he not suggested doing so, I would have never thought to add it at all. My thinking was "I'll rack into a sealed keg, it'll stay clean in there and when I get CO2, I'll carb it." DERP.
He also suggested the 6 ounces based on calculator suggestion for this style (saison) and the residual CO2 that would have still been present in the beer.

One thing you could do in the future is get this. You can give short blasts of CO2 via little canisters. Should be able to purge the headspace as well as create a seal to ensure good carbonation once primed with sugar.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/soda-keg-co2-charger

Good tip, thanks!
 
Bad news - pressed the gas post poppet, nothing. Pulled PRV, nothing.
Good news - got the tank! Now the struggle is finding time this weekend to clean and sanitize all the gas parts before connecting. Oh. I can connect this to carb without having some kind of refrigeration unit available, right? Thanks!
 
you can carb at room temp, but you'll need to use a higher pressure than if it was chilled.
google the carbonation chart on the net to see what your pressure should be.

And you were right, you could've just kegged it and let it set for a week to condition. No different than leaving it in the fermenter.
 
Yo. So why do I have the impression that leaving it in keg uncarbed was a no no? Because of the head space and that's it, yeah?
WHAT keg leak?!
 
With priming sugar you should have had some pressure, even if it was a small amount. Depressing a post momentarily should produce a hiss. I kegged last night, one went in the fridge to force carb at 30psi, other is in the pantry with priming sugar and it is already carbonating when I checked it after 24 hours. Got a slight hiss from a brief push on the post(I use pinlocks, no manual PRV)
 
Well. Pretty sure that no hiss was produced from either post depression or PRV pull... Hope the beer's alright!
I looked up the chart and figuring the temp of the beer is around 72 in the cool closet it is sitting in, I gotta give it 30psi to hope for the targeted 2.5 volumes of CO2 I'm going for. But uhhh... how does one know when that level of carbonation has been achieved? 2) Can I remove the gas from the keg at any point and expect the beer to remain carbonated or is this a bad idea?

Thanks!
 
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