From fermentation vessel to keg for aging and serving: how to?

[Froyd]

Second batch of kegged beer coming up!

The first time, I fermented in primary 7 days, then 2 weeks in a carboy to clear up, and then to keg to carbonate and serve.

This time, I want to skip the carboy and leave the beer 14 days or so in the fermentation vessel. I would then move the beer from that container straight into the 5 gal corny keg in order to save a step and have one less container to clean. I'll try to leave as much gunk as possible in the fermenter and I'll purge head space in the keg with co2, keeping 8-10si on top of it until proper carbonation.

My questions:

- Any major flaws in my proposed approach?

- After the transfer to the keg can I stick it in the fridge and begin carbonation right away? Would it be better to let the keg sit at room temperature a little longer (under moderate co2 pressure), before cooling and raising the co2 level?

- I don't have a second keg to rack into for serving, and I'd rather not cut the liquid dip tube short... so will the sediment in the keg be a big problem (e.g. clogged faucets, etc)? I'm reading that I should expect a couple of extra yeasty pints at first pour until the turb is cleared from the bottom of the keg, and then clear beer. Is that your experience?

 

[scootchu]

I'm new here so take what I say with a grain of salt. I started back brewing after about 15 years. No bottling for me so I keg. My first batch back was an extract American Pale Ale. I fermented for 10 days in the primary and then right to the keg. (Forgot to add I cold crash for 2 days), I hooked the CO2 to the liquid side of the Corny flooded the bottom with CO2 and then started to rack into the keg. I kept the CO2 on the liquid side and rocked the tank occasionally for about an hour, then chilled in my cooler at 30lbs. I'd rock it every once in a while, then gradually turned the CO2 down in 5 lb increments and then finally settled at 12lbs @ 38 degrees. Beer is nicely carbonated. Like I said I'm new to kegging.

 

[tgmartin000]

This is what I usually do. Id recommend cold crashing for a few days prior to transfer, otherwise I don't have any problems.

 

[Sailingeric]

My way of doing is from fermenter to keg, stick in keezer at about 20 PSI for about 3 days, then turn down to serving pressure this way it can cold crash and carb at the same time. After about week, pull off a pint or so for any gunk that settled out and you should be good to go.

 

[rupert130]

If worried about gunk from primary and you have the ability to cold crash, I would crash for a few days and use unflavored gelatin to aid in clearing the beer. Look up gelatin fining if you don't know what it is. Brulosophy.com has a good write up on the technique. The gelatin will pull a lot of what is left in solution to the bottom of your FV. Then just rack above the trub layer into your keg.

 

[h22lude]

What you are describing is called secondary and isn't used as much anymore. You will read in older editions of books they recommended using secondary to get the beer off the yeast. This has been proven not to be necessary. You can leave your beer in primary until you are ready to keg or bottle. You can even keep it in primary for dry hopping or adding fruit. 2 weeks for most beers is plenty for primary. Always check gravity though.

Cold crashing or gelatin will definitely help with trub getting into your keg but after 2 weeks you shouldn't get much. Just keep the siphon off the bottom. You should be able to see chunks going through the line. After carbing just pull a pint and that should be all the trub you transferred.

You can carb warm or cold. It doesn't matter. Cold will absorb CO2 faster though.

Purging a keg with CO2 doesn't really remove O2. The best way to remove O2 from a keg is to fill it up with starsan then push it out using CO2. Now you have a keg full of CO2 (besides any small headspace you had which wouldn't be much O2). Hook up a beer disconnect to you siphon and connect it to the beer out post. Start the siphon. The beer will now flow to the bottom via the dip tube and push CO2 up. You will then need to either open the release valve or hook up a line from the air in post to a bucket of starsan to let the CO2 escape.

 

[Froyd]

OK, that's not far from my plan to go from fermenting vessel straight to keg. I like the oxygen-free transfer you describe. Just to clarify, your comment about co2 not working too purge a keg, you mean an empty keg, not purging headspace, right. I was talking about head space, and it seems like everybody burps their keg a few times to purge headspace.

I'm still not clear on whether there's any benefit to let the filled keg sit at RT under moderate PSI (just enough to keep the lid sealed), or if I can go straight to the fridge and put it under carbonating pressure.

 

[mongoose33]

OK, that's not far from my plan to go from fermenting vessel straight to keg. I like the oxygen-free transfer you describe. Just to clarify, your comment about co2 not working too purge a keg, you mean an empty keg, not purging headspace, right. I was talking about head space, and it seems like everybody burps their keg a few times to purge headspace.

I'm still not clear on whether there's any benefit to let the filled keg sit at RT under moderate PSI (just enough to keep the lid sealed), or if I can go straight to the fridge and put it under carbonating pressure.

Go straight to the fridge. My last batch I cold-crashed for a couple days in a fridge, then went from fermenter to keg using the method h22lude describes above. I have a quick disconnect on a tube to connect to the siphon (in my case, a drain valve at the bottom).

Before draining the beer into the keg I filled it with Star-San solution, then used CO2 to push it out of the filled keg and into an empty one (two liquid-out disconnects on the same line). I cracked the lid a bit to allow for gas to escape when I filled the now-empty-of-StarSan keg with beer.

Since the beer was already cold after cold crashing, it carbed up very nicely. I set it at 36PSI for 24 hours, then backed it off to 12PSI. At that point, it was perfectly carbed and the beer was delicious.

 

[h22lude]

Purging headspace isn't a bad thing to do though it doesn't really remove all that much o2. The o2/co2 blanket that you read about on here isn't really true. O2 is lighter but once air starts moving the o2 and co2 will mix. That's why filling an empty keg with co2 to purge the o2 before transfer doesn't really do anything. That's why you need to fill it with liquid. That removes air.

Leaving a keg at room temp may help with conditioning if that particular beer needs to age a little. I never do that. I throw it right in my keezer. Colder liquid absorbs co2 quicker.