How would one dillute beer without inducing oxygen?

[Smellyglove]

I have an imp stout in the fermentor. I'd like to dillute half of it so I can enter it into both the stout and imp stout category.

It will be kegged. How do I go about dilluting it without ruining the dilluted portion?

 

[portguy]

Boil the dilution water vigorously for 15 minutes then chill as fast as you can. Dilute immediately.

 

[Smellyglove]

I'll do that. But I can be more precise in my question.

When in the process is it best to do this?
Receiving vessels for both diluted and undiluted will be cornys.
I thinking about doing it as oxygen-free as possible. I'll squeeze out star-san with co2 as usual from the keg. Maybe using a siphon from the kettle with the cooled water, and into the beer-out ball lock on the keg? I can't see any better option than this per now.

 

[portguy]

I'll do that. But I can be more precise in my question.

When in the process is it best to do this?
Receiving vessels for both diluted and undiluted will be cornys.
I thinking about doing it as oxygen-free as possible. I'll squeeze out star-san with co2 as usual from the keg. Maybe using a siphon from the kettle with the cooled water, and into the beer-out ball lock on the keg? I can't see any better option than this per now.

Sounds ok.

 

[Rhaop]

Get yourself two liquid posts with a short tube connecting them, that way you can hook gas to one keg and slowly vent the other keg, you’ll get a slow transfer and just turn your pressure down low, just need enough to move liquid 1-2psi


Edit: Hmm rereading your question are you worried about the dilution water having o2? On the lodo forum i remember seeing a procedure of scrubbing o2 by mixing yeast and a sugar solution that could save energy by not heating and cooling and it would help purge headspace in your keg

 

[eric19312]

I'vve never done this but have thought about it several times. Here is the plan I came up with.

Boil 5-6 gallons of water for a good 15 minutes and transfer it while still quite hot to a purged corney keg. Close it up, attach to pressure and let it cool. The pressure keeps it from losing seal as the volume shrinks during cooling. Then do a closed transfer from the imperial stout to a third well purged keg (the blending keg). Well purged is key because this keg will probably only get 10-20% full, I'd do a full volume star san push to get as much O2 our as possible. Mix by weight. If you want 80% imperial + 20% water transfer 8 pounds of the stout to the blending keg and top that up with 2 pounds of water. A reasonably accurate digital bathroom scale with 1/10s of pounds should be sufficient if you don't have a big postage scale.
Force carb in the keg and bottle with beer gun or counter pressure filler. With enough care in avoiding oxygen exposure you may be able to provide a beer with enough shelf life for a competition.

 

[Toejam792]

What about fill sanitized keg with boiled water, i'm pretty sure boiling gets rid of most oxygen in water, to desired level. Purge water keg with co2. Fill 2nd and 3rd keg (depending how much beer) with beer that you also purge with co2. Than use co2 to push beer form beer keg to water keg by using a liquid out keg fitting to liquid out keg fitting hose.

 

[Smellyglove]

I don't want to purge anything as it is highly ineffective comparing to just pushing out star-san with co2 thus ending up with a pretty o2-free keg. So all liquids will come through the liquid post of the keg.

If I add boiling water to the keg I've seen the plastic on the bottom of a keg (AEB) come loose. I believe siphoning boiled and chilled water through liquid post is the safest and most effecive way as I see it. I just need to know how much water is going into the keg which I believe can be acheved with a scale, but then I have to transfer water into a vessel standing on the scale, and that introduces more oxygen than necessary, since I don't have a big enough scale.

*Edit: I can borrow a postage scale from work with 5g resolution, and just place my starter/decoction induction top with on that and do it all in one place.

 

[Smellyglove]

I'vve never done this but have thought about it several times. Here is the plan I came up with.

Boil 5-6 gallons of water for a good 15 minutes and transfer it while still quite hot to a purged corney keg. Close it up, attach to pressure and let it cool. The pressure keeps it from losing seal as the volume shrinks during cooling. Then do a closed transfer from the imperial stout to a third well purged keg (the blending keg). Well purged is key because this keg will probably only get 10-20% full, I'd do a full volume star san push to get as much O2 our as possible. Mix by weight. If you want 80% imperial + 20% water transfer 8 pounds of the stout to the blending keg and top that up with 2 pounds of water. A reasonably accurate digital bathroom scale with 1/10s of pounds should be sufficient if you don't have a big postage scale.
Force carb in the keg and bottle with beer gun or counter pressure filler. With enough care in avoiding oxygen exposure you may be able to provide a beer with enough shelf life for a competition.

Yeah, this is the basics of how I'm thinking of doing it, but with star-san push, no purging.

 

[eric19312]

Yeah, this is the basics of how I'm thinking of doing it, but with star-san push, no purging.

Agreed...I did not realize Star San push was not purging. That is how I purge all my kegs.

 

[eric19312]

Might run the the still boiling water through a plate or cf chiller on way to the blending keg.

 

[Smellyglove]

Might run the the still boiling water through a plate or cf chiller on way to the blending keg.

That would be a great tool for this use, but I'm just running an IC.

 

[eric19312]

That would be a great tool for this use, but I'm just running an IC.

Same here. I had a home built CF but could never get the flame out hops right using it so went back to IC in pumped whirlpool. Have avoided plate chillers due to concerns about cleaning and again the need to manage the heavy late hop additions but this seems to be perfect use for a plate chiller.

 

[shoreman]

I knowthis doesn’t help right now, but next time split the batch and dilute before pitching. That way oxygen isn’t a factor. I’ll do it sometimes for 10 gallon low abv beers with my system - learned about it from a randy mosher article