I'm Sooo Done with keg cold crashing

[lupulinaddict]

I'm having the same issues with a keg now. This is my third attempt keg crashing, first time with a dry hop in the keg. I used it as a secondary vessel, then dropped it in the keezer to chill. It's been 3 days and first day after chilling was foam. Today, day 3, it's a blocked green tube full of hops! I'm going to attempt to do a few more cleanings of the transfer line later today, but if it doesn't work I'll rack it the old fashioned way because I'm getting thirsty! Dip tube is cut about an inch and a quarter. 4oz dry hop.

 

[akthor]

How long did it ferment before you transferred to keg? Did you use Irish moss or similar? When you transfer are you careful you aren't picking up trub?

If your dip tube is cut that much and you are still picking up stuff something is seriously wrong with your process. Either you are not allowing it to clear enough in the fermenter. Picking up trub in the transfer. Something. Cuz that ain't normal.

I bend my diptubes so they are about a 1/2" off the bottom of the keg. And even if I carry it in my car to a party I don't get the stuff you guys are getting.

Either change what you're doing or I'd suggest filtering when you transfer.

 

[TheMadKing]

Did you dump your dry hops straight into the keg with no bag?

 

[lupulinaddict]

Straight dry hop dump.

Only flocculant added was whirlfloc when brewed. My first attempt at a ne IPA and everyone says quicker the better so I did the quickest I could do between kids and work. It was a brewed on the 23 of oct so had maybe 10-11 days in primary. I think I left it in this keg with the hops about four days, and then chilled for another 3 days. When I transferred from carboy it was under pressure and the racking can left behind beer and yeast like normal. It let it sit about an inch off the bottom of the carboy dome. It is my first crack at the London 3 yeast. It's a low flocculating because the beer style, so maybe that's something. I think it's just the dry hop in the keg. Usually I do the primary, but I thought if the keg is never going to be opened, and I transferred under pressure, I could get a little more aroma.

 

[55x11]

I'm having the same issues with a keg now. This is my third attempt keg crashing, first time with a dry hop in the keg. I used it as a secondary vessel, then dropped it in the keezer to chill. It's been 3 days and first day after chilling was foam. Today, day 3, it's a blocked green tube full of hops! I'm going to attempt to do a few more cleanings of the transfer line later today, but if it doesn't work I'll rack it the old fashioned way because I'm getting thirsty! Dip tube is cut about an inch and a quarter. 4oz dry hop.

I prefer to cold-crash in fermenter (PET), under CO2, similar to day_tripper solution - connecting an empty keg to provide CO2 pressure as the volume shrinks (I am less worried about positive pressure with PET than with glass, so I don't need balloons, and I start with slight positive pressure on the 5G keg, which is sufficient to provide enough CO2 to compensate for loss of the liquid volume during the cold crash without collapsing the PET walls - but one can "re-inflate" with CO2 via the keg if that happens).

I also dry-hop in the bag (sometimes - mostly, weighted, to sink the hops).

But even then, the IPA is cloudy and tastes a bit yeasty for the first week or two.

However:
The floating dip tube solution, e.g. "Clear Beer Draught System" I tried recently is amazing and I highly recommend it for hoppy beers.

http://www.clearbeerdraughtsystem.com/info.html

I brewed 10G of IPA and split the beer between two kegs - one using clear beer "floating dip tube" connector, another using standard dip tube.
The beer drawn from the top of the keg tastes amazing from day 1. The other IPA keg is still not quite there, taste-wise even after ~10 days at low temperature, despite otherwise identical treatment (different dry hop combination but shouldn't affect).

 

[GPP33]

I prefer to cold-crash in fermenter (PET), under CO2, similar to day_tripper solution - connecting an empty keg to provide CO2 pressure as the volume shrinks (I am less worried about positive pressure with PET than with glass, so I don't need balloons, and I start with slight positive pressure on the 5G keg, which is sufficient to provide enough CO2 to compensate for loss of the liquid volume during the cold crash without collapsing the PET walls - but one can "re-inflate" with CO2 via the keg if that happens).

I also dry-hop in the bag (sometimes - mostly, weighted, to sink the hops).

But even then, the IPA is cloudy and tastes a bit yeasty for the first week or two.

However:
The floating dip tube solution, e.g. "Clear Beer Draught System" I tried recently is amazing and I highly recommend it for hoppy beers.

http://www.clearbeerdraughtsystem.com/info.html

I brewed 10G of IPA and split the beer between two kegs - one using clear beer "floating dip tube" connector, another using standard dip tube.
The beer drawn from the top of the keg tastes amazing from day 1. The other IPA keg is still not quite there, taste-wise even after ~10 days at low temperature, despite otherwise identical treatment (different dry hop combination but shouldn't affect).

That looks pretty slick, I'd be interested to know how much beer it leaves behind and how much extra work it is to get everything clean. The only real drawback I see is that you can't easily fill with starsan and push it all out with CO2 then fill through the pickup tube. I guess you could invert it and dump the starsan through the pressure relief valve, filling through this should work. It'd be a little splashy at first but if it's all CO2 it shouldn't matter.

 

[goosegrenade]

24 hour cold crash is way too short of time. Takes about a week with gelatin to get really clear beer, you'll pull off about 2 pints of crap them you'll be money

 

[55x11]

That looks pretty slick, I'd be interested to know how much beer it leaves behind and how much extra work it is to get everything clean. The only real drawback I see is that you can't easily fill with starsan and push it all out with CO2 then fill through the pickup tube. I guess you could invert it and dump the starsan through the pressure relief valve, filling through this should work. It'd be a little splashy at first but if it's all CO2 it shouldn't matter.

starsan push works exactly the same way as with any other keg. Fill, seal, purge headspace, then push out with CO2 (just like emptying a keg), and refill with beer through the beer-out port.

I am using it with hoppy beers so the bottom pint or two (never measured carefully) is a sludge of used hops, gelatin, in some cases dead yeast etc. - the stuff you would normally dump repeated until you get clean beer.

 

[wishingiwasfishing]

starsan push works exactly the same way as with any other keg. Fill, seal, purge headspace, then push out with CO2 (just like emptying a keg), and refill with beer through the beer-out port.

I am using it with hoppy beers so the bottom pint or two (never measured carefully) is a sludge of used hops, gelatin, in some cases dead yeast etc. - the stuff you would normally dump repeated until you get clean beer.

That's a really interesting way to do it. I just started keg hoping and there's a good amount of sediment to deal with...this way, you deal with it at the end.

Have you found any negatives?

 

[55x11]

That's a really interesting way to do it. I just started keg hoping and there's a good amount of sediment to deal with...this way, you deal with it at the end.

Have you found any negatives?

Price is one negative for sure (I have seen someone saying that chinese company sells a much cheaper version of the same idea but I haven't found anything).
I haven't detected any other negatives but I will update if I do. No clogging so far. I brew 10G batches and split them between two kegs - since I only have one clear beer draught, I end up with two kegs of IPA - and the clear draught one is drinkable from day 1 basically. The normal keg setup I often have to wait a week and drain 2-3 pints, depending on dry hop bill - in the first week the beer has more grassy, super-bitter, sometimes yeasty taste - it's not just the first pint either, I have to do both - wait a week or so, AND remove the first couple of pints from the bottom before beer is of excellent quality. But throughout most of the first month or two (my IPAs rarely last 2 months), the cleardraught beer is more clear, visually than regular keg IPA, if that matters to you. I have side-by-side comparison photos somewhere if anyone is interested.

 

[Hannabrew]

starsan push works exactly the same way as with any other keg. Fill, seal, purge headspace, then push out with CO2 (just like emptying a keg), and refill with beer through the beer-out port.

I am using it with hoppy beers so the bottom pint or two (never measured carefully) is a sludge of used hops, gelatin, in some cases dead yeast etc. - the stuff you would normally dump repeated until you get clean beer.

So if you filled a keg with water and pushed it all out via CO2 this system would get just about every last drop out? Have you ever measured how much liquid is left? I would've thought it would leave much more than a standard dip tube but I'm hoping I'm wrong

 

[eagle23]

Here is a link to a video that talks about transferring between kegs. I don't know if it will fix the problem, but it's how I plan to handle things when I start back up again here shortly.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/advanced/videos/

 

[55x11]

So if you filled a keg with water and pushed it all out via CO2 this system would get just about every last drop out? Have you ever measured how much liquid is left? I would've thought it would leave much more than a standard dip tube but I'm hoping I'm wrong

maybe a couple of pints. I usually change tilt/orientation of the keg to get as much out as possible, but diluting a few pints of starsan in 5 Gallons of beer are fine. It's the same as for my regular kegs since I usually cut the diptube an inch or so to avoid getting too much yeast and hop matter that settles at the bottom.

Overall, getting oxygen out is much more important than getting a little bit of starsan or water in your beer.

 

[day_trippr]

A couple of pints?? Yuck. Did you cut the long dip tubes short or something?
I have 16 cornies, a totally mixed bag from various manufacturers, but the one thing they have in common is all of the kegs have their beer dip tubes ending in the small wells in their bottoms.
When a keg kicks there's barely a couple of tablespoons of beer left.
When I purge a keg there's no more Star San left than that...

Cheers!

 

[Hannabrew]

We're talking about the clear draught system which replaces the dip tube. However I do think a couple of pints is more than I would want to leave in there, even if it was RO water.