Is it ok to sanitize a keg the night before kegging?

[pshankstar]

The last few times I kegged my beer, the foam from the sanstar was so much that it made it hard to see how full the keg was (see pic below). This is due to me shaking the keg to make sure the SanStar makes contact with all areas within the keg to sanitize it properly. By doing this some beer flowed into my gas line b/c the keg was too full. Lessoned learned!

So I was thinking if I sanitize the keg the night before and leave it sealed up over night, the foam would settle down and I can purge the rest of the solution out the tap. Assuming the foam would settle down and maybe turn back into a little bit of solution the tub can pick up. Then vent the keg, open, fill, seal and carbonate.

What do you all think? Seems ok to me. Just wasn't sure if SanStar on stainless steel for a long period of time has a negative affect or not. Or does anyone have any suggestions to minimize this foam snake issue? Thanks in advance!

 

[Gavin C]

I sanitize mine, by filling with satrsan, push it out with CO2 leaving the keg sanitized and filled with CO2 at about 14psi, weeks or months ahead of filling it.

I leave a little starsan in the keg that I slosh about and push out before I fill the keg through the out post.

Not a problem at all doing what you propose so long as the keg is sealed up in the interim between sanitizing and filling.

 

[mkyl428]

Another trick to knock down the foam is to keep a spray bottle of starsan handy, and spray the foam down when you near the top of the keg.

 

[Dixon9717]

^^^^^^^^^
What Gavin says. I do the same thing....
[emoji481][emoji481][emoji481][emoji481][emoji481]

 

[beersk]

Another trick to knock down the foam is to keep a spray bottle of starsan handy, and spray the foam down when you near the top of the keg.

Nice idea, never thought of that.

I do as Gavin does as well.

 

[pshankstar]

Great, thank you all for your input!

 

[Jthornburgh]

I shake it so that it starts a little whirlpool, than immediately turn it upside down. It gets almost all of the starsan out, and leaves very little bubbles. I then turn it upside down for a couple minutes while I get the fermenter ready. Watch your feet though. It drains a 3/4 full keg in just a few seconds, and hits the floor in a 3 foot diameter circle when the opening is three or four feet up.

It works for carboys and bottles also.

 

[Mexibilly]

Same here. I wash, sanitize and store sealed with maybe 1/2 gallon of sanitizer. I shake it up, pressurize, blow the star San out and refill

 

[MikeCrigger]

I leave a little starsan in the keg that I slosh about and push out before I fill the keg through the out post.

Huh. I never thought of filling through the out post. How do you connect that?

 

[Gavin C]

Huh. I never thought of filling through the out post. How do you connect that?

Like This

 

[MikeCrigger]

Gavin - Wow! Awesome idea. I love the idea of the filter to blow in to start the transfer. No oxidation seems even possible in this procedure. After 8 years of brewing I have so much more to learn lol.

Thank you thank you!

Mike

 

[m00ps]

Gavin - Wow! Awesome idea. I love the idea of the filter to blow in to start the transfer. No oxidation seems even possible in this procedure. After 8 years of brewing I have so much more to learn lol.

Thank you thank you!

Mike

Just be sure you have a keg lid where you can lock the pressure release valve in the OPEN position by turning it. Otherwise, you gotta sit there and hold it open or the siphon stops due to pressure buildup. That, or rid a pen or screwdriver to hold it open (not recommended since it slowly bends your ring IME)

 

[kombat]

Part of Gavin's process seems wasteful to me. Why fill the keg to the brim with StarSan, then push it all out with CO2? Maybe CO2 is a lot cheaper where you are, but there's no real need to do that.

When a keg kicks, I:

• Pour in a gallon of hot water, swish it around, and dump, to get out the remaining yeast/trub
• Pour in a couple gallons of piping hot Oxyclean solution, seal it up, give it a good shake. I pressurize with a little CO2 and reconnect the picnic tap, draining some into the sink to ensure the Oxyclean gets up into the pickup tube.
• Pop the lid, dump the keg, pour in 2 gallons of hot water. Reseal, shake to rinse.
• Repeat.
• Pour in a few quarts of StarSan, reseal, shake vigorously to sanitize. Pressurize to 10 psi with CO2, reconnect picnic tap and drain some (to sanitize inside the pickup tube).

I then set the keg aside and leave it until kegging day. On kegging day, I pull the PRV, open the keg, dump the StarSan, and immediately fill with beer.

 

[logdrum]

I recently started doing this from my Speidel fermenter, only with the lid off. If you leave the lid on (& PRV valve open) how do you know when to stop filling?

 

[MikeCrigger]

I've personally have never had to stop filling a keg with beer I still wanted to get out in the fermenter. I stop with a little bit of wasted beer to not suck up so much yeast and trub. But I wondered that as well.

 

[MikeCrigger]

The thought of going from a CO2 filled environment in the fermenter directly to a CO2 filled environment in the keg appeals to me more than a pint or two of sacrificed beer.

 

[lhommedieu]

You can, alternatively, fill the Keg with StarSan solution (or brewer's iodine, or PBW) and seal; flush and fill with water, flush and fill with boiling water the night before. Flush again the day of kegging. Steps 2-4 are easy with a pump. Spray the posts again with StarSan.

 

[Gavin C]

I recently started doing this from my Speidel fermenter, only with the lid off. If you leave the lid on (& PRV valve open) how do you know when to stop filling?

Stop when the keg is full or you run out of beer (always the former with my 5.5 gallon batches).

If you are racking cold beer it's easy to get a bead on what level the beer is at. You'll see the condensation on the keg. I fill until it's full, beer coming out of the PRV, close PRV.
Then I just push out a taste sample or two till the beer is below the level of the gas in tube. (If the beer is above this you will hear bubbling as the CO2 pushes beer out, you want the beer below that level)

The thought of going from a CO2 filled environment in the fermenter directly to a CO2 filled environment in the keg appeals to me more than a pint or two of sacrificed beer.

No need to sacrifice any beer with this method.

 

[bkboiler]

ah, that's interesting Gavin that the beer needs to be below the CO2-in tube. last brew was a mild that I ended up with more volume and filled my keg almost to the brim. when I carbed it, I definitely heard the CO2 bubbling and it seemed to carb up a little more quickly...
I can imagine that immersing the CO2 tube in beer is a way to gunk it up more quickly and require a full break-down of the keg post.
I guess I couldn't stand dumping the beer... ; )

 

[Gavin C]

ah, that's interesting Gavin that the beer needs to be below the CO2-in tube. last brew was a mild that I ended up with more volume and filled my keg almost to the brim. when I carbed it, I definitely heard the CO2 bubbling and it seemed to carb up a little more quickly...
I can imagine that immersing the CO2 tube in beer is a way to gunk it up more quickly and require a full break-down of the keg post.
I guess I couldn't stand dumping the beer... ; )

I'm not worried about the keg post getting gunky (although that is a valid concern) or the speed of carbonation but I do want to completely eliminate the possibility of beer in my gas lines.

With the beer below the gas tube it totally eliminates this undesirable possibility.

The beer I push out is about 8oz and gets dumped in my belly for science (quality control)

 

[psymonkey]

Nice Technique GavinC! I LOVE that you have a filter on the input on the carboy cap. I cringed when Northern Brewer created a video where the dude just blew straight into the carboy cap to start the siphon - works like a champ but seemed awfully careless after all we go through to keep our beers safe.

Slightly off topic, but in response to a poster above that talks about what he does when he kicks a keg - personally, if I don't have an immediate need for the keg I just pull it from the kegerator and leave it as-is fully pressurized. Usually the duration isn't long, but sometimes it's months and they come out looking exactly the same as one that I clean immediately. Unless you clean/sanitize and keep it under pressure, you're pretty much going to have to rinse and sanitize at a minimum when it comes time to use it..so I figure you might as well just save the cleaning for then.

 

[Gavin C]

Nice Technique GavinC! I LOVE that you have a filter on the input on the carboy cap. ....I figure you might as well just save the cleaning for then.

Thanks mate

Your absolutely right. I don't always clean keg right away either.

The one bonus to having them sanitized and pressurized in advance is that if for any reason a keg has a leak you will learn of it this long before filling the keg with beer and putting it on the gas (and subsequently losing all your CO2 to said leak).

Just a minor detail I suppose but nice to have the certainty that the keg/lid/post/poppet/o-ring complex is sound.

 

[logdrum]

Stop when the keg is full or you run out of beer (always the former with my 5.5 gallon batches).

If you are racking cold beer it's easy to get a bead on what level the beer is at. You'll see the condensation on the keg. I fill until it's full, beer coming out of the PRV, close PRV.
Then I just push out a taste sample or two till the beer is below the level of the gas in tube. (If the beer is above this you will hear bubbling as the CO2 pushes beer out, you want the beer below that level)



No need to sacrifice any beer with this method.

I'm going to employ this method next week when I transfer my IIPA.

 

[logdrum]

Just to follow up, I racked straight out of my Speidel fermenter into the out tube of a flushed keg with the PRV open, didn't seem to take any longer than leaving the lid off. I did not top the Speidel w co2, but I'll probably fashion some kind of stopper to facilitate that down the road.