Kegging in Sankey Keg- my technique?

[dumars]

I'm new to this forum and fairly new to brewing!

I plan on kegging my first batch of brew in a sankey keg this weekend. I know that corny kegs are earier, but it's what I have on hand now. I was told that I should keg as follows:

A. Remove O-ring, stem and clean and disinfect keg
B. Reinstall O-Ring and stem
C. Purge keg of oxygen by connecting the sankey coupler, removing all gaskets and fittings in the beer and gas in lines and connect the gas line to the beer in part of the coupler. Co2 should then be turned on to purge the keg of oxygen.
D. The keg can then be filled through the beer in line of the sankey coupler

I have a few questions though. If I use a racking tube, will the beer flow in smoothly into my keg from the beer in port of the coupler? Does anything need to be connected to the gas in line of the coupler while I am filling the keg? Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Sanke couplers have gas in and beer out. Typically the beer out has a check valve and will not let beer in. You can remove the check valve if you want to pressure transfer. Most sanke users simply remove the spear, rack to fill the keg and reinstall the spear and purge.

You can pressure transfer as well if you remove the check valve. I do this to rack to a clean sediment free keg if I want to transport a keg.

 

[dumars]

Sorry to be such a newb but what does pressure kegging mean? If i fill through the beer out portion of the coupler, do I need the CO2 on to accomplish this? Thanks again.

 

[pcollins]

I use only sankeys so I'm doing this all the time.

There is no need for CO2 in the process if you don't want to. If you can imagine that you're just racking to another vessel, it's just that this one has all kinds of seals on it. The basic process is the same as if you were racking to a carboy.

When I rack I'm racking to a clean, sanitized, non-pressurized keg. I have the coupling head with all check valves removed attached to the top of the keg AND engaged. I have the tail piece and nut from the gas line attached to my line and racking tube combination for the beer. There is a gasket that is sitting on top of the beer out port of the coupling head.

I get my siphon going and beer in the line (however you choose to do that) then kink the line to stop the flow and attach the end of the line with the nut to the top (beer out) of the coupling head with the gasket. This will allow the beer to flow through the spear into the keg.

The "gas in" port should remain clear and will allow for a free flow of beer. If it is blocked with the check valve there will eventually be no flow of beer through the siphon because of pressure build up inside the keg.

Once the transfer is finished disengage the coupling head and remove all lines. Reassemble your coupling head with all check valves etc. and then you can attach gas and purge the keg of O2 with the the small valve on the side of the coupling head. At this point you can carb by your method of choice.

My carbing method actually involves switching the gas and beer lines so that I have CO2 going IN the beer out port and the normal gas in port is sealed. Set to 20psi and leave overnight with a bit of a shake in the morning. My beer normally takes 24 hours to carb but I have it done it in less time as well.

Clear as mud? LOL

 

[JuanMoore]

As others have said, the easiest way is to remove the spear and then rack into the keg. There are a lot of other ways to do it, but most of them involve removing one or both check valves from the inside of the keg coupler. The check valves are a good thing to have in there, and taking them out and putting them back in every time you do a transfer is more hassle than it's worth IMO. I have a spare coupler with the check valves removed that I just use for doing tranfsers, but not everyone has that luxury. FWIW kegging in sanke kegs isn't any more difficult than in corny kegs. I use both, but if I could find sanke kegs for the same price as cornies, I would use them exclusively.

My carbing method actually involves switching the gas and beer lines so that I have CO2 going IN the beer out port and the normal gas in port is sealed.

I'm guessing you do this because you think the gas bubbling up through the beer will carb it faster, but FWIW the opposite is actually true. The bubbles are so large and move up so fast that they actually knock more CO2 out of solution than they put into solution. In fact, the quickest and easiest way to de-gas an overcarbed keg is to push CO2 through the diptube and let it bubble up through the beer. If you had an airstone attached to the diptube that broke the gas up into millions of tiny bubbles it would be another story.

 

[pcollins]

I'm guessing you do this because you think the gas bubbling up through the beer will carb it faster, but FWIW the opposite is actually true. The bubbles are so large and move up so fast that they actually knock more CO2 out of solution than they put into solution. In fact, the quickest and easiest way to de-gas an overcarbed keg is to push CO2 through the diptube and let it bubble up through the beer. If you had an airstone attached to the diptube that broke the gas up into millions of tiny bubbles it would be another story.

Well... Yeah, what you said.

Next time I carb a keg I will try it with the coupling head set up as normal but everything else in my system as it is for carbing: 20psi, overnight, shake in the morning. I'll see where I end up when I draw my first pint.

I'm certainly not doubting you and your point of the aeration stone is absolutely true. I brew commercially as well and all I've ever seen is CO2 going through the beer for carbing so I figured it was always going to be faster no matter how it was done.

I'll check it out. If it means less switching around of lines on the coupling head and the result is the same, I'm all for it.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[pcollins]

Well I'll be! End result is the same. Huzzah!

Thanks for that tip, JuanMoore. No more switching around of lines for me. To be honest, neither method gets fully, properly carbonated beer right off the bat but it does give it a good kick start without overcarbing and makes it very drinkable on the first day. I like my beer slightly less carbonated than commercial beer so this works like a charm.