Marbles in keg

[DonMagee]

Ok, this is a strange idea.

I was watching the latest episode of Drinking made easy last night. The host was in a bar that makes their own infused vodkas. The placed marbles in the containers to cover up the spout so that any sediment from the stuff they used to infuse the vodka with would sit on the marbles and not make it into the glass.

Now typically I just let my beer sit a while then dump the first pint or so of beer to clear it. But I was thinking, what if I put just enough marbles in the keg to cover the dip tube. Would it be possible to get more clear beer out of the keg (with the sediment sitting on top of the marbles?

 

[kpr121]

I saw that episode too, and thought it was a cool idea for the infusions. But I think it’s more so that large chunks of whatever they are soaking (think strawberries) do not get to the spout and clog it up.

Sure it might work in a keg where the sediment sits on most of the marbles instead of on the bottom of the keg. But usually my beers run completely clear after the first 2 or 3 pours anyhow so I don’t think it would be necessary.

I clean enough equipment due to this hobby, I don’t need to be cleaning and sanitizing marbles all the time too.

Marbles ARE excellent at topping up volume in a carboy to ensure that you do not have any additional headspace, but that mostly a wine/mead thing.

 

[sweetcell]

seems to me that the marbles aren't fine enough to stop yeast. for the infused vodka, they're using marbles to filter out large chunks of fruit - things that can't pass through the gaps between marbles. yeast is much smaller, it'll flow right around the marbles and into your intake.

i'm thinking that your marbles idea might in fact make more beers cloudy - the yeast will be sitting on top of the marbles, above the intake, and the yeast will continuously be sucked up and mixed in with the beer as your serve it (instead of all accumulating at the bottom, and being blown out all at once with the first pint).