Novel Suck Back Prevention

[Monmouth00]

Seeing all the interesting ways people have tried to prevent suck back during cold crash made me think of how I could prevent oxidation.
Well, I work for a company that makes airline style life vests. It turns out the 3/8” blowoff tubing I use matches the diameter of the life vest oral tube perfectly.
So, I attached the tubing with a little tape to prevent leaking, popped the CO2 cylinder, purged the line, and stuck it through the bung. Viola!
I should have a nice reservoir of CO2 for the carboy to draw on as it crashes.
I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with my solution.
Cheers!

 

[BrewZer]

I guess it's better than using your seat cushion...

 

[Bilsch]

Do you know if the vest and tubing are made from oxygen barrier polymer by chance?

 

[Monmouth00]

Do you know if the vest and tubing are made from oxygen barrier polymer by chance?

They are not. The tubing is just simple 3/8" and the vest is made from nylon coated with urethane.

It likely won't be completely O2 free, but infiltration will be very limited in a 24 hour cold crash.

It's more than I've done in the past, and I haven't really had any problems with oxidation previously.

This is a dry run for the SMaSH IPA (maris otter and mosaic) I brewed today. Hoping to protect that one a bit better than just this normal amber ale.

 

[Alex4mula]

That is a very fancy balloon. Good use.

 

[agentbud]

Pilot: We've lost engine 3, prepare for a water landing.
Passenger in seat 9b: Hey, where's my floatation vest?

 

[NGD]

Pilot: We've lost engine 3, prepare for a water landing.
Passenger in seat 9b: Hey, where's my floatation vest?

Passenger in 10C “Hey, anyone else’s blow tube taste like an old IPA thats heavy on mosaic?”

 

[Monmouth00]

Maybe I should put a disclaimer on the post that says "The OP does not condone stealing life vests from commercial aircraft!"

 

[agentbud]

Maybe I should put a disclaimer on the post that says "The OP does not condone stealing life vests from commercial aircraft!"

If you replaced it with a bottle of IPA, I'd be ok with that.

 

[NGD]

@Monmouth00 Curious to know if this your first time rigging up a vest like this? I’m wondering if the urethane leaves any off flavors. I’m suspect it wouldn’t but stranger things have happened.

 

[IslandLizard]

Well, I work for a company that makes airline style life vests.

Just out of curiosity, what do those vests sell for?

 

[Monmouth00]

@Monmouth00 Curious to know if this your first time rigging up a vest like this? I’m wondering if the urethane leaves any off flavors. I’m suspect it wouldn’t but stranger things have happened.

My first time. Sampled the beer today as I was kegging, and didn’t notice anything off. This wasn’t forcing CO2 into the fermenter. It was really just an equilibrium as it cold crashed. Very little volume was actually sucked into the carboy.

 

[Monmouth00]

Just out of curiosity, what do those vests sell for?

They retail at about $45-$50
But, you’d have to replace the CO2 cylinder every time for about $6-7 (if I remember correctly).
You can probably find lots of used vests on eBay for much less. Look for single cell vests as opposed to twin cell.
I’m probably just going to use this to capture CO2 from fermentation with a blowoff tube, and reuse for each batch.

 

[Elric]

Pop bottle, screw on pressure cap and a duotight regulator set to 1 psi. Pop 3-5 psi into the pop bottle, connect it to the regulator and regulator to fermenter and you are good to go. Variations on this are what I’ve been using lately, been working great and all parts I already have lying around for other uses.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

I just picked up a few of these for the same purpose

Sanitary Inner Liner for Genesis Fermenter

I got a tee, relief valve, couple of drilled stoppers. I want to capture the CO2 during ferment then use it for cold crash. It is a bit big, but the price is right.

 

[Monmouth00]

I got a tee, relief valve, couple of drilled stoppers. I want to capture the CO2 during ferment then use it for cold crash. It is a bit big, but the price is right.

What type of relief valve did you get? Can you share a link? Thanks!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

"Well, imagine that, my seat cushion... Just what I need -- to float around the North Atlantic for several days -- clinging to a pillow full of beer farts..."

 

[Ogilthorpe2]

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/ccguardianv3.htm
This is a purpose built device for doing the same thing

 

[Monmouth00]

This is a purpose built device for doing the same thing

This is great, and I use Brewhardware all the time, but my solution was free!

 

[Ogilthorpe2]

This is great, and I use Brewhardware all the time, but my solution was free!

Just throwing it out there for everyone. I can’t vouch for its quality or ease of use...I just know it exists,

 

[BigDave1303]

I also capture co2 whilst fermenting, directly into a keg (previously used a fermenting bucket to collect).
Blow off tube connected to liquid out post on keg. Gas in post vented to a plastic pot. so only co2 is sucked back when cold crashing or bottling.
When kegging. I disconnect the blow off from the liquid in post & connect it to the gas port on the keg. The gas port is now connected to the top of the conical.
Gravity fill the keg from the small outlet tap on the bottom of the conical into the liquid post on the keg. As beer enters the keg co2 is now pushed out & back into the top of the conical. This results in a totally closed transfer system eliminating any o2 from entering the system.

Short video showing it in action see link below

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bZVgBDWQ_frD4PqpevXvPS4RijI5HFxa/view?usp=sharing

 

[Monmouth00]

So, I had planned to do just this - using the CO2 from fermentation to push star-san out of a keg, purging it of all O2. But, during the last ferment, which was fast a furious and didn't have enough headspace in the carboy, krausen entered the blowoff line. I didn't want that in the keg, so I ended up purging the keg with star-san and CO2 from my bottle.
I performed the closed transfer just as you described, hooking the spigot from the Big Mouth Bubbler to the liquid in port on the keg, and the gas in line through a tube in the top of the BMB bung. Open the tap on the BMB, and it was a closed loop without O2 touching the beer.
This was just a dry run, as I was kegging a Fat Tire clone - not as highly sensitive to O2. But, it worked well enough that I'm using it for the SMaSH IPA I just brewed. I definitely want to keep the O2 off that one. That was a much more expensive recipe with all the Mosaic hops.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

What type of relief valve did you get? Can you share a link? Thanks!

Have not tried it yet, but only 2" h2o crack pressure.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HYTBSW1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1