O2 free transfer paranoia ???

[Snuffy]

When it goes as usual, I don’t dread the transfer at all; I actually enjoy it.

Sometimes I think it comes down to convenience and even personality. If it's a rainy day and I got nothing else going on, I will dig out the gear and the tanks and setup for the push. If it's nice out and I just need that brew in the keg so I can get back to hanging out - it's quick fill and purge.
Also, I'm not the scientific or perfectionist type. I know this is the perfect hobby for someone who is and I kind of envy that - but I can be ok with good enough for govmt work.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

Also, I'm not the scientific or perfectionist type. I know this is the perfect hobby for someone who is and I kind of envy that - but I can be ok with good enough for govmt work.

We’re in the same boat there. I’m glad this hobby has room for the scientific/perfectionist; I can learn a lot from them. However I am just here to make a decent beer and enjoy doing it; I don’t want to make work out of it. I realize that the definition of “work” is very subjective.
I actually brewed for decades without ever taking an OG or FG; I figured I’d get what I would get and shrug it off. I have still yet to measure my mash ph even though I have a brand new unused meter still in the box. (Since it hasn’t been my routine, I kinda forget about it until after the brew.) I filter my water, but do nothing else to it. I can hear heads popping right now at my blasphemies.

I just look at my lapses as new territories for future exploration and development; I will eventually go there, but in the meantime I am going to just RDWHAHB!

 

[shoengine]

@Willy, a simple improvement to the process for your bucket transfers could be to put a ball lock on the end of your transfer hose and connect it to the out port on the corny. Eliminates the need for saharan wrap because you can put the corny lid on and just vent through the PRV. Also eliminates having to put the hose into the fermenter.

 

[Willy]

@Willy, a simple improvement to the process for your bucket transfers could be to put a ball lock on the end of your transfer hose and connect it to the out port on the corny. Eliminates the need for saharan wrap because you can put the corny lid on and just vent through the PRV. Also eliminates having to put the hose into the fermenter.

I have done that method and usually transfer out of a bucket via the spigot into the corny liquid out. Gas out goes to a sanitized starsan and water. I like the saran wrap mostly cuz it goes faster by far and also I can see the full line. I might just get a corny lid with 1 1/2" triclamp on the lid and put a sight glass on it.

Currently doing more 10 gallon batches - filling 2 corny kegs. One to serve immediately and the other to fully lager in peace or condition if it's a stout, ale etc.

 

[marc1]

I have done that method and usually transfer out of a bucket via the spigot into the corny liquid out. Gas out goes to a sanitized starsan and water. I like the saran wrap mostly cuz it goes faster by far and also I can see the full line. I might just get a corny lid with 1 1/2" triclamp on the lid and put a sight glass on it.

Currently doing more 10 gallon batches - filling 2 corny kegs. One to serve immediately and the other to fully lager in peace or condition if it's a stout, ale etc.

If your beer is cold while you are transferring you can see the fill level on the outside of the keg as condensation.

 

[Snuffy]

We’re in the same boat there. I’m glad this hobby has room for the scientific/perfectionist; I can learn a lot from them. However I am just here to make a decent beer and enjoy doing it; I don’t want to make work out of it. I realize that the definition of “work” is very subjective.
I actually brewed for decades without ever taking an OG or FG; I figured I’d get what I would get and shrug it off. I have still yet to measure my mash ph even though I have a brand new unused meter still in the box. (Since it hasn’t been my routine, I kinda forget about it until after the brew.) I filter my water, but do nothing else to it. I can hear heads popping right now at my blasphemies.

I just look at my lapses as new territories for future exploration and development; I will eventually go there, but in the meantime I am going to just RDWHAHB!

I have never checked a ph. And if I didn't have a Tilt I'd never know the gravity of anything. I just got it cause it integrated into the Grainfather process well. I gave up hydrometers long ago after the second one broke. I bought a cheap 2 roller mill last black Friday and have been crushing my own grain with the squeaky hand crank for about the last 3 brews. I can tell the new is gonna wear off of that process pretty quick and I'll be back to buying it milled again.
I'm a lazy brewer. But I'm good with that.

 

[Snuffy]

I wonder how much excellent beer has been brewed by simple people whose process was to heat wet grain, add herbs, toss in yeast and then come back and check under the burlap every so often until it's time to drain it into an amphora.

 

[day_trippr]

I wonder just how bad a lot of that "beer" was...

 

[tracer bullet]

I wonder just how bad a lot of that "beer" was...

Probably pretty bad. I know that when I first started so long ago we thought our beer was pretty awesome. Looking back though, nope, it was pretty bad compared to today.

I'd be interested to know if "good" breweries 100 years ago did something akin to closed transfers. I'd bet exposure to "air" was known to be different than not. If that's true, then this idea that being scared of O2 is a new thing we can ignore would be quite false.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

I’m with you hoss, but “good” is a very relative term. There was a time, way, way back when Bud & PBR was a good (enough) beer for me.
What you described may be better than what was available elsewhere, but might be considered a dumper by many folks here.
I know some of the folks here are WAY more persnickety than I am about their process. I know that I have read and learned from them and my beer is better than it used to be.
The oxidation thing has been one area that has been a fairly easy fix with demonstrable improvements in my beer. Just tonight, I had a CO2 tank give out and I switched it, regulator and all out with one that I had just outfitted with new EVA barrier hose. I also just replaced the hose on the regulator I removed so that it is ready to go back in service better than before.

I am not looking to win ribbons or trophies. I am not striving to have everyone say my beer is best. I just want a good beer that I can produce reliably with a reasonable amount of effort. But at the end of the day, I just want to RDWHAHB

 

[tracer bullet]

The oxidation thing has been one area that has been a fairly easy fix with demonstrable improvements in my beer.

Same. When I learned (read) about it, I tried it, and wow - hop flavors lasted for weeks and months, not just days.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

Same. When I learned (read) about it, I tried it, and wow - hop flavors lasted for weeks and months, not just days.

For me, it was the longevity of the roasted barley flavor in my Irish stout. As soon as I did the closed transfers, it made a huge difference, and this beer became my wife’s favorite. That’s a win win for both of us.

 

[Willy]

For me, it was the longevity of the roasted barley flavor in my Irish stout. As soon as I did the closed transfers, it made a huge difference, and this beer became my wife’s favorite. That’s a win win for both of us.

O2 free transfer - All styles improve but especially brown ales, porters and stouts. Quite obviously more tasty.

 

[shoengine]

What you described may be better than what was available elsewhere, but might be considered a dumper by many folks here.

Dumper? People put beer in dump trucks? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[Snuffy]

I wonder just how bad a lot of that "beer" was...

Somebody liked it.

 

[mac_1103]

Somebody liked it.

Did they have a choice?

 

[day_trippr]

Right - it was either drink boiled concoctions or die from water borne disease

 

[Brewdog80]

<cough>

10 years ago nearly pre-dates the advent of hazy IPAs which are NOTORIOUS for oxygen sensitivity.
I would never recommend going "commando" racking NEIPAs. That would be ignorant and irresponsible of me...

Cheers!

Sorry, I hate hazy beers..... and yeah, I forget 10 years ago was still 2014. I'm more from the HBD days.

 

[Brewdog80]

Right - it was either drink boiled concoctions or die from water borne disease

Oh, and I'll have to post a roughly 1650 book that advocates not boiling wort. Never tried it and won't....

 

[Snuffy]

Did they have a choice?

Possibly. I think nearly every clan had a brewer in the mix. Fermented drink was a necessity. I can't imagine it was all putrid swill. There are odes written to it on clay tablets with little poke marks. Goddesses responsible for it. Recipes inscribed on stone walls. Laws controlling the process and amounts paid as taxes. Sounds pretty happening to me.

 

[mac_1103]

Possibly.

But probably not. Because after all

Fermented drink was a necessity.

The odes and goddesses were to the alcohol.

 

[Snuffy]

But probably not. Because after all

The odes and goddesses were to the alcohol.

I bet you were that kid that popped all the balloons at birthday parties.

 

[Snuffy]

But probably not. Because after all

The odes and goddesses were to the alcohol.

Maybe to the effect. I don't think alcohol was understood then as a separate component. I would be much less impressed with beer w/o the buzz.
Perhaps the last word is more satisfying than a point.

 

[mashdar]

Re closed transfers being hard, I hook up two hoses and walk away. Doesn't get much easier than that.

The cleaning is way more work than the transfer, IMO.

 

[Snuffy]

Re closed transfers being hard, I hook up two hoses and walk away. Doesn't get much easier than that.

The cleaning is way more work than the transfer, IMO.

If you can walk away while your beer is transferring, you are a bada$$. Excuse me - bad aleck.

Me - I'm staring at hoses and watching the levels drop and tapping the side of the corny like an Aye-aye hunting grubs.

 

[mashdar]

Here's a picture of it finished. Gravity just transfers until the gas-side tube starts to fill, then it stops. I work from home and usually just set it and come back in an hour or two.

Ideally there's slightly more beer in the fermenter than the keg can take. Otherwise, you might get some yeast sucked in, depending on what kind of filter you've got. Those little plastic barrel filters actually seem pretty good about breaking syphon before they suck up too much.

 

[shoengine]

@mashdar Not a bad way to do it. Do you clean your gas posts every time?

 

[Snuffy]

Here's a picture of it finished. Gravity just transfers until the gas-side tube starts to fill, then it stops. I work from home and usually just set it and come back in an hour or two.
View attachment 859557
Ideally there's slightly more beer in the fermenter than the keg can take. Otherwise, you might get some yeast sucked in, depending on what kind of filter you've got. Those little plastic barrel filters actually seem pretty good about breaking syphon before they suck up too much.

Do you worry about overfilling the corny and leaving no headspace?

 

[mashdar]

@mashdar Not a bad way to do it. Do you clean your gas posts every time?

If the keg fills all the way, the gas hose & fittings get cleaned with the liquid ones. The post hardware I always disassemble and clean when the keg is empty, as I can't be sure beer hasn't sloshed up onto the gaskets, regardless of transfer.

Do you worry about overfilling the corny and leaving no headspace?

Not usually - the biggest issue I've had is sucking beer back into the gas lines* if you hook it up to CO2, so I usually draw a generous hydrometer sample to drop it a bit, and purge the gas dip tube of liquid.

*This is exacerbated by tees with no check valves. If the regulator doesn't keep up, gas flows between kegs. My gas side needs some work.

 

[jerrylotto]

There's a short (3/4") dip tube on my gas line that prevents it from filling up to take up all the headspace.