Pressure pushing beer out of Speidel fermenter demonstrated

[BSD_Glass]

I love my new Speidel fermenters. I have 2 now, a 60l and a 30l and am going to go for 3 more 60l which should last me for about forever.

My fermentation chamber is low so I currently push with co2 out of my 15 gallon re purposed hdpe LME barrels into cornies. More for the ease of moving the beer without moving the fermenter than concern for oxidation while transfering but that is also a benefit.

The new Speidels I bought are SUPER easy to pressure push from and the 30l took 5 psi no problem in a water test. I bought an extra transfer spigot from morebeer and screwed it into the top opening. 3/8" silicon slips right on to the spigot (tightly) so I used that for my gas in line and my beer out line. The 3/8" silicon also fits my gas out line so I just plug the pvc into the silicon hose and have a pressure tight seal (at least for 5 psi).

I will try this on my 14.5 gallon batch of Irish red in a couple weeks. I'm super jazzed. Hope this helps somebody out.

Cheers.

BSD

 

[mpcluever]

NICE!! I've been contemplating what to do with mine. I have the 120L so having them low and mobile is very nice as opposed to sitting up on a shelf.

 

[Coff]

This is a great idea, how did it work on the 60L? I just got one myself and lifting the thing has been a concern of mine.

 

[BSD_Glass]

It worked pretty well. The hose popped off the fermenter in the last 4 gallons but I caught it right away. I wish there were faucets available with barbs or longer tubes to attach the hose to but other than that, I am most pleased.

I have three 60l and one 30l in my ferm chamber right now and I think I'm good on fermenters for the forseeable future.

BSD

 

[BSD_Glass]

Here are 3 shots showing the gas in through the extra spigot on the top, the gas to gas connection by slipping the 3/8" silicon tubing over the 5/16" vinyl tubing from the gas regulator and the beer flowing into the corny. One thing I do differently now is turn the out spigots outlet to between 7 and 8 o'clock instead of straight down. This makes for a less strained hose hookup after the fermentation is done.

 

[jett78]

How does this do as far as leaving the yeast behind?

 

[kingogames]

+1 jett78, I'm wondering that too.

 

[BSD_Glass]

The same as any static mounted spigot with no racking arm. It runs pretty clear until you get near the bottom. Then with clever and careful tipping you can get almost all of the beer out no problemo. I haven't noticed any more yeast than usual in my kegs so far but I'm only drinking the second keg and didn't track which one I filled last.

Cheers.

BSD

 

[Khor]

This is real good news, for me, I have two 60l Speidels
I like them so much I'm selling my little 7 gallon SS Conical to buy more Speidels.
Great Idea, you've solved half a dozen problems for me in my brewery build.

My results are the same as quoted below, NO PROBLEMO

"The same as any static mounted spigot with no racking arm. It runs pretty clear until you get near the bottom. Then with clever and careful tipping you can get almost all of the beer out no problemo. I haven't noticed any more yeast than usual in my kegs

 

[Khor]

NOT HAPPY NOW!
Morebeer just raised the prices on the Speidels!
The 60l is now $89.99 up from $65.00
I just got 2 a few weeks ago. I was going to order 4 to 6 more especially after seeing the above posts but now at that price I can go Plastic conicals @59.00 with SS 2 pc valves and still be into them less.

 

[jett78]

Now that's a bummer! I have the 30l and was getting ready to get the 60l.... $15 price jump in the last couple weeks.

 

[dyqik]

So, now for a dumb question relating to these fermenters...

I'm British and used to using a pressure barrel as a cask for conditioning and serving beer (low carbed English styles) - would this attachment to the top be useful for doing that? Finding pressure barrels in the US is virtually impossible, and true pin casks are expensive (and only in SS).

For those who aren't aware, a pressure barrel is pretty much identical to the Speidel fermenters, but with a spring loaded pressure relief valve in the cap that limits the secondary fermentation pressure to about 5-10 psi. This is perfect for conditioning and serving English styles if you're going to drink them quickly. If you're going to take your time, then a CO2 cask breather will prevent oxidation.

 

[BSD_Glass]

I dunno about that. I did get one lid to puff up pretty high when pushing at 5 psi. I try to keep it below 3 psi now when I'm transferring under pressure.

Good luck and post pictures if you try it!

BSD

 

[dyqik]

Hmm. Well I need another fermentor/secondary anyway (I want to age a beer or two) so maybe I'll get one of these to test this out.

 

[Chcarpenter]

Here are 3 shots showing the gas in through the extra spigot on the top, the gas to gas connection by slipping the 3/8" silicon tubing over the 5/16" vinyl tubing from the gas regulator and the beer flowing into the corny. One thing I do differently now is turn the out spigots outlet to between 7 and 8 o'clock instead of straight down. This makes for a less strained hose hookup after the fermentation is done.

Hey BSD I just saw this post from a year ago, and was wondering if you were still using this method to transfer. I have 2 of the 120L and have yet to discover an good way to transfer them. Do you use this to transfer from primary to secondary as well or just to kegs?

 

[BSD_Glass]

I do. I push into kegs but could push into a secondary super easy. I outfitted two of my 60l's with rotating racking arm spigots from stainless brewing and I like them even more. I posted a thread about it here somewhere.

Cheers!

BSD

 

[Chcarpenter]

Do you clear your secondary of oxygen with the CO2 before transferring to in? Do you transfer from top or bottom? I just got 2 of the 120L so in trying figure out the best way to use them. I have used conicals before but not these. I saw your rack arm post and plan to make that happen soon, but am just trying to get a handle in these first.


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[BSD_Glass]

When I am kegging, I package into a vessel that is filled with co2, purging the o2.

I draw from the spigot at the bottom of the fermenter and dispense into the bottom of the packaging vessel through the use of the attached dip tube on the keg or a long bit of silicone tubing, depending on what I'm doing...

I don't secondary, except for time spent in the keg before serving.

BSD

 

[Chcarpenter]

Good to know. appreciate it.

 

[catsnbeer]

BSD- when you fill the corny from the spiedel using 3 psi, is the keg sealed? Do you manually bleed off the pressure as it fills?

Also...how do you know when its full?? Thanks! I like the concept!

 

[Chcarpenter]

Hey cats. I do this and for me I seal my legs and pressure them at first. Then before filling I bleed all the CO2 off. Best thing to do for knowing when they are full is to weigh you keg empty then do the conversion for how many pounds water weighs. Make all the additions and you will know your cut off point.


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[catsnbeer]

By weight - good idea!

 

[bozotros]

I'm interested in the bleed off issue, too. We'd like to use our Speidels for secondary, but often (for example if we do a 10 gal batch) there's an uncomfortable amount of head space. I'd like to fill that space with CO2. Using the method shown here to get gas in is slick, but I'm still grappling with how to purge/burp to make sure the air is replaced by CO2. Has anyone done this ?

 

[Unearthly]

Just used these methods in my last batch..... Worked soo good! Hooked up a spigot on the top of the fermenter to push CO2 into the fermenter and then push it directly into the keg out of the bottom spigot! I found a website that gave me the specs of a corny keg and what it weighs full of beer. 49lbs is what a corny weighs full of beer. I filled both of my kegs to 48.5 lbs to leave some room for when I force carb. Transferring my big super hoppy IIPA without introducing any oxygen to my beer is amazing!!! Thanks for all the input and ideas guys! Cheers!

 

[brewzombie]

I have done this once with my 30L and like it but am thinking of refining it. So that I won't have to switch the airlock with the valve/tubing combo (introducing air) to transfer, I was thinking of using the valve/tubing as a blow off during fermentation and then closing the blow off valve, hooking up the CO2 line, turning on the CO2 (venting through the little hole in the valve in closed position), opening the blow off valve and bottom spigot etc to transfer. I figured this would be best for eliminating introducing O2 into the headspace.

My concern with this approach is that I suspect that the blow off spigot would leak in O2 once primary fermentation settled down since the plastic spigots are known to be leaky and there is no reason to think they would be gas tight. I am considering (1) keg grease (or silicone grease) on the spigot wherever there is a possibility for leaking gas, (2) silicone self-sealing tape at these around the entire spigot, if possible, or (3) switching to the chrome spigots (but I am not sure they would be gas tight or easier to seal). I suppose a fourth option would be (4) a way of purging the headspace on the speidel fermenters, but I haven't thought of any way to do that.

Ignoring any discussion of whether the O2 introduced to the headspace to switch the airlock out is a problem, does anyone have thoughts on options 1 to 4 or other options?

Cheers!

 

[eric19312]

I love my new Speidel fermenters. I have 2 now, a 60l and a 30l and am going to go for 3 more 60l which should last me for about forever.

My fermentation chamber is low so I currently push with co2 out of my 15 gallon re purposed hdpe LME barrels into cornies. More for the ease of moving the beer without moving the fermenter than concern for oxidation while transfering but that is also a benefit.

The new Speidels I bought are SUPER easy to pressure push from and the 30l took 5 psi no problem in a water test. I bought an extra transfer spigot from morebeer and screwed it into the top opening. 3/8" silicon slips right on to the spigot (tightly) so I used that for my gas in line and my beer out line. The 3/8" silicon also fits my gas out line so I just plug the pvc into the silicon hose and have a pressure tight seal (at least for 5 psi).

I will try this on my 14.5 gallon batch of Irish red in a couple weeks. I'm super jazzed. Hope this helps somebody out.

Cheers.

BSD

Hi BSD--not sure if you are still around but I'm really interested to find out if you are still doing this and if you have tweaked the process at all. I've got a 15 gal Speidel that I love but like you it sits in my fermenting fridge just a bit too low to gravity drain into kegs. I now lift it out of the fridge and place up on a couple stacked grain buckets in order to drain. Oh my aching back!

Your post was a real ah-ha moment for me and I'm about ready to pull trigger on a second regulator for the spare CO2 tank I recently acquired to make this easy to do without fiddling with my keezer CO2 system. Wondering best way to hook the regulator to the fermentor and found this fitting:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/fflbarb38.htm
So I would go
Speidel valve > 3/8 silicon tubing > barb-female flare > Regulator

Just am thinking the cap/valve could also be used as a blow off instead of the Speidel airlock.

What do you think?

 

[BSD_Glass]

I am in a different house now and when I rebuilt the brewery, I made my ferm chamber a little smaller (3 60L spiedels instead of 4 capacity) and elevated it high enough to provide easy gravity siphoning into kegs and keg storage below. So, while I do not pressure transfer anymore, I easily still could.


Your plan on the MFL barb to hose to spigot will work just fine. Enjoy!

BSD

 

[logdrum]

This thing has worked wonders for me, although I noticed they're out of stock ATM:

http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Speidel-Ball-Lock-Gas-In-with-Pressure-Relief-Valve.html

 

[dyqik]

This thing has worked wonders for me, although I noticed they're out of stock ATM:

http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Speidel-Ball-Lock-Gas-In-with-Pressure-Relief-Valve.html

That's also exactly the part you need to turn a Speidel Fermenter into a UK style pressure barrel/cask for conditioning and serving Real Ale, as I mentioned upthread.