Preventing oxidation in transfer from cans to keg

[tbear2500]

I understand what I desire to do is generally considered a bad idea, but please bear with me...

Every year I host an Oktoberfest party. I try to keep it fairly authentic, with real German beer and food. This time around, inspired by a photo I saw on Facebook, I wanted the beer to come from a keg through the faucet seen below (that's a cylinder from an aircraft engine, and I and several of my friends are pilots).

Next year I'm going to make my own beer (at least, that's my plan), but this time around I didn't have the idea until it was far too late, and with a few days left I have an empty Corny keg and four 5L cans of imported Märzen.

Reading some other threads on the topic, I've abandoned my plan to rip out the faucet and vent in each can to quickly pour the beer into the keg and subsequently purging the remaining air and pressurizing it, but I'd like some advice on keeping oxidation to a minimum, inasmuch as can be done here.

My latest idea was to purge the air from the keg, remove the lid, and fill it through a funnel inserted into the dip tube or a section of hose (the faucets on these cans, without any pressurization, flow pretty slowly and I think would give me a fighting chance at this), with the gas line still connected and either flowing at a low pressure or only turned on occasionally to purge any air that enters the keg during the process.

Does that sound like it could offer a chance of success? Is there anything else I might do to improve my odds?

Prost!

 

[day_trippr]

How about a picture of the can and whatever passes as a faucet on it?
If you can get tubing over or in the faucet you can connect it to a beer QD and fill the keg through the long dip tube. If you start with a purged keg and let the displaced CO2 vent through either the keg PRV (if it has one) or through a line snapped on the gas post you would do a lot better than Plan A...

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

If it were me, I think I might be pouring into the keg about 90 minutes before the party begins. A very hoppy beer would be more subject to oxidation, an Oktoberfest somewhat less. Regardless, reducing the time between the kegging and the consumption is a good idea.

I'm with @day_trippr in wondering what these cans look like. I can envision a setup where you were blowing CO2 over the area into which you were pouring to reduce what air and O2 was there.

 

[tbear2500]

I can grab a picture of it tonight, but it's the same style as this. There's a small hole in the red tube at the bottom of the can that beer flows through when you open it, so unfortunately there's little chance of getting any tube over it.

 

[VVbrewery]

Personally I'd dispense out of the small kegs this time and save the new tapper debut for another time. Very cool tap setup BTW.

 

[mongoose33]

I can grab a picture of it tonight, but it's the same style as this. There's a small hole in the red tube at the bottom of the can that beer flows through when you open it, so unfortunately there's little chance of getting any tube over it.

I think what I'd try is to pour it into a small funnel attached to a tube that's attached to a QD going into the purged keg. I'd poke the tubing through a hole in the bottom of a bread plastic bag or similar, put the funnel in, tie the open end of the bag over the can spout, and push some CO2 inside the bag so it would mostly replace air. That would reduce exposure to air and O2.

 

[day_trippr]

Would it be possible to pop that red cap off the top of the can, press fit tubing in the hole, run the tubing into a beer QD, flip the can over, open the valve as a vent and fill your keg?

Cheers!