Problems with closed transfer in between DIY floating diptube kegs

[beervoid]

Hello everyone,

I have 2 kegs fitted with a DIY floating diptube. This is the first time I have tried to transfer my fermented and dry hopped beer from 1 keg off the yeast and hops into another purged keg.
The keg was spunded at 15psi for a few days to allow some natural carbonation and oxygen scavenging.

My receving keg is spunded and set at about 8psi or so while I transfer from the pressured keg at 12psi or so in order to keep pressure on it.

In the beginning the transfer is going fine but after about a few minutes all I'm starting to get is foam and I can't seem to transfer anymore then that.
If I let it settle for a few hours I can again transfer some more but the same thing happens.
I've tried cold crashing it a little bit in the 16-18c range. Let the keg sit for a night and the transfer went better this time but again locked up.

I'm now half way through the keg and decided to cold crash it completely this time to see if it helps.
I've also blown some c02 through the OUT in order to clear any hops that might have blocked the filter on the DIY diptube.

The only thing I can imagine what is going wrong is that by naturally carbonating the fermenting keg the transfer is going bad because the filters on the diptube somehow create a disturbance and therefor letting co2 out of solution causing foam?
I've spunded at 15psi and ferment around 22-23c so I can't imagine much co2 was absorbed already.
Could transfering warm(er) beer be problematic this way?

Any help from others with a similar setup would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

So, here is what works for me.
Pressurize the target keg to about 20 psi.
Put spunding valve on target keg, set to just over 20 psi.
Connect the gas at 30 psi to the original keg, hook up the transfer hose from beverage to beverage, filling target keg from the bottom.
Beer transfers with minimal foaming, because the target keg is at a higher pressure than the original keg was at.
upon completion, use spunding valve to bring the target keg to just over the original pressure that it was in the beginning. Slowly vent the target keg to 14-15 upon completion of transfer via spunding valve.

Do this with the beer cold.

The original keg should have been somewhere close to 12-14 psi if had been fully carbonated and serving properly.
If the beer was cold to begin with, one can monitor the level in the target keg, via the sweat line that will appear on the target keg and pull the transfer hose when it is close to done. One can also lift the original keg ever so slightly to assess how much is left in it to assess the progress. Do this ever so carefully as not to disturb the sediment in the original keg. You want to pull that transfer hose as the original keg empties, as to not send bubbles up through the target keg.

This process works well for me, it sometimes takes a bit of practice to get it right.

You can use a party tap to blast the initial "spooge" to get the beer flowing "clear" to begin with.

BTW-I ferment under pressure and transfer fully or mostly carbonated beer into fully purged, pressurized clean kegs.

 

[beervoid]

So, here is what works for me.
Pressurize the target keg to about 20 psi.
Put spunding valve on target keg, set to just over 20 psi.
Connect the gas at 30 psi to the original keg, hook up the transfer hose from beverage to beverage, filling target keg from the bottom.
Beer transfers with minimal foaming, because the target keg is at a higher pressure than the original keg was at.
upon completion, use spunding valve to bring the target keg to just over the original pressure that it was in the beginning. Slowly vent the target keg to 14-15 upon completion of transfer via spunding valve.

Do this with the beer cold.

The original keg should have been somewhere close to 12-14 psi if had been fully carbonated and serving properly.
If the beer was cold to begin with, one can monitor the level in the target keg, via the sweat line that will appear on the target keg and pull the transfer hose when it is close to done. One can also lift the original keg ever so slightly to assess how much is left in it to assess the progress. Do this ever so carefully as not to disturb the sediment in the original keg. You want to pull that transfer hose as the original keg empties, as to not send bubbles up through the target keg.

This process works well for me, it sometimes takes a bit of practice to get it right.

You can use a party tap to blast the initial "spooge" to get the beer flowing "clear" to begin with.

BTW-I ferment under pressure and transfer fully or mostly carbonated beer into fully purged, pressurized clean kegs.

Great info! Thank you for sharing, I will test this out.
When you say the beer must be cold what temperatures are you talking about?
And does this mean transferring warm is always problematic?

 

[Dr_Jeff]

The colder the better, as far as I'm concerned.
With the equipment that I have, I can easily get it to 33-34 degrees. (It's my target temperature, when I cold crash. I usually keep it there for at least three days, prior to kegging. But again, I ferment under pressure and have a special rig that facilitates transferring the beer easily.)

When beer is fully carbonated, cold it should be roughly at 12 psi or so.
That same beer, warm will be at roughly 30 psi.

So the target keg needs to be higher than that and the transfer pressure will be even higher.

If the beer was at room temperature, I would have the receiving keg at 40 psi and use about 50 to push the beer, controlling it with the spunding valve on the receiving keg.

By having the receiving keg higher than the source keg, one can minimize the ability of the co2 to come out of solution.

 

[beervoid]

The colder the better, as far as I'm concerned.
With the equipment that I have, I can easily get it to 33-34 degrees. (It's my target temperature, when I cold crash. I usually keep it there for at least three days, prior to kegging. But again, I ferment under pressure and have a special rig that facilitates transferring the beer easily.)

When beer is fully carbonated, cold it should be roughly at 12 psi or so.
That same beer, warm will be at roughly 30 psi.

So the target keg needs to be higher than that and the transfer pressure will be even higher.

If the beer was at room temperature, I would have the receiving keg at 40 psi and use about 50 to push the beer, controlling it with the spunding valve on the receiving keg.

By having the receiving keg higher than the source keg, one can minimize the ability of the co2 to come out of solution.

Ok, I think that is what I might have done wrong last transfer. The keg was naturally carbonated at about 15psi and I tried to transfer around the same psi.
Good info thank you!

 

[Vale71]

Ok, I think that is what I might have done wrong last transfer. The keg was naturally carbonated at about 15psi and I tried to transfer around the same psi.
Good info thank you!

You can still keep doing that if you cool the beer down to as close to 0°C as possible. Temperature is much more critical then pressure, just try pouring beer at room temperature and see how much beer you can pour before the glass overflows with foam. It also helps to go slow. It's worth taking a few extra minutes to complete the transfer as slower flowing beer tends to foam a lot less.

 

[beervoid]

You can still keep doing that if you cool the beer down to as close to 0°C as possible. Temperature is much more critical then pressure, just try pouring beer at room temperature and see how much beer you can pour before the glass overflows with foam. It also helps to go slow. It's worth taking a few extra minutes to complete the transfer as slower flowing beer tends to foam a lot less.

I was suspecting the temp was the problem and didnt know this can only be overcome with a bigger pressure difference.

The reason I transfered warm is because I was hoping to carbonate the beer a bit more after transferring and get any residual DO out.

 

[_HH_]

I had almost exactly the same issue with foaming when transferring from my fermenting keg with a floating dip tube. It only happens when I transfer at fermenting temperatures around 20’C. When I cold crashed first and transferred around 2’C it transferred easily and with no foaming. I’m sure it’s due to the temperature you’re transferring at.