Asking for a sanity check here... if I am right, it could evolve into a pretty good process. Please think about my post and let me know your thoughts.
I have been fermenting 5 gallon batches with 30L Speidel’s for past few years, and kegging all of my beers. The fermentors are elevated above keg height, so process has just been to run a short length of tubing from Speidel spigot into bottom of keg, remove the airlock to avoid suck-back, and open spigot to fill the keg. Once filled, I hook to gas and quickly purge headspace three times. Easy stuff.
After my last brew day (Pale and IPA), I kegged as usual, but had some beer left over in fermentor, so I dropped the leftovers into a few bombers with some priming sugar and let naturally carb. After two weeks, I sampled both and was horrified by how much the bottled beer was oxidized vs my kegged beer. This put me on a mission.
I knew my kegging process could be improved with a small investment. I found a site with a nice set of aftermarket accessories for speidel, and ordered 3 items.
The first piece is an adaptor that attaches to the top of fermentor - it replaces the giant speidel airlock with a small grommet (add a traditional small airlock) and thermowell, and screws on with a lock ring (had to buy extra OEM spigots to acquire this lock ring). A note - this item has no real bearing on my process, but I liked it more than what I was using prior.
The second item replaces the current spigot at bottom of fermentor. It is simply a ball lock liquid out adapter post, and attaches with lock ring from old spigot. This item is critical to process.
The third item would be utilized as the fermenting beer approached final gravity (call it day 5 or 6 of fermentation- will take some experimenting). It takes the place of the airlock/thermowell fitting at the top of fermentor. This third fitting is a gas ball lock adapter and a pressure relief valve, and it is also critical to the proposed process.
So if you followed all that, by the end of fermentation, I’ve basically turned the speidel fermentor into a large keg. It is sealed to build pressure, has gas in post, liquid out post, and a pressure relief valve.
Here comes the sanity check part - the transfer.
By replacing the airlock with the gas post/PRV while a bit of fermentation is still happening, I should be building a little bit of CO2 pressure into the Speidel. And keep in mind - I still have gravity on my side. I plan to attach a little jumper line of Liquid ball lock x liquid ball lock adapters onto the liquid out post of a sealed and purged keg. If I lock open the relief valve on the keg, I expect beer will begin to transfer into keg via the long dip tube, just as it pours into your glass when you open the faucet on the kegerator. As Beer goes in, CO2 exits via the relief valve.
When keg is full, I just reset the pressure valve on my keg, disconnect ball lock jumper, and purge head space just like I used to.
A couple notes. First, the process I laid never utilized the gas post that comes with the pressure release valve fitting. Between the pressure in the fermentor and laws of gravity, I am not sure I will need it - but it is an option if beer needs more of a “push”. Second - sampling. I was bummed that this set up removed the spigot, because I really liked having it as a sample port. My solution will be a short length (maybe 6-12”) of beverage tubing with a ball lock adapter on one end and a picnic tap on the other. I have these items on hand, so if I want a sample, I’ll just hook up the short picnic tap.
My one potential issue would be clogging in the ball lock posts. I had it happen the first time I kegged, but ever since, I have dry hopped in hop sacks and never had another issue - jury is still out on this one.
Process itself still seems low effort. Investment was about $115 per fermentor (I have two). But if this checks out, it gets me very close to keeping beer clear of oxygen, and that is a happy thought.
Thoughts? Opinions? Doing something similar?
I have been fermenting 5 gallon batches with 30L Speidel’s for past few years, and kegging all of my beers. The fermentors are elevated above keg height, so process has just been to run a short length of tubing from Speidel spigot into bottom of keg, remove the airlock to avoid suck-back, and open spigot to fill the keg. Once filled, I hook to gas and quickly purge headspace three times. Easy stuff.
After my last brew day (Pale and IPA), I kegged as usual, but had some beer left over in fermentor, so I dropped the leftovers into a few bombers with some priming sugar and let naturally carb. After two weeks, I sampled both and was horrified by how much the bottled beer was oxidized vs my kegged beer. This put me on a mission.
I knew my kegging process could be improved with a small investment. I found a site with a nice set of aftermarket accessories for speidel, and ordered 3 items.
The first piece is an adaptor that attaches to the top of fermentor - it replaces the giant speidel airlock with a small grommet (add a traditional small airlock) and thermowell, and screws on with a lock ring (had to buy extra OEM spigots to acquire this lock ring). A note - this item has no real bearing on my process, but I liked it more than what I was using prior.
The second item replaces the current spigot at bottom of fermentor. It is simply a ball lock liquid out adapter post, and attaches with lock ring from old spigot. This item is critical to process.
The third item would be utilized as the fermenting beer approached final gravity (call it day 5 or 6 of fermentation- will take some experimenting). It takes the place of the airlock/thermowell fitting at the top of fermentor. This third fitting is a gas ball lock adapter and a pressure relief valve, and it is also critical to the proposed process.
So if you followed all that, by the end of fermentation, I’ve basically turned the speidel fermentor into a large keg. It is sealed to build pressure, has gas in post, liquid out post, and a pressure relief valve.
Here comes the sanity check part - the transfer.
By replacing the airlock with the gas post/PRV while a bit of fermentation is still happening, I should be building a little bit of CO2 pressure into the Speidel. And keep in mind - I still have gravity on my side. I plan to attach a little jumper line of Liquid ball lock x liquid ball lock adapters onto the liquid out post of a sealed and purged keg. If I lock open the relief valve on the keg, I expect beer will begin to transfer into keg via the long dip tube, just as it pours into your glass when you open the faucet on the kegerator. As Beer goes in, CO2 exits via the relief valve.
When keg is full, I just reset the pressure valve on my keg, disconnect ball lock jumper, and purge head space just like I used to.
A couple notes. First, the process I laid never utilized the gas post that comes with the pressure release valve fitting. Between the pressure in the fermentor and laws of gravity, I am not sure I will need it - but it is an option if beer needs more of a “push”. Second - sampling. I was bummed that this set up removed the spigot, because I really liked having it as a sample port. My solution will be a short length (maybe 6-12”) of beverage tubing with a ball lock adapter on one end and a picnic tap on the other. I have these items on hand, so if I want a sample, I’ll just hook up the short picnic tap.
My one potential issue would be clogging in the ball lock posts. I had it happen the first time I kegged, but ever since, I have dry hopped in hop sacks and never had another issue - jury is still out on this one.
Process itself still seems low effort. Investment was about $115 per fermentor (I have two). But if this checks out, it gets me very close to keeping beer clear of oxygen, and that is a happy thought.
Thoughts? Opinions? Doing something similar?
