Sealing keg

[tarcrarc]

Just want to make sure I'm doing this right. I ferment in a keg with a blow off tube in a temp controlled chest freezer. Once all bubbling stops, I remove the blowoff and any fermentation that goes on from that point is closed. From that point when I take a gravity reading (after removing my sample) I replace the keg lid and shoot 5-10 psi of CO2 to seal the lid so that when the freezer kicks on, no air is drawn in.

Question 1: does that sound smart to pressurize the keg? In other words, Would sir be drawn in when the freezer kicks on?

Q#2: should I be shooting CO2 in a couple times and releasing it to make sure I get all air from when I took the sample out before sealing it up for good?

Thanks!

 

[specharka]

A lot of kegs don’t really seal well until they have some pressure behind them, so it’s a good idea to pressurize the headspace if you’re cold crashing or naturally carbing in the keg.

Why aren’t you sampling the beer from the liquid post instead of opening the keg up? You’re exposing the beer to oxygen and a contamination risk this way.

 

[GPP33]

Make sure you are keeping the pressure on while it’s cooling down as the pressure will drop with temp and gas from the headspace will dissolve as the beer cools. As for purging the head space it takes about 15 times at 30psi. Take specharka’s advice and sample from the liquid post.

 

[tarcrarc]

A lot of kegs don’t really seal well until they have some pressure behind them, so it’s a good idea to pressurize the headspace if you’re cold crashing or naturally carbing in the keg.

Why aren’t you sampling the beer from the liquid post instead of opening the keg up? You’re exposing the beer to oxygen and a contamination risk this way.

Ummm, yeah! Why have I not been doing that? Well that was an obvious fix. Problem solved! Thanks