Transfer carbonated beer from All Rounder to keg

[brew703]

For those who have an All Rounder or similar what is the easiest/best way to transfer beer?
I am having the hardest time with this crap.
Thought it would be easy but it's anything but.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

OK, take this with a grain of salt since I haven't even done a batch yet in my All Rounder. However, I used to ferment in Sanke kegs and pressure transferred. I plan to do the same thing with the All Rounder:

1. Pressurize the All Rounder(AR) with 4-5PSI
2. Pressure in keg should be less than that, or no transfer will happen. 1-2PSI works fine.
3. I plan to use a spunding valve on the keg to keep this PSI, but you could also periodically just purge the keg to keep it flowing
4. Hook up the liquid out on the AR to the keg liquid in post on the keg

Here's a simple setup that would work without CO2. As the beer flows into the keg, the displaced CO2 in the purged keg is forced into the fermenter.

 

[brew703]

Thanks for the reply. That's basically what I do.
My AR was pressurized to 10 Psi at the beginning. Flow was good. I was able to get about a quarter keg then it stopped. I had my spunding valve on the gas posts of the keg to keep a couple Psi but it would not flow. As the pressure in the AR dropped the gas kept flowing rousing up the trub and yeast.
This is the 3rd time using the AR. The first two times it was fine, no issues.
It was frustrating to say the least as I was able to transfer about 3/4 of my AR. That left 1/4-1/2 gal behind.
Gonna continue to play with it. Hopefully it gets better.

 

[Advance]

Are you using the floating dip tube with your all rounder? If not, how are you racking the beer off the trub+yeast? I think your transferring problem is a result of your liquid connection becoming clogged. This is happening because you are allowing to pressure in the fermenter to drop during the transfer. When the headspace pressure is allowed to drop, co2 bubbles will form on the trub+yeast and cause it to rise into your clear beer. Next time you transfer try this:

1. Set your co2 regulator to a pressure lower than the head pressure in your fermenter. Purge the gas line then connect the gas disconnect to the fermenter. Slowly increase the pressure on the regulator until you can hear the gas flowing.
2. Disconnect the gas from the fermenter and connect it to your prepped keg. Disconnect the gas from the keg after you can no longer hear any flow. This will balance the pressures between the fermenter and keg.
3. Reattach the gas line to the fermenter and increase the pressure on the regulator slightly by turning the adjustment a 1/8 of a turn. This will ensure that the pressure in the fermenter is higher than the keg, so gas will not flow into the fermenter from the keg when you attach the liquid tube.
4. Turn the adjustment on your spunding valve to is maximum pressure setting (full clockwise) and attach it to the kegs gas in post.
5. Attach one end of your liquid tube to the fermenter. Purge the liquid tube by depressing the poppet on the other end over a catch basin. Sanitize the disconnect before installing on the kegs liquid out post.
6. Some beer should flow immediately due to the pressure differentials, but it will stop. Now loosen the adjustment on the spunding valve until you can just hear a slight hiss. Your goal is to fill the keg at a slight pressure differential, so minimum foaming occurs. This should take a while, 20-30 minutes.
7. Disconnect the liquid line from either the keg or fermenter to stop the transfer.

I recommend using a scale to weight the keg as you are transferring. This will allow you to better gauge your flow rates and your progress. It will also prevent you from over filling the keg.

Hope this helps.

 

[brew703]

Are you using the floating dip tube with your all rounder? If not, how are you racking the beer off the trub+yeast? I think your transferring problem is a result of your liquid connection becoming clogged. This is happening because you are allowing to pressure in the fermenter to drop during the transfer. When the headspace pressure is allowed to drop, co2 bubbles will form on the trub+yeast and cause it to rise into your clear beer. Next time you transfer try this:

1. Set your co2 regulator to a pressure lower than the head pressure in your fermenter. Purge the gas line then connect the gas disconnect to the fermenter. Slowly increase the pressure on the regulator until you can hear the gas flowing.
2. Disconnect the gas from the fermenter and connect it to your prepped keg. Disconnect the gas from the keg after you can no longer hear any flow. This will balance the pressures between the fermenter and keg.
3. Reattach the gas line to the fermenter and increase the pressure on the regulator slightly by turning the adjustment a 1/8 of a turn. This will ensure that the pressure in the fermenter is higher than the keg, so gas will not flow into the fermenter from the keg when you attach the liquid tube.
4. Turn the adjustment on your spunding valve to is maximum pressure setting (full clockwise) and attach it to the kegs gas in post.
5. Attach one end of your liquid tube to the fermenter. Purge the liquid tube by depressing the poppet on the other end over a catch basin. Sanitize the disconnect before installing on the kegs liquid out post.
6. Some beer should flow immediately due to the pressure differentials, but it will stop. Now loosen the adjustment on the spunding valve until you can just hear a slight hiss. Your goal is to fill the keg at a slight pressure differential, so minimum foaming occurs. This should take a while, 20-30 minutes.
7. Disconnect the liquid line from either the keg or fermenter to stop the transfer.

I recommend using a scale to weight the keg as you are transferring. This will allow you to better gauge your flow rates and your progress. It will also prevent you from over filling the keg.

Hope this helps.

Man thanks for that info. Yeah I am using the floating dip tube in the AR.

I appreciate the write up. Yeah my process was flawed. The first two beers I fermented in the AR transfered with no problem.

This time I used 1318 and since it's a top cropping yeast I thought maybe my tube was clogged with yeast but it wasn't.

I thought maybe it were the disconnects but pulled and cleaned and they had no issues.

I just could not get the pressure right between the two vessels.

I am brewing tomorrow and come keg time I will follow your instructions.

Again appreciate your help.

 

[bjhbrew]

I believe Advance is right on the money With the fermenter dropping pressure making trub float up on the rising co2 bubbles. I made the exact mistake several times before coming to the same conclusion with my snub nose which is very similar. As a second method you can also pressurize the serving keg equal to the fermenter and then connect them to each other via the gas connects. This ensures that the pressure is equal and you can attain flow simply by raising the fermenter higher than the keg. The caveat is that you need to be fermenting a volume that you can lift. One other thing I’ll throw out is that if you’re using the fermentation gasses to purge your keg you can put the spunding valve on the keg gas post and finish fermentation with both vessels at the same pressure ready to transfer.

 

[brew703]

Are you using the floating dip tube with your all rounder? If not, how are you racking the beer off the trub+yeast? I think your transferring problem is a result of your liquid connection becoming clogged. This is happening because you are allowing to pressure in the fermenter to drop during the transfer. When the headspace pressure is allowed to drop, co2 bubbles will form on the trub+yeast and cause it to rise into your clear beer. Next time you transfer try this:

1. Set your co2 regulator to a pressure lower than the head pressure in your fermenter. Purge the gas line then connect the gas disconnect to the fermenter. Slowly increase the pressure on the regulator until you can hear the gas flowing.
2. Disconnect the gas from the fermenter and connect it to your prepped keg. Disconnect the gas from the keg after you can no longer hear any flow. This will balance the pressures between the fermenter and keg.
3. Reattach the gas line to the fermenter and increase the pressure on the regulator slightly by turning the adjustment a 1/8 of a turn. This will ensure that the pressure in the fermenter is higher than the keg, so gas will not flow into the fermenter from the keg when you attach the liquid tube.
4. Turn the adjustment on your spunding valve to is maximum pressure setting (full clockwise) and attach it to the kegs gas in post.
5. Attach one end of your liquid tube to the fermenter. Purge the liquid tube by depressing the poppet on the other end over a catch basin. Sanitize the disconnect before installing on the kegs liquid out post.
6. Some beer should flow immediately due to the pressure differentials, but it will stop. Now loosen the adjustment on the spunding valve until you can just hear a slight hiss. Your goal is to fill the keg at a slight pressure differential, so minimum foaming occurs. This should take a while, 20-30 minutes.
7. Disconnect the liquid line from either the keg or fermenter to stop the transfer.

I recommend using a scale to weight the keg as you are transferring. This will allow you to better gauge your flow rates and your progress. It will also prevent you from over filling the keg.

Hope this helps.

So far so good. Thanks for the tips.