Unsure? Sure I'm unsure! Fermzilla Kviek and Pressure transfer

[Elmo Peach]

I brewed a beer and put it into the FremZilla all rounder. It is an all grain wort, I pitched Kviek @ 72F It sat for 2 weeks I tested SG it was 1.011 for several days.

Today I decieded to try a pressure transfer into a corny keg. I have done this only once before and it went great. While I was hooking up the CO2 canister I put the gas line on the Fermzilla and a blast of CO2 was released from the Fermzilla. I quickly removed it got the gas line hiiked up purged the Corny keg and when I went to hook up for the transfer I saw stuff fallin in the wort and foam on top of the wort and bubbles rising from the bottom of the fermentor.

Here are some pics.

 

[mbg]

I was in the same boat about two week ago. My first pressure transfer went without a hitch. On my second for some dumb last minute reason I thought I can purge the keg with the extra CO2 in the all-rounder. Ooops - I got the same thing instant beer head and very cloudy beer. Good news is the beer has cleared up pretty well now in the keg. If you still have pressure on it maybe let it sit a day or a few then transfer?

 

[Biggz1313]

I brewed a beer and put it into the FremZilla all rounder. It is an all grain wort, I pitched Kviek @ 72F It sat for 2 weeks I tested SG it was 1.011 for several days.

Today I decieded to try a pressure transfer into a corny keg. I have done this only once before and it went great. While I was hooking up the CO2 canister I put the gas line on the Fermzilla and a blast of CO2 was released from the Fermzilla. I quickly removed it got the gas line hooked up purged the Corny keg and when I went to hook up for the transfer I saw stuff fallin in the wort and foam on top of the wort and bubbles rising from the bottom of the fermenter.

Here are some pics.

Really tough to tell what you did here. So you took gas line from CO2 cylinder and hooked it up to the Fermzilla? If so, what was the pressure in the Fermzilla and what was your CO2 cylinder regulator pressure set at? Did you hook the CO2 up to the liquid line of the fermzilla? If you quickly decompress the Fermzilla in some way, a lot of CO2 will want to come out of solution very quickly. That is likely what caused your foam/bubbles, it's like you opened a warm 5 gallon can of beer basically.

When attaching anything to your pressurized fully fermented wort, you should make sure whatever you're hooking it up to is close if not exactly the same pressure at first, and then to start the transfer you can slowly increase the pressure in the fermzilla so that beer moves from fermenter to keg. Easy way to do this is attach whatever spunding valve you used during fermentation to the Gas post of your clean keg. Then hook up CO2 to your liquid post and fill with CO2 until your spunding valve starts to release gas from the keg, that should equalize to the same pressure as what's in your fermenter.

The only other thing that I think to cause that much disturbance is your fermzilla was at a lower pressure than the CO2 you hooked up to it, and you accidentally hooked the CO2 up to your liquid line on the fermenter. I've been there done that and the aftermath looked extremely similar to the movies you posted as well.

 

[Elmo Peach]

Really tough to tell what you did here. So you took gas line from CO2 cylinder and hooked it up to the Fermzilla? If so, what was the pressure in the Fermzilla and what was your CO2 cylinder regulator pressure set at? Did you hook the CO2 up to the liquid line of the fermzilla? If you quickly decompress the Fermzilla in some way, a lot of CO2 will want to come out of solution very quickly. That is likely what caused your foam/bubbles, it's like you opened a warm 5 gallon can of beer basically.

When attaching anything to your pressurized fully fermented wort, you should make sure whatever you're hooking it up to is close if not exactly the same pressure at first, and then to start the transfer you can slowly increase the pressure in the fermzilla so that beer moves from fermenter to keg. Easy way to do this is attach whatever spunding valve you used during fermentation to the Gas post of your clean keg. Then hook up CO2 to your liquid post and fill with CO2 until your spunding valve starts to release gas from the keg, that should equalize to the same pressure as what's in your fermenter.

The only other thing that I think to cause that much disturbance is your fermzilla was at a lower pressure than the CO2 you hooked up to it, and you accidentally hooked the CO2 up to your liquid line on the fermenter. I've been there done that and the aftermath looked extremely similar to the movies you posted as well.

That is what I did I let the pressure out of the F,,zilla too fast.

 

[DuncB]

@Elmo Peach
What patience to wait so long to transfer that beer.
I check the pressure in the all rounder as a starter.
I purge the receiving keg to a couple of psi below the all rounder pressure. Then set the regulator a bit higher than the all rounder pressure.
Attach a liquid to liquid line that has been sanitised and then purged with CO2 ( easy way to purge line with CO2 is to connect to keg first and then depress the plunger in the other end of liquid line and gas comes back, a little blast is enough) or you need to fill the line with beer before attaching ( so you do it the other way round ).
Connect the reg to all rounder and the beer lines up and it starts, height difference helps. I either use the spunding valve on gas keg post or the pressure gauge and just blip the pressure relief valve.
The process takes time at least half an hour for me.

I try to make sure that the beer is at the correct vols before transfer ( esp as it's been sitting quietly for so long ) and also chilled and into a cold receiving keg.

 

[Elric]

Kill two birds with one stone. At start of fermentation I hook the gas in on the fermzilla to the liquid out on a clean keg. When I want to start pressurizing, I attach the spunding valve to the gas in on the keg. If I am starting without pressure and adding pressure later, I will first add an airlock hooked up to q gas disconnect until I am at the point I want to add pressure. This purges the keg of o2 and will ensure that at the end of fermentation the keg and fermzilla are at same pressure. I then move the line from the gas in on the fermzilla to the liquid out, and hook up a second line between the two gas ins. Because they are at equilibrium nothing will happen, and I start the transfer by simply using the prv on the keg to release some pressure there until the beer starts flowing. If it's going too slow, I just release a bit more pressure.

 

[DuncB]

@Elric A few subtle oxygen reducing refinements. Also gas saving.
I wait until ferment has kicked off so the oxygen is used up in the ferm(pressure) and just put the spunding valve on ferm. Then connect as you do purging the line from ferm to keg. Keg is filled with starsan or dilute sod met and then just have a gas connector to open tube into a vessel to collect the starsan. If you are going to push the starsan into another keg you have to go ferm to gas post and then liquid on keg to liquid on next keg. Optional to put spunding valve on the end gas post or again open.
Once the keg or kegs are purged of liquid then have a spunding valve and adjust pressure so they both equalise. Before cold crash disconnect the keg.
After cold crash ferm will be lower pressure than keg, so when you connect for the closed transfer liquid to liquid gas to gas the higher pressure in keg balances with fermenter and should start the transfer especially if height difference if not disconnect the gas at one end and use prv as you do to start and then reconnect the gas.
Make sure you have purged each line at each stage so you don't put a tube full of oxygen in the system.
It is a slowish process.