Using Gas Disconnect to Move Beer to Corny?

[Clint Yeastwood]

Help me with a transfer.

I have a wheat beer in a bucket with a spigot. I want to move it to a Corny keg. I can pump CO2 into the keg and then rig it up so most of the CO2 goes into the bucket as it drains. I can't make it perfect, because I have no way to make a really good gas connection to the bucket, but there is a hole in the lid, and I should be able to shove a tube in there and create a makeshift seal around it with a paper towel soaked in sanitizing solution.

The problem is getting the beer into the keg. I have no liquid disconnects that will fit a tube that will connect to the spigot.

I'm thinking of using a gas disconnect. I can put a gas post on the liquid side of the keg and run the beer through it. Then I can pop the post out and put a liquid post in. Is there any reason why this won't work?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Interesting fact: 8mm EVAbarrier fits fairly snugly in the liquid opening of a Corny keg, once the tube is removed. Doesn't do me any good, but fun fact to know.

 

[seatazzz]

What I used to do before I had pressure lids, was use vinyl tubing (cannot remember the exact size) that fit into the opening of the spigot, and ran that to the keg; lid off, with a starsan soaked paper towel over the opening. Gravity does the rest. It's not perfect but it works, and it's cheap. I wouldn't mess with changing out the posts on the keg too much, as it puts stress on the o-rings.

 

[IslandLizard]

Vinyl hose of different diameters make excellent step-up or step-down adapters, as they fit into one another. For example, 3/8" ID tubing will fit into 1/2" ID tubing.

I have a bunch of short pieces of all different diameters around to make these kind of adapters on the fly.

To prevent or heavily reduce your beer from air (oxygen) exposure, you definitely want to do a (semi-)closed transfer, by transferring the beer into a 100% liquid pre-purged (or pre-purged with fermentation CO2) keg through the liquid out post. The essence is, the lid stays on the keg!

Rehearse the method using a bucket of water, until you got it down.

 

[Geezer-Glide]

I do as IslandLizard recommends. Since Covid we do not entertain as often and kegs last a lot longer. Oxygen is no longer your friend in this respect. I connect the drain on my fermenter to the output of my purged corney keg. I then set the keg on a scale hit the tare button and fill the keg by weight. If you mark the tare weight on the keg you can also check the amount remaining in the keg at any time by weighing it. It‘s not perfect but good enough is good enough. I do try to keep a blanket of CO2 in the fermenter while transferring but I’m not sure that makes much of a difference.

 

[Brushwood Brewing]

I do a (mostly) closed transfer similar to the process described above, from a bucket. I have a vinyl tubing that fits over the bucket spigot snugly, and insert my 8mm OD EVAbarrier tubing into the vinyl tubing, which is also a snug fit. I then connect the other end of that EVAbarrier into the liquid QD of the purged keg. The gas QD of the keg connects to EVAbarrier tubing, stepped up to vinyl tubing, stepped up to silicone tubing which fits over a three-piece airlock into the fermenter lid.

Put the bucket on a table and the keg on the floor. You have a closed transfer system, without the need for pressurized vessels or expensive adapters. It may not be 100% airtight, but I think it's plenty good enough on a budget.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Thanks, all.

Seven weeks ago, I had no brewery, and since then, while I've been assembling equipment and getting things going again, I've been bombarded with practices that didn't exist in the old days.

I guess it will be at least two more weeks before I have everything set up reasonably well. Things I need are surprisingly scarce, and many things are shipping very slowly. Frustrating, considering how fast things moved before covid and shortages.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Thanks, all.

Seven weeks ago, I had no brewery, and since then, while I've been assembling equipment and getting things going again, I've been bombarded with practices that didn't exist in the old days.

I guess it will be at least two more weeks before I have everything set up reasonably well. Things I need are surprisingly scarce, and many things are shipping very slowly. Frustrating, considering how fast things moved before covid and shortages.

You're moving into this alot faster than most folks do. It'll take some time to get your procedures down even though you have time invested in brewing already. Anytime you add a new piece of equipment it takes a little to get it dialed in with the rest.

Be patient, it'll fall into place.

As far as shipping and availability, that will take some time to get back. Not sure we'll ever see it like it was pre-covid. Companies have made changes in how they do business, at least the ones that survived the Plague.

 

[Broken Crow]

If I understand correctly, your problem is simply the gas-return input to your bucket which you want to do a closed-loop gravity feed from spigot to closed/sanitized/pugred keg?
Assuming your bucket has either a grommet or bung-hole for an airlock, here's an option for a return line;

1/2" tubing fits nicely over the stem of the popular bubbler airlocks, but it's a PITA to get it back off [which is why the outer resevoir is smashed off in the one I took a pic of ] You can downsize the tubing like @IslandLizard suggested above or put in those splicer/adapters to downsize to fit the gas disconnect (which are available with 3/8" barbs).
The spigots in the pic, I bought cheap in bulk off amazon in my bottling-bucket days, can also be mounted in your fermenting bucket lid easily, and you can use it for blow-off in fermenting and then a gas return line in kegging.
Just a thought.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Thanks for the tips.

I, too, bought a big bag of Amazon spigots. Really glad I did.

I have three fermented beers in a holding pattern. I think the best thing is to take a spare lid and put a spigot in it. Then I can swap it for one of the lids on the fermented beers and use a tank to pump some CO2 in to minimize the O2 intrusion. It will be good enough for now. It will let me put semi-closed transfers together for the sake of these beers. I can put a spigot on each lid as I swap it so I end up with spigots on all the lids.

I ordered THREE 6-gallon Torpedo kegs for fermenting. I ordered one from Morebeer. They took days to pick it from the warehouse, and then they sent a 5-gallon keg, so who knows when the 6-gallon job will arrive to replace it? I ordered two a little later from an Ebay seller. Still not shipped. I have three bags of grain ready to brew, and I am raring to go. I don't want to make a move until I have a Torpedo ready.

I can use the Fermzilla I suppose. I really do not want pressure, though. Not for ales. Maybe I can leave a cap loose so gas can get out.

I learned something useful about lids. You never pull the plastic thing and rip the ring off the lid. Instead, you cut the little things that join the flaps together. If you rip the lid off, you're left with short, stiff flaps that don't want to open. If you leave the whole flap on, you get much more leverage. I'm going to Home Depot and spring for new lids, and I'll throw out the ones that are hard to remove.

I also use a lighter to melt all the sharp edges on the lids.

 

[Broken Crow]

For the fermzilla you can try this (or any variation):

(sorry for the canadian links, but you can probably find these bits locally..oh, and the valve does have a 3/4" BSP on the non-PET-bottle thread side, but you can easily pick up a 3/4">1/2" bushing and hose barb adapter to fit it...I just haven't put mine together yet)
https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/fermzilla-dryhop-ball-valve.htmlhttps://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/carbonation-cap-tee-adapter.html

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I have it worked out. I put a spigot in a lid. I got a tube with a gas disconnect, and I took the guts out of the disconnect so trub can't clog it. I'm going to put a clean gas post, also gutted, on the keg's liquid side. Same thread. I'll run the beer from the fermenter spigot through a tube to the opened-up gas disconnect on the keg's liquid post. I'll put a gas disconnect on the keg's gas post and run a tube to the spigot on top of the fermenter, and the CO2 will enter the spigot.

Not sure if I'll man up and do a full purge of the keg first.

Next time, I'll use a keg for fermenting and keep everything closed up.

 

[IslandLizard]

Not sure if I'll man up and do a full purge of the keg first.

Your beer would thank you for it.
Once you've done it, it becomes routine practice.

It also helps to have an extra set of hands ready.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I got the beer moved, and I did purge the keg. No problems, but it was not the world's most perfect closed transfer.

Because I had to remove the lid briefly, I saw the beer. There was a whitish place in it. Didn't look like mold, and the beer tastes fine, but I wonder what it is. Hope it's not an infection. I was very careful, to the point of paranoia.

I saved the Star San solution by pumping it into a clean keg. I put the full Corny in a fermentation fridge at 35 or 38. I forget which. I put 30 lbs. of CO2 in it.

 

[IslandLizard]

I saw the beer. There was a whitish place in it. Didn't look like mold, and the beer tastes fine, but I wonder what it is.

Foam perhaps?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

It wasn't foamy. Just a place in the beer where the color was whitish. I assume Fermcap wouldn't do this.

 

[Brushwood Brewing]

1/2" tubing fits nicely over the stem of the popular bubbler airlocks, but it's a PITA to get it back off

Yes! I have the same issue, usually resulting in the loss of several inches of tubing when I inevitably have to cut it off.

The spigots in the pic, I bought cheap in bulk off amazon in my bottling-bucket days, can also be mounted in your fermenting bucket lid easily, and you can use it for blow-off in fermenting and then a gas return line in kegging.

I hadn't thought of inserting a spigot on the top. They only cost ~$4 at my LHBS. I might try that.