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[mongoose33]

Looks like your blow off valve is open on keg. Do you just spund-purge it while the fermentation is really cranking? How long do you purge a keg for? I suppose you would have pretty constant positive pressure at least during them most active fermentation. Looking for answers, these are not rhetorical questions. Thanks.

Yeah, the PRV is open...otherwise there'd be no flow of CO2 from the fermenter into the keg.

In this particular instance I daisy-chained the transfer tubing (and QDs) so the CO2 would purge that, too. I no longer do that--I typically will flush the tubing w/ beer before I connect it to the keg, which does the same thing. I use one of these to open up the end of one of the QDs:



I'm also aware that initially, there probably is oxygen in the fermenter, esp if it's a 5-gallon batch, so I'll let the fermenter just burp to the atmosphere for the first few hours of active fermentation, to allow both residual oxygen to exit the fermenter headspace, and allow the yeast to consume whatever it can.

What makes that work better is that I always purge a keg with bottled CO2, which BTW is not pure. So the keg has 99.8 percent CO2 in it in the first place. So I'm squeezing out the last of whatever O2 is in the CO2 stream that originally purged the keg.

I've since tended to move away from purging a keg this way....I just rack into a CO2-purged keg usually. I can't detect any oxidation doing it this way, though one thing I've discovered is that not everyone detects oxidation, nor to the same degree.

 

[Zealous61]

Yeah, the PRV is open...otherwise there'd be no flow of CO2 from the fermenter into the keg.

In this particular instance I daisy-chained the transfer tubing (and QDs) so the CO2 would purge that, too. I no longer do that--I typically will flush the tubing w/ beer before I connect it to the keg, which does the same thing. I use one of these to open up the end of one of the QDs:

View attachment 602341

I'm also aware that initially, there probably is oxygen in the fermenter, esp if it's a 5-gallon batch, so I'll let the fermenter just burp to the atmosphere for the first few hours of active fermentation, to allow both residual oxygen to exit the fermenter headspace, and allow the yeast to consume whatever it can.

What makes that work better is that I always purge a keg with bottled CO2, which BTW is not pure. So the keg has 99.8 percent CO2 in it in the first place. So I'm squeezing out the last of whatever O2 is in the CO2 stream that originally purged the keg.

I've since tended to move away from purging a keg this way....I just rack into a CO2-purged keg usually. I can't detect any oxidation doing it this way, though one thing I've discovered is that not everyone detects oxidation, nor to the same degree.

Thanks for reply. I just fill keg with sanitizer and purge that out with CO2. I mentioned the blow off as was pondering whether it would be better to let the keg equlaize with the fermenter head space pressure then purge and repeat. I don't know what the answer is or whether it matters. I think that going to extremes on the cold side is just going to make your beer last a little longer before the taste degrades. I brew mostly NEIPA style beers and can definitely note a taste change as the days tick by. After 3 weeks is very obviously not as good. I am going back and forth with how much effort to put into LODO and appreciate your reply. I have gone full LODO on the hot side and maybe, maybe can tell a smidge of difference. Probably more worthwhile for the delicate lagers than the hop heavy beers.

I think if I am keeping a beer over 3 weeks then I am not drinking fast enough or shraing enough. One of the real advantages we have over commercial breweries is the ability to always serve very fresh beer.