Nice video! I do a closed transfer that is similar except I don't purge a keg full of Star San. After the keg is full of beer I'll purge it.. And I've been happy with the results. Your method it is excellent. In the old days we just dangled tubing in from the fermenter to the bottom of the keg and let lots of oxygen in.The only beers that I remember as being oxidized were some bottled beers from a bottling bucket. Cheers!
I worry a lot more about hoppy beers than most styles, but I have moved to doing closed transfers anytime I keg. It is just a little extra work and CO2, and I figure it can't hurt. I should try a side by side with my old transfer method.
Thanks! I mostly try to adopt ideas that I get from others. I got some of my ideas from this Homebrew Talk thread: www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/prevent-oxygen-during-cold-crash.662552/
It takes many purge cycles and uses a lot of CO2 to effectively purge. I have read of people adding a small amount of Starsan solution and blowing CO2 through the dip tube to fill the keg with bubbles (which should be filled with CO2).
Great video! I have a corny keg I plan to close transfer to using this method. Some have said to cut the corny keg pickup tube/straw so it is 1-2" off bottom so any trub doesn't get sucked up the tube but this seems counter productive and leave a lot of Star San left in the keg prior to transferring. Would that much Star San give the beer an off flavor? Have you transferred to a corny keg before and if yes, what have you done with the straw? Leave it as is or cut it short? TIA - Mike
Glad you liked the video. I agree that leaving behind much StarSan solution (which likely has plenty of oxygen in it) is not a great idea. I have not shortened the tubs on my kegs so I am able to push out most of the solution. Some kegs have a flat lid, so you might be able to get the last bit of solution out the PRV, but many keg lids are not flat.
This is great. Thanks for this video. But my spigot is not made of plastic so I don’t have the hole on it that helps to purge the line. How would you proceed in this case?
Ahhh...The most critical aspect is purging any air from the transfer line. You could probably just position the line loosely on the spigot and let most of the CO2 escape before fully seating the transfer line. Glad you found the video useful!
This is awesome, thank you for the tips. Is this closed transfer possible with a regular fermentation bucket? If not, where did you get your fermentation buckets?
Yes, it should be possible with a bucket, or any fermenter with a spigot. There is no need for the fermenter to be able to hold pressure. The fermenters I have are Fermonsters. They are made in Canada and sold at various location here in the US. I got mine from both a local shop and some from MoreBeer.
Thanks for this. Really helps. When you connect the gas line to the blowoff, does some of the remaining pressure in the keg rush into the fermenter? If so, do you need to make sure first that there is not so much pressure still in the keg that it blows your fermenter? Similarly, if I want to run the tap for a second to purge some of the trub, can that gas-to-blowoff create positive pressure for me using leftover keg pressure so as to avoid o2 ingress?
Since I am only pushing out liquid from the keg at around 5 PSI, the remaining pressure should not be enough to cause an issue, but most of the pressure is released before I connect the gas line. For beers that I plan to cold crash (mostly dry hopped ones) I usually have a mylar balloon setup. That helps to avoid suck back during cold crashing, but it also help prevent air suck back while taking a gravity reading or clearing trub from the spigot. I see what you are talking about and it probably would work.
@@CascadesHomebrew thank you!! This makes total sense. I’m a noob to kegging and am really psyched for my first closed transfer NEIPA. It’s my favorite style and I failed miserably bottling it last time due to O2. Your video made the closed transfer setup much more clear than other videos I’ve seen. Appreciated.
The exact one that I have has not been available on Amazon for a while (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYQNBQR/), but there are a few similar filters by Bouncer (www.amazon.com/Bouncer-inline-beer-filter-regular/dp/B01JWO5RK2/).
I am not sure if there were multiple options when I picked up my filter off Amazon. I feel like the screen size I have works well for filtering out small hop bits that might clog the keg. If I was ordering from the Vacmotion site I might pick up an extra filter at a different screen size to try out (and also get a few replacement gaskets).
The beer shown in this video is a Belgian Blond that was split with two yeasts. I brewed a 5 gallon batch and split it into two fermenters/kegs. In this case I pitched one pack of dry yeast into each fermenter. Some times I will only use half a pack for a 2.5 gallon batch. (The video on the Blond is here: ua-cam.com/video/3HnJzcolC9Y/v-deo.html)
I force carbonated my kegged beers. I usually just connect the CO2 at serving pressure and let it carbonate over 7-10 days (faster for small kegs). Sometimes I will leave it at 30 PSI for a day to jump start the process.
Great videos. Really appreciating them as I've been getting into home brewing, keep it up!
thank you! I will use this when I will come back home
Thanks for the video, again! Always here to check them out.
Getting into kegging and will use this method. Bought disconnects with fittings large enough for 5/16 tubing that will fit my speidel valve. Thank you
Glad the video was helpful. Good luck!
Nice video! I do a closed transfer that is similar except I don't purge a keg full of Star San. After the keg is full of beer I'll purge it.. And I've been happy with the results. Your method it is excellent. In the old days we just dangled tubing in from the fermenter to the bottom of the keg and let lots of oxygen in.The only beers that I remember as being oxidized were some bottled beers from a bottling bucket. Cheers!
I worry a lot more about hoppy beers than most styles, but I have moved to doing closed transfers anytime I keg. It is just a little extra work and CO2, and I figure it can't hurt. I should try a side by side with my old transfer method.
This is brilliant. You are a genius!
Thanks! I mostly try to adopt ideas that I get from others. I got some of my ideas from this Homebrew Talk thread: www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/prevent-oxygen-during-cold-crash.662552/
Definitely doing this!
Good luck!
Very cool man! Thx!
Do I need to fill my entire 5 gallon keg with sanitizer, or can I do like half filled and purge a few time to get the oxygen out?
It takes many purge cycles and uses a lot of CO2 to effectively purge. I have read of people adding a small amount of Starsan solution and blowing CO2 through the dip tube to fill the keg with bubbles (which should be filled with CO2).
Great video! I have a corny keg I plan to close transfer to using this method. Some have said to cut the corny keg pickup tube/straw so it is 1-2" off bottom so any trub doesn't get sucked up the tube but this seems counter productive and leave a lot of Star San left in the keg prior to transferring. Would that much Star San give the beer an off flavor? Have you transferred to a corny keg before and if yes, what have you done with the straw? Leave it as is or cut it short? TIA - Mike
Glad you liked the video. I agree that leaving behind much StarSan solution (which likely has plenty of oxygen in it) is not a great idea. I have not shortened the tubs on my kegs so I am able to push out most of the solution. Some kegs have a flat lid, so you might be able to get the last bit of solution out the PRV, but many keg lids are not flat.
This is great. Thanks for this video. But my spigot is not made of plastic so I don’t have the hole on it that helps to purge the line. How would you proceed in this case?
Ahhh...The most critical aspect is purging any air from the transfer line. You could probably just position the line loosely on the spigot and let most of the CO2 escape before fully seating the transfer line. Glad you found the video useful!
This is awesome, thank you for the tips. Is this closed transfer possible with a regular fermentation bucket? If not, where did you get your fermentation buckets?
Yes, it should be possible with a bucket, or any fermenter with a spigot. There is no need for the fermenter to be able to hold pressure. The fermenters I have are Fermonsters. They are made in Canada and sold at various location here in the US. I got mine from both a local shop and some from MoreBeer.
@@CascadesHomebrew Thank you, I just cut a piece off of my siphon plunger to make an adapter for the lid like you did. I'm excited to try this out.
Thanks for this. Really helps. When you connect the gas line to the blowoff, does some of the remaining pressure in the keg rush into the fermenter? If so, do you need to make sure first that there is not so much pressure still in the keg that it blows your fermenter? Similarly, if I want to run the tap for a second to purge some of the trub, can that gas-to-blowoff create positive pressure for me using leftover keg pressure so as to avoid o2 ingress?
Since I am only pushing out liquid from the keg at around 5 PSI, the remaining pressure should not be enough to cause an issue, but most of the pressure is released before I connect the gas line.
For beers that I plan to cold crash (mostly dry hopped ones) I usually have a mylar balloon setup. That helps to avoid suck back during cold crashing, but it also help prevent air suck back while taking a gravity reading or clearing trub from the spigot. I see what you are talking about and it probably would work.
@@CascadesHomebrew thank you!! This makes total sense. I’m a noob to kegging and am really psyched for my first closed transfer NEIPA. It’s my favorite style and I failed miserably bottling it last time due to O2. Your video made the closed transfer setup much more clear than other videos I’ve seen. Appreciated.
Do you have a link to the in line filter?
The exact one that I have has not been available on Amazon for a while (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYQNBQR/), but there are a few similar filters by Bouncer (www.amazon.com/Bouncer-inline-beer-filter-regular/dp/B01JWO5RK2/).
I saw that VacMotion sells a 20 and a 50 screen size. Did you pick the 20 size for a particular reason?
Thanks,
Pat
I am not sure if there were multiple options when I picked up my filter off Amazon. I feel like the screen size I have works well for filtering out small hop bits that might clog the keg. If I was ordering from the Vacmotion site I might pick up an extra filter at a different screen size to try out (and also get a few replacement gaskets).
So you brewed 5 gallons and split that into 2 cornys leaving 2.5 gallons in each corny. Then did you split your yeast pitch in half also?
The beer shown in this video is a Belgian Blond that was split with two yeasts. I brewed a 5 gallon batch and split it into two fermenters/kegs. In this case I pitched one pack of dry yeast into each fermenter. Some times I will only use half a pack for a 2.5 gallon batch. (The video on the Blond is here: ua-cam.com/video/3HnJzcolC9Y/v-deo.html)
After you transferred the fremented woft. Then how do add the prime sugar in it?
I force carbonated my kegged beers. I usually just connect the CO2 at serving pressure and let it carbonate over 7-10 days (faster for small kegs). Sometimes I will leave it at 30 PSI for a day to jump start the process.