Racking from Primary to Kegs via Co2

Do you actually put your cane in the cake or just as close to it as possible without touching?

 

I try to get just above the trub line without touching, I use buckets so it's a little hard to get exactly the right position so I usually actually suck up just a little trub before adjusting the cane up a little and seeing the plastic tubing run clear.

 

I'm thinking it might even be hard to see in a carboy, but I'll find out tonight hopefully. Thanks

 

I tilt my carboys to get out as much as I can. I initially leave the cane about halfway up to get the draw going. After I get a gallon or so into the transfer I put it down further until some of the yeast gets in the tube then I bring it up until it goes clear again. Once I am under 1 gallon I tilt the carboy forward. I plan on actually just putting some bend on the cane to get it into and out of the Better Bottles easier (fridge ceiling is a little low) and also get it to the edge easier.

 

Thanks are you also angling the cane or would the cap come undone?

 

Angling the cane, the cap doesn't come lose since I have to hold the whole thing in place.

 

I've finally acquired (almost) everything I need to start CO2 racking! I'm just missing the nylon washers for the flare fittings, the HBS forgot to put them in with my last order. Once I have them, I'll do a dry run with some water (ha ha), then the first real test will be to push the tripel I'll be brewing Sunday into a 5G carboy for bulk aging (but mostly to liberate the 6.5G carboy to ferment another batch). I'm very excited!

 

I use a barbed to MFL male connector combined with a carboy cap. Racking cane in the big hole, and the mlf to barbed in the small. I use mfl connections for my keg disconnects so I just screw on the co2 when it is time to transfer.



http://www.homebrewing.org/SS-14-MFL-x-14-barb_p_3607.html

 

A brewer with an oxymoron sense of humor

You may already have your plan, but when I've done this it seems to work best to still keep the carboy elevated (table height) over the keg (floor). Your push pressure will only be two'ish psi, gravity will speed up the process. If you're using the orange cap, I find they start to leak around 4 psi . . . which is a good thing.

 

Ha ha, oh man, I made a pretty stupid mistake. I got all the hardware I needed to make this work, with the beer going out to a ball-lock liquid disconnect and the CO2 coming in from a ball-lock gas disconnect. Which sounded great, until I realized that it makes no sense to think I'd be getting my gas from a quick disconnect, since those are for putting gas into kegs. In actual fact, I need a male-to-male MFL fitting to hook my gas line up to the carboy cap, and I don't happen to have one of those lying around. Still, I have found one way of making this system of mine work - use an empty keg as a sort of jumper. Gas goes into keg, then I use a liquid QD on the OUT post to send that gas into the carboy cap. Very clunky, but it will make it possible for me to push my tripel from one carboy into another tomorrow. What it won't help me with is racking my APA into my keg under CO2 - for that, I'm really going to need to get that missing part. Oh well, this has all been a good learning experience for figuring out the finer details of keg hardware. Like, I thought flare fitting washers were for putting between the female flare thread and the swivel nut, but in fact they're for when you connect to a male flare thread. Except most of the time those are on QDs, and those generally have the washers built-in. Throw in some confusion with tubing diameters and it has been a very informative night.

 

If kegs are purged, racking/draining is done competently, and well-packaged hops are handled minimally, O2 should NOT be a problem in homebrewed IPAs. That's is all. : )

 

Thanks @jbakajust1. Used your blog for reference when setting up my closed transfer system. First time using it tonight and couldn't be happier. Looking forward to trying this NE DIPA hop monster.

Cheers!!

 

Awesome, glad it worked. I love doing it that way... Until I run out of CO2 mid-transfer.

 

After reading this thread and looking at @jbakajust1 blog, I just did my first closed transfer using the carboy cap as described above but with one variation. I was too lazy to take the QD off the gas line in my keezer, so I popped a ball lock soda bottle carbonator on the carboy cap and put the keezer gas QD on it. $11 at brewhardware.com. It was quick and worked great! Just wanted to post this for anyone else with a similar setup. Pics are below.

 

@Buck89 I may just have to do that! I always find it difficult to use my 5# CO2 tank for this since I can't use it easily swapping back and forth from the transfer to purging the kegs.