I’m a novice doing my 4th brew and third NEIPA beer. I bought a used 7 gallon SS brewtech conical from LHBS and was planning on transferring from conical to corny keg for secondary fermentation with a spunding valve. Would secure two small hop bags with magnets 1/3 and 2/3 from bottom to avoid dip tube clogging issues. Planning on using 2oz Vic secret and 2oz mosaic for dry hop. Should I try to cold crash conical before going to secondary corny keg? How do I manage suck back through air lock? I was also planning on carefully filling several bottles from corny keg after I force carbonate but will save around half in keg for a gathering of people to enjoy. Hoping if I fill gently and cap over the foam and keep cold the oxidation won’t ruin it for at least a few weeks and I can donate a bottle to LHBS that sold me conical for a good dealhttps://www.instagram.com/p/CbboUIjgKvx/?utm_medium=copy_link
You have a lot going on. To pressure transfer you really need to buy their Pressurized Transfer Kit. It's possible to fabricate this type setup but will require some extra tri clamp fitting to get a gas port working. Normally this is done and tested before beer is at risk. Transferring without a gas input, while undesirable, isn't really horrible. Air will enter through the blow off port but probably won't mix with headspace gas too quickly to cause major problems . . also leaving some of the beer behind will minimize oxygen damage. Cold crashing before transferring will help the yeast drop out (and hopefully be left behind). You can get the same effect by cold crashing in a corny, yeast will drop out and be dumped in the first couple of pours. BTW, cold crashing in the conical will also create suck back, so use your gas input here. A spunding valve is not normally used on a corny as little to no pressure is developed in secondary. I've never used magnets to suspend hop bags but can think of a lot of problems doing this. Consider hanging the hop bags with dental floss through the lid and looped over posts (yes this is time proven). Me, I would DH in conical (commando), chill, then transfer to keg. Alternately transfer, then DH in corny ~60°. The only reasonable way to bottle from a keg is with a beer gun, and this will take some practice. I could write a book on problems encountered while bottling from a keg. Would not recommend just placing a liquid beer line in a bottle and filling. Pretty much everything you're trying to do can be accomplished with more money . . .welcome to the hobby.
Gulp. I was worried about the rabbit hole I’d be heading down but really appreciate your help. I just came across this video that seems interesting and a lower budget option for filling bottles from a keg. But after your advice I’d probably only fill a handful of bottles and leave most of it in the keg. It’s potentially going to be an 8.5% beer (1.080 OG) and my wife doesn’t drink beer so I’ll have to invite neighbors over to help me drink while it’s fresh. I also don’t have a keezer so might be putting ice in a cooler as a temp solution. If you don’t have time for video he basically attaches a tube to his picnic? style tap dispenser. Tube reaches to bottom of bottle. He then releases air out of his carbonated keg from ball pin. He turns regulator down to 0 and pulls down on picnic tap. He then slowly increases psi on regulator until beer starts coming out of line. Takes some finesse to not stop dispensing while slowly pulling out tube without making a mess or breaking the foam layer that should be above bottom of tube. He was also filling bottle with an Irish red and not a 9oz hopped (5 was in whirlpool) NEIPA so his beer will inevitably be less prone to oxidation.
Actually in the comments the author writes “you could never do this with a NEIPA”. That’s unfortunate but if kept cold it probably has a few days of freshness but I better check for myself before I consider entering a competition
You can use a spunding valve on a corny keg. I do it quite often, mostly for lagers though. However, you must transfer to keg before fermentation is complete, usually .003-.006 gravity points before FG. With ales this typically around day 3. If you go this route then there is obviously no way you can cold crash in primary. Cold crash in the keg is totally fine though. Just expect your first couple pours to be pretty murky.
Get this and this. Replace the airlock with the pair, hit with CO2, cold crash fermenter, hit with more CO2. Keep CO2 at 5psi to transfer beer to the keg. Suspend the hop bags with dental floss and keep at 60 for 3 days. Put the keg in the fridge with the picnic tap. Drink once carbonated. If you have to bottle, use the tube in a picnic tap set up, but add a rubber bung that fits in the opening of the bottle. Flush the bottle with CO2 first, insert the tube to the bottom, bung should seal the bottle, pull the tap trigger. Use your thumb to pull back on the bung slightly until gas escapes and the beer flows again. Cap on foam.
Why did the dude cut the video as the foam reached the bung and the liquid was still below the shoulder of the bottle?
Im really pushing the limit on transferring before primary fermentation finishes as I pitched the yeast Sunday night (9pm) and will be transferring to keg Friday (4pm roughly). It had a 1.080 OG and bubbling is holding steady so hopefully I don’t transfer one day too late. Temp has been around 66-68 first few days and 68-70 the last day. I forgot to mention that when I pitched my first ever yeast starter I also poured the magnet down the fermenter hole with it. Its a fairly large stir bar (at least 3 times the length of the tiny stir bars and also thicker) so I’m hoping it doesn’t get sucked in and lodged into sampling valve if I use that to transfer. Should I transfer out from top lid or just open sample valve slowly and let some of the yeast out and then once clear place in keg? I was just going to put sanitized foil over top after air lock is removed if I use sample port
I take it you're not attempting a pressure transfer? Do you have a racking valve or just a sample valve? I would use the racking valve and leave behind a small portion of beer that was most exposed to air entering through the airlock opening, If the conical works as designed all the yeast(trub) will have settled to bottom and should be below the racking valve. Many racking valves have a "rotatable" pickup which is ideal for this (start high/finish low). Just keep an eye on condition of the beer during transfer. If any trub that makes it into the keg it will be the first thing you see when you start pouring. Your stir plate should have come with two magnets . . . one for stirring and one to "capture" the stir bar and drag it up and out of the flask. EDIT: Just looked at your pic again . . . you have a dump valve. Pretty easy to get rid of all the trub which I bet will contain a magnet. Second EDIT: Looks like you have a conventional airlock, which the center tube will accept 1/2" ID tubing. If you can fabricate a coupler with your carbon dioxide line you can keep the headspace free of air by setting ~1 psi. Your gauge won't read that low, just error on the low side so nothing is damaged.
Thanks for the extensive help. I’m trying to absorb a ton of info on the fly as I have a used corny keg that I learned how to clean and went to gas tank store and asked about getting a used Craigslist CO2 tank retested (they’ll give me a new tank tomorrow for the cost of the retest which saves me quite a bit). Bought a regulator but it dawned on me that the used tank has an old regulator so I’m deciding if I want to be that guy who returns the new one the next day ( assuming the old one doesn’t leak). Old one has green corrosion spots so that’s got me worried. Learned that 6 feet 3/16” ID is good tube length and diameter for properly carbing beer in a corny keg. As for the racking cane i believe it does however it just snugs into the inside wall of sampling port with three o-rings to provide some friction. I shook the hell out of fermenter pre-yeast pitch and wonder if that racking arm is loose, dangling or facing down. It was facing up (drawing from highest position) when I set it up initially. So much to learn in a short time. After transferring to keg I’m assuming i install a blowoff tube until I see bubbles and then immediately snap on spunding valve is how I should proceed? Thanks again
In my first post I said I would write a book about bottling from keg. Balancing a keg is so involved that Beer Advocate has an entire forum for it. Check out Home Bar and search for balance, foam, leaks, line length. With complete knowledge and no problems expect about a week to balance your first keg. I'll be the first one to tell you that when you find a leak keep looking until you find them all.
UPDATE: went to bed at 2am after transfer to keg and cleaning. Woke up at 5:15 for work ugh. I fiddled with the tank and got comfortable dialing in the CO2 dispensing/pressure. Didn’t do a closed transfer but Tried purging the keg and was very efficient with getting the sample line to drain into keg and close it up. Once I closed lid on keg i purged with CO2 gently for about 5 min with the pressure relief valve open as to not blast CO2 and air down into solution. One pain was trying to fit my recently cleaned tube on the sample port thread. Tube was so small that I only fitted less than a quarter inch of it over port threads. As it drained into keg I squeezed and pushed inward praying it wouldn’t slip off. Fortunately it didn’t and it was transferred in less than ten min. I originally drained into measuring cup thinking it would be yeasty but there was very little so after getting enough for a gravity reading I went into the keg. When I popped off the air lock I just covered with sanitized tin foil. I did hear air sound get sucked in but hopefully the foam on top helped blanket the beer. Gravity reading was 1.032 (actually transferred outside and although I let beer warm up for 15 min sample may have been a bit too cold so maybe reading would have been a 1.031 at room temp). Anyways that puts me at around 6.3% and I think recipe target 7.5%. When I tasted it I got waves of passion fruit, possibly guava and some orange and maybe hint of grapefruit. I’m really excited. In my stupor (let’s be honest I was just uneducated) I put the spunding valve on the liquid out side but fortunately it was only on there for an hour bc I rose out of bed and researched the correct way to use a spunding valve at 2am and changed it to the gas post. Woke up the dog and pissed off the wife. This morning I had no pressure and decided to turn it clockwise a bunch to build pressure. Will check again later and hope it starts building and I’ll keep it around 10psi or less
https://instagram.com/stories/mijclarke/2802264557458832434?utm_medium=copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbkl7N6rTNh/?utm_medium=copy_link Actually looks like 1.034 so either it dropped to 1.032 after it warmed a bit or I just remembered the wrong number
