I have a NEIPA in a plastic bucket fermenter with a spigot. It just reached FG and received it’s 2nd big dryhop today. It will be cold crashed starting tomorrow and kegged in 4 days. The Problem: I bought a new plastic fermenter with a spigot so that I can transfer to a keg easier with (hopefully) less oxygen. I used to use an autosyphon for the transfer from plastic bucket to keg. Anyway, due to the thick trub and hop debris, when I opened the spigot to take the gravity sample, all I was getting was trub and hop debris. So the spigot hole is covered with trub. I ended up using a turkey baster to get the sample today. The Plan: Keg the beer from the spigot, no doubt transferring a lot of trub in the process. Put the keg in the fridge for 48-72 hours, and then pour a pint to get the trub off the bottom of the keg. 1. Do I run the risk of the dip tube and/or poppet getting clogged from the trub and hop debris? 2. If there’s still a little puddle of trub on the bottom of the keg throughout serving, is that a problem? 3. Anything else I’m not thinking of? My only other alternative is to autosyphon out of the bucket and into the keg. This isn’t any awful option... that’s how I’ve done it for all beers since I started kegging. Thanks in advance
I just did the same thing. Well a lot of hop debris and mine got clogged. I hate debris. I am not sure why I didn’t rack another time to get all the junk out of it. Also if you bump or move the keg in any way all that debris gets stirred up again and more junk.
I have not faced this issue because I ferment in a carboy and move my beer with an autosiphon. However, just thinking out loud here, how about when using a bucket with a spigot that you tip the bucket so that the spigot is elevated a bit during fermentation as well as cold crashing (and then later when transferring) so the trub might settle to the side/bottom mostly away from the spigot? Wasting the first pint or so of beer when the spigot is first opened for a transfer may clear what little trub (hopefully) may be close to the spigot.
I’ve had a similar problem in the past, and ironically I tried a new process today for the first time that overcame it. Hop sludge has clogged at the poppet and ball lock during pressurized transfers with dry hopped beers. So today all I did was take out the poppet valve on the post and the internal parts of the ball lock. This left a nice sized channel and there were no transfer issues or clogs.
It's been known to happen: Actually this was the result of a split dry hop bag, I've never had trouble with trub only clogging a transfer. But I would not want to transfer a significant amount of trub to the keg. Yes, it will settle and can be poured off . . . but it takes a while and there's a waste of beer. I find once the trub has settled and the majority poured off there's always more trub that seems to settle over time. You can see this "streaked" on the bottom of the keg when you open to clean. Usually this isn't a problem for serving, but if you move the keg you have to re-start the settling process . . . could take days. My suggestion is to auto-siphon to keg. You can put a swivel nut on your siphon tubing and connect to a liquid QD that is attached to Out post. Purge the keg, fill from bottom, then a series of burps will do a better'n average job of minimizing oxygen exposure. I don't have a spigot on bucket, but you might explore having an elbow inlet for the spigot oriented upwards (avoid the bottom of bucket). Ideally if you could rotate a 1/4 turn during the last part of transfer that would minimize trub pick-up.
Stick a handful of old paper coasters under the bucket directly below the spigot so it tilts it up. As the trub and yeast settle it will be towards the back of the bucket instead of at the spigot. Clear the spigot once open. Purge the transfer line with CO2, connect it directly to the liquid out post as @PortLargo suggests with swivel nut and QD, and push the beer from the spigot to the keg using CO2 with a tube fitted in place of the airlock, or over the airlock (if using a 3 piece). This minimizes the oxygen sucked into the headspace as the beer volume is displaced. Only needs to be 2-3 PSI. It seems like a lot of work, but I found out the hard way that NEIPA is very prone to easy oxidation. Last batch had tons of hops in it. I slacked on purging my kegs. Racked to the bottom with an open lid. Beer was darkened and flavor muddied with in 2 weeks. Can't even bring myself to drink up the second keg.
