After 2 years of kegging, the other day I just figured I could fasten a liquid disconnect to my auto siphon and transfer to a closed off, CO2 purged keg. Idk how or why it took me 2 yrs to learn this little trick, but just wanted to see if anyone else does this? I used to always get OCD about the keg lid being open and something getting in.
This sounds interesting...do you have a pic? How did you fasten a liquid disconnect to your auto siphon.
Another (better IMO) option is to nix the auto siphon. Buy an orange carboy cap, SS racking cane, and a barb to male thread flared adapter. Hook the CO2 line to the adapter which is in the smaller carboy cap hole. Insert the SS rc into the bigger hole. Give just a touch of CO2 and it will force the beer out of the carboy through the SS rc and tubing and into the keg. You can even use the liquid QD and just open the pressure relief valve on the lid of the keg. Auto siphons pump O2 into the line, I always got bubbles where the tubing attached, and then you are sucking O2 into the head space of the carboy as it drains which is coming into contact with your beer.
this what I do, though I just force a cane down one end and the co2 line into the other opening. i also have one line dedicated to co2 with no other attachments. that one goes into the keg and tremied to the top with the gas on. it works great. the first few ounces are of course cloudy and should be dumped. after that let it rip. be careful not to apply too much pressure to a glass carboy. the cap would probably blow off before the glass split, but I'd hate to prove this. Cheers.
The last time I dry hopped in primary (January) I dumped the leafs in and then slid a paint strainer over the end of the SS rc when I racked; it was so slow and clogged. The pressure built up in my Better Bottle and the bottom started to push out lifting the BB up and forward. Did it like 5 times. I lost so much liquid on that batch to the hops in the primary. Just solidified me into keg hopping from this point on. When I rack I turn on the CO2 just a hair until I hear it hiss and then leave it alone. If it stops or slows too much I give it a hair more, never above 3 psi.
I've found that by squeezing the tubing a couple of times near where it connects to the autosiphon, I can eliminate the bubbles and minimize the O2 that gets into the beer through the autosiphon. It's not as effective as pumping it through a purged system, but I have beers kegged for several months with no perceptible oxidation, so it must work OK.
Right, so you put the proper nut at the end of the tubing to attach the disconnect then you just pump it down through the liquid side of the keg. So then what, you keep the pressure release valve open as it transfers?
For some lagers I do this, but transfer into a purged keg through a liquid fitting, and put the a length of hose from the gas out into a jar of sanitizer. Really minimizes O2 exposure.
Thanks for the reminder! The other thing that I forgot to mention about doing the CO2 forced racking is that you can ferment the beer out and rack to the keg w/o ever moving the vessel. I ferment in the fridge with temp controller, crash cool post fermentation, then rack the beer. I never have to ferment the beer, let the yeast drop, then pick up the fermentor and move it to another place that is high enough for gravity to work or for a siphon to work, which makes all the yeast at the bottom swirl back up into suspension.
Careful moving minimizes the re-suspension of yeast, and I typically move my carboy after crashing to the shelf from which I will siphon the contents, and let it sit there for a day or 2 so that everything settles back out.
With just a little patience, any suspended yeast will drop to the bottom of the keg and disappear with the first pour anyway
"Thanks for the reminder!" That was for the benefit of any new brewers first on this site in the last 5 minutes
