[HoosierBrew]

+1.  And FWIW, that's why I rack into a purged keg, dry hop a week @ room temp, and then cold crash under force carbing pressure - no rush of air occurs inward until the keg's empty, .

[klickitat jim]

Try the newly invented Klickitat Jim method. Inspired by the blowing CO2 comment.

Near the end of active fermentation stretch a large balloon over the airlock. When full of CO2 and fermentation is done, cold crash. Any shrinkage should be compensated for by the positive CO2 pressure in the balloon.

Of course all of this must be done in a 100% CO2 purged room.


BTW, I don't do this nor do I worry about room air touching the surface of my beer. Do I splash it around or blow bubbles through it? No, but why would I need to?

[yso191]

You are clearly on the right track Jim.  Now I need to buy a scuba breather and purge my garage with CO2 before a cold crash.

[ynotbrusum]

My takeaway from this is that doing something is better than doing nothing, but don't go beyond your means in worrying about it.  I have racked to purged keg as my SOP for quite a while, but now I have to consider purging my auto siphon....I recall Charlie Papazian recommending a tube of water to start the siphon - dumping this into an empty pail, then letting the beer flow into your bottles when bottling.  Maybe that's another way to go with kegs, too.

[HoosierBrew]

My takeaway from this is that doing something is better than doing nothing, but don't go beyond your means in worrying about it. 

^^THIS^^.    Same here.

[brewinhard]

My takeaway from this is that doing something is better than doing nothing, but don't go beyond your means in worrying about it.  I have racked to purged keg as my SOP for quite a while, but now I have to consider purging my auto siphon....I recall Charlie Papazian recommending a tube of water to start the siphon - dumping this into an empty pail, then letting the beer flow into your bottles when bottling.  Maybe that's another way to go with kegs, too.

Your true best bet is to push the finished beer closed transfer with CO2 directly from the primary into the liquid out post of the corny keg.  With this technique all transfer lines are purged with CO2 before beer enters them.

I do like Jim's idea with the balloon though.  Kind of cool...

[klickitat jim]

Not original. My pappy used to start his mead with a blowoff, and once the bubbles quit he'd put this huge necked balloon over the top of the carboy. Balloon would slowly fill and when it stopped and started sagging it was done.

That was about 1974...

[erockrph]

Not original. My pappy used to start his mead with a blowoff, and once the bubbles quit he'd put this huge necked balloon over the top of the carboy. Balloon would slowly fill and when it stopped and started sagging it was done.

That was about 1974...

It's called a condom, Jim...

[klickitat jim]

Oh, cool. I've never seen one before.

[hopfenundmalz]

You're adding just as much air when you open and throw in the dry hops.  I just don't worry about it until it's time to rack, and then I make sure the receiving keg is fully purged with CO2.

I'd also be careful about using a stopper and creating a vacuum... have you ever seen a commercial fermenter that has imploded?  Not a pretty sight.

This is illustrative. Steam cleaned, then the valve was shut, cooled off, Kablamo!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h5l0K62n8B4

[Joe Sr.]

Try the newly invented Klickitat Jim method. Inspired by the blowing CO2 comment.

Near the end of active fermentation stretch a large balloon over the airlock. When full of CO2 and fermentation is done, cold crash. Any shrinkage should be compensated for by the positive CO2 pressure in the balloon.

Of course all of this must be done in a 100% CO2 purged room.


BTW, I don't do this nor do I worry about room air touching the surface of my beer. Do I splash it around or blow bubbles through it? No, but why would I need to?

Some guy on-line (there's always someone, right) has rigged up a system like this where you collect the CO2 generated from fermentation and use it to carbonate.  My recollection (its been years since I saw the website) is that he modified a bicycle pump to push the CO2 back into whatever vessel he was carbonating in. Had to be some kind of keg, but like I said it was years ago.

[HoosierBrew]

This is illustrative. Steam cleaned, then the valve was shut, cooled off, Kablamo!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h5l0K62n8B4

Whoa, that's impressive !

[Joe Sr.]

http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/carbonation/PumpSystem.htm

Here's the CO2 recovery and pump thing.

[denny]

Do you agree that plastic wrap is probably gas permeable and that oxygen can enter underneath the foil as the temps inside the headspace in the fermenter cool down and get sucked in?

I think the real issue is this - is the amount of oxygen that ingresses with any of these techniques something to worry about, or is it negligible and not worth bothering over?  A dissolved O2 meter would be really handy for this!

That's the point.  I can't say that there's oxygen ingress with either method becasue I've never seen the effects of it using those methods.  That means that either it doesn't happen, or that the effects are so slight as to be discountable.

[beersk]

http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/carbonation/PumpSystem.htm

Here's the CO2 recovery and pump thing.

That's interesting. The coolest thing I learned on my recent tour of the Sierra Nevada brewery is that they capture their co2 from fermentation, so they went from 4 trucks a week of co2 to 4 trucks a year. It's a fascinating idea and I wish us homebrewers could have something like that so we could limit the amount of co2 we have to buy. I think it'd be a bit pricey and maybe too complicated for me.