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Author Topic: Issues with keg to keg transfer of carbonated beer  (Read 2886 times)

Offline hannabrew

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Issues with keg to keg transfer of carbonated beer
« on: June 27, 2017, 06:49:46 pm »
I naturally carbed a keg for the first time and am now trying to rack it to a serving keg. 

I'm doing a closed transfer with a liquid out to liquid out jumper and releasing pressure on the purged serving keg until it is lower than the lagering keg to start the transfer.


At first it was overcarbonated so it was literally all foam.  I did the gas through liquid out and purge trick to get a good pour using just a picnic tap and then even let the keg settle overnight.

I attempted to transfer again last night and while I got some clear beer this time eventually it turned to foam again and my transfer all but stopped.

One thing to note is I have one of those stainless steel dry hopper cylinders in the lagering keg as well as a ss dip tube screen.  The dip tube sits inside the cylinder so there are two layers of filtering.  I'm wondering if this is forcing CO2 out of solution as it passes through the filters which is causing my issue.

At this point I would just serve it in the lagering keg but between the two attempts I've transferred about a 1/3rd of the keg already. 

Any ideas what's going on or how to resolve it?

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Offline santoch

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Re: Issues with keg to keg transfer of carbonated beer
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2017, 11:09:28 pm »
It is quite possible, but first you might want to try raising the pressure in BOTH vessels to something higher than the carbonation level.  (pick something like 5 psi higher than what's in the beer..  Once both are at pressure, attach the jumper, then finally attach the picnic tap to the gas in post.  VERY SLOWLY release pressure from the target keg, with the gas continuing to feed the source keg.  The high pressure on both sides should keep the carbonation inside the beer, as well as keep the flow rate under control.  The point is to allow the beer to replace the escaping gas very slowly.  Then, once all the beer is in the new container, you can slowly relieve the pressure and bring it down to target pressure.

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Offline hannabrew

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Re: Issues with keg to keg transfer of carbonated beer
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2017, 01:26:36 am »
Great idea.  Makes perfect sense

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