[Philip McCaugherty]

Hi all.

Some advice / knowledge, please.


I am thinking about buying another couple of kegs and using them to ferment in and then do a closed transfer to a serving keg. Whilst I have no doubt this will be better for the beer, I am wondering if it will make a noticeable difference. I have noticed the hop aroma fading quite quickly on my last two brews (IPA and a pale ale). Would a closed transfer help keep the aroma for longer?


Also, how tricky is it to do? I have watched a few different videos and they are all a little different. One of them suggests that if you want to brew 19L, you need to use two kegs to ferment by splitting the batch. Is this totally necessary? I am also concerned about trub. Will it, along with hop debris, flow easily through the dip tube and liquid out post? In the past, I have had dip tubes get clogged up with hop debris and it has been a right pain in the arse to fix it. I find it hard to imagine a load of trub going through the tube with no issues.


Overall, I guess I am trying to weigh up the cost of new kegs plus a few extra bits of kit (tubing, disconnects etc.) against the overall outcome and quality of the beer. My plastic bucket FV’s have served me well for almost a decade and I did watch a video of a closed transfer from a plastic bucket FV to a corny so I know it can be done that way.


Decisions, decisions.


Thanks in advance

[kramerog]

Yes, closed transfers make a huge difference to IPAs and really extend the life of most beers. You certainly don't need to use a corny as a FV to do so.  I ferment in a carboy then do a mostly closed transfer to a corny keg. [Rather than pushing the beer with pressure, I start a siphon, connect to the "liquid out" post and allow the siphoned beer to push the CO2 in the purged keg into the carboy through the "gas in" post.] A 5-gal corny is not big enough for a 19L fermentation (19 L =5.02 US gal).  If you do ferment in a corny, you will want to shorten the dip tube to leave as much sediment as possible. 

[ynotbrusum]

Perhaps consider a floating diptube?

https://www.kegland.com.au/fermzilla-55l-ss-float-80cm-silicone-dip-tube.html