[morticaixavier]

How long can Star San sit in keg?  I know you don't want to keep it around too long or it's cloudy and not as useful.  Is prolonged contact to the keg OK?

as far as I know, as long as the starsan isn't cloudy it's all good. I don't think it's a problem to store it in a keg long term. but I don't know for sure, I know alot of folks keep a bucket full of starsan already mixed and keep using it till it gets cloudy, which if you use RO or even distilled water takes a long time to happen

[SoPHiSTo]

So then how do you fill your keg full of beer if you have it sealed and full of co2?  I usually rack using an auto-siphon and up to this point have inserted the tubing into the top of the keg with the lid off of course.

[morticaixavier]

So then how do you fill your keg full of beer if you have it sealed and full of co2?  I usually rack using an auto-siphon and up to this point have inserted the tubing into the top of the keg with the lid off of course.

after hooking the syphon tube to the beer out tube (Check me on this someone, I am new to kegging) you give the carboy a little pressure (Really little we don't want exploding carboys) and then release the presure from the keg slowly so the beer is forced into the keg as the gas is expelled.

[SoPHiSTo]

So then how do you fill your keg full of beer if you have it sealed and full of co2?  I usually rack using an auto-siphon and up to this point have inserted the tubing into the top of the keg with the lid off of course.

after hooking the syphon tube to the beer out tube (Check me on this someone, I am new to kegging) you give the carboy a little pressure (Really little we don't want exploding carboys) and then release the presure from the keg slowly so the beer is forced into the keg as the gas is expelled.

So your saying you would need to pressurize your carboy with more pressure than in the keg?  That seems dangerous to me and I mostly use plastic buckets so I cannot pressurize a plastic bucket.  Your also assuming that I connect to the beer out line and I do not do that either I insert an open end of the plastic tubing into the bottom on the keg.

[dano14041]

another way to do it is to release the pressure off the keg, open it and rack to the keg as you do now. The only difference is that the keg is full of CO2 instead of air. Since CO2 is heavier than air it remains in the keg and is pushed out by the liquid as it is transferred in.

My original question was supposed to be an inquiry into what equipment people were using to purge bottles and growlers prior to filling from a keg/tap, or to purge a carboy when racking to a secondary and blanket the beer once it is in a secondary.

Thanks!
Dano

[tom]

So you're saying you would need to pressurize your carboy with more pressure than in the keg?  That seems dangerous to me and I mostly use plastic buckets so I cannot pressurize a plastic bucket.  Your also assuming that I connect to the beer out line and I do not do that either I insert an open end of the plastic tubing into the bottom on the keg.

I release the keg pressure valve before transferring so it doesn't take much pressure to transfer.
I would consider filling the keg through the beer-out tube. Less splashing.
With a bucket you could easily siphon it into the keg.

I think oxidation is a big thing in homebrewing because our surface to volume ratio is so high.  But if you drink the beer within a few weeks it shouldn't matter.

[morticaixavier]

So you're saying you would need to pressurize your carboy with more pressure than in the keg?  That seems dangerous to me and I mostly use plastic buckets so I cannot pressurize a plastic bucket.  Your also assuming that I connect to the beer out line and I do not do that either I insert an open end of the plastic tubing into the bottom on the keg.

I release the keg pressure valve before transferring so it doesn't take much pressure to transfer.
I would consider filling the keg through the beer-out tube. Less splashing.
With a bucket you could easily siphon it into the keg.

I think oxidation is a big thing in homebrewing because our surface to volume ratio is so high.  But if you drink the beer within a few weeks it shouldn't matter.

No don't pressurize the carboy more than the keg. as he said yo urelease the pressure from the keg before transfering from the carboy. but if your using buckets that wouldn't work it's true. your still reducing your o2 contact if you depressurize the keg and rack in as normal.

to the OP I have not worried about purging carboys, bottles. Probably I should but when I am bottleing I am doing a secondary ferm in teh bottle so I figure the yeast will eat up any o2 in the headspace.

[jlap]

I'm not sure that it's true that CO2 will sink to the bottom or form a blanket above the beer in a carboy.  Aren't atoms/molecules of gas randomly distributed?  My understanding is that when you purge with CO2 you are gradually decreasing the percentage of O2 but that the O2 will never be zero.  It will never be 100% pushed out because of the greater molecular mass of the CO2.

[morticaixavier]

I'm not sure that it's true that CO2 will sink to the bottom or form a blanket above the beer in a carboy.  Aren't atoms/molecules of gas randomly distributed?  My understanding is that when you purge with CO2 you are gradually decreasing the percentage of O2 but that the O2 will never be zero.  It will never be 100% pushed out because of the greater molecular mass of the CO2.

you are correct
that is why with kegs you should purge all air with santizer and then replace with CO2. but with a carboy you can't purge all the O2 safely as you would have to fill the keg with sanitizer and then push it out with CO2, I suppose you could do that at low presure and then as long as you are carefull to not stir the 'air' in the empty carboy to much while racking to it...