[brian-d]

I usually leave my beer in the primary for 3-4 weeks and have found this works better than moving to a secondary fermentor.  My question is this: I just started kegging and love it...if I have a brew ready to move from the primary to a keg, can I rack over and purge out the oxygen in the head space and leave the beer under say 10-15 psi for a period of time without hooking up to co2?  I would keep the keg cold 35-38 and just consider it longer conditioning time?  I would appreciate your experience and comment

[jmcamerlengo]

Yes this is exactly what I do. I generally primary for about 17 days then transfer to a corny and bleed out the oxygen.  I dont leave much pressure in there and bleed most of it out. Just enough to keep it sealed.  The only exception this is lagers and high gravity beers such as a barleywine or imperial stout. I do transfer those to a secondary as they tend to leave quite a bit more yeast to drop out.

[morticaixavier]

If you fill your keg with sanitizer right to the brim and then push the sanitizer out with co2 (into another keg or bucket for reuse) then you have purged very nearly all the o2 before ever introducing the beer to the keg. This prevents any contact with o2. You can even force the beer out of the fermenter with CO2 thus preventing any contact with o2. Check out this link http://maltosefalcons.com/tech/racking-co2 for instructions.

[Mark G]

You may want to seal it under a little higher pressure if you're not leaving it hooked up to the CO2. At the colder temps, the beer is going to absorb quite a bit of the CO2, and you could lose your seal eventually as the pressure drops.

[dogismycopilot]

Thanks, Mark G.  I'm just about to lager a Dusseldorf Alt, and I hadn't considered that.

[euge]

I do this all the time, and good tip on the sanitizer.

[morticaixavier]

You may want to seal it under a little higher pressure if you're not leaving it hooked up to the CO2. At the colder temps, the beer is going to absorb quite a bit of the CO2, and you could lose your seal eventually as the pressure drops.

I am not sure this is true. I mean it doesn't hurt to seal it at a higher preasure but it seems to me that if you hit it with 15 psi to start with that even after the headspace and beer balance you will have considerable preasure remaining. It won't reach ambient preasure unless there is a leak in the system and ambient preasure is what you would need to lose a seal.

Not trying to be argumentative just thinking out loud.

[Mark G]

You may want to seal it under a little higher pressure if you're not leaving it hooked up to the CO2. At the colder temps, the beer is going to absorb quite a bit of the CO2, and you could lose your seal eventually as the pressure drops.

I am not sure this is true. I mean it doesn't hurt to seal it at a higher preasure but it seems to me that if you hit it with 15 psi to start with that even after the headspace and beer balance you will have considerable preasure remaining. It won't reach ambient preasure unless there is a leak in the system and ambient preasure is what you would need to lose a seal.

Not trying to be argumentative just thinking out loud.

You're right, it won't drop to ambient pressure, but I have a few kegs that won't stay sealed unless I have considerable pressure in them.

[euge]

I have bent the legs on the latch for the lid together slightly and it makes the seal a bit tighter. Where I tend to have leaks is through the relief valve.