Fermenting Under Pressure

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Has anyone use a secondard kegmenter (or pressure fermenter) with hops in purged and then transfered under pressure for dry hop. Opening and creating that much mess seems like way more work than rinsing another vessel
 
Ahhh feck.....le beast. It did warn me but I was determined to hop the Pacific Ale inside.View attachment 108302
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yeah right, so even with the mini keg as blow off it still exploded through that and out everwhere? that's insane. even with my syrupy porter it only spewed about 500ml of gunk into the secondary vessel.
 
I put a pacific ale on on the weekend, decided to experiment with dry hopping from pitch.

I racked the wort from the cube to the keg, pitched my starter, oxygenated, chucked a bag of hops on top and closed it up. Planning to transfer to the serving keg this weekend, but will let it sit in there at room temp for another week to finish up, got no room in the fridge yet anyway.

Anyone tried this? I dont want to open the fermenter at all if possible.
 
I have been transferring using CO2 from the 50L fermenter (after cold crashing for 3-4 days) into a corny keg. I let that sit at room temp for a day or two then transfer to my serving keg that has a bag of hops suspended under the lid.

I leave that for 4-5 days, open the lid and remove the hops, purge with CO2 and put into kegerator. The last brew I did was a ZombieDust clone with 50g dry hopped Citra, best beer I have ever produced.
 
I put a pacific ale on on the weekend, decided to experiment with dry hopping from pitch.

I racked the wort from the cube to the keg, pitched my starter, oxygenated, chucked a bag of hops on top and closed it up. Planning to transfer to the serving keg this weekend, but will let it sit in there at room temp for another week to finish up, got no room in the fridge yet anyway.

Anyone tried this? I dont want to open the fermenter at all if possible.

I dry hopped a few times from when I pitched.

No real issues if it's kept cold after the ferment and drunk quickly I don't think. Never really went grassy. Sounds like you're going to transfer off anyway so the contact is not really that prolonged.
 
I put a pacific ale on on the weekend, decided to experiment with dry hopping from pitch.

I racked the wort from the cube to the keg, pitched my starter, oxygenated, chucked a bag of hops on top and closed it up. Planning to transfer to the serving keg this weekend, but will let it sit in there at room temp for another week to finish up, got no room in the fridge yet anyway.

Anyone tried this? I dont want to open the fermenter at all if possible.

my last brew was a pacific ale with dry hops added at same time as pitching yeast. came out delicious.
 
Has anyone use a secondard kegmenter (or pressure fermenter) with hops in purged and then transfered under pressure for dry hop. Opening and creating that much mess seems like way more work than rinsing another vessel

All the time. It's great for minimising aroma loss, and the lack of O2 contact helps lengthen shelf life.
 
Instead of attaching the spunding valve to the kegmenter, could you vent the kegmenter via the keg you will eventually rack to and attach the valve to the receiving keg? That way the receiving keg would be purged and under the same pressure as the kegmenter. You would also have a purged line through which to transfer.

Crazy enough to work, or just plain crazy?
 
Not crazy RobB. Its thinking efficiency with higher standards. I have two spunding valves and they get used a lot in my progress of pressure fermenting.
I brew 2 keg brews often. I fill one serving keg with sanitizer then co2 purge it to the next serving keg. Then purge that into a handy cylindrical esky to have sanitizer on tap. Totally sanitizing, purging the serving kegs with co2 before pressure filling with your precious beer.
Being more technical without over spending on equipment replicating professional techniques. :cool:
 
Instead of attaching the spunding valve to the kegmenter, could you vent the kegmenter via the keg you will eventually rack to and attach the valve to the receiving keg? That way the receiving keg would be purged and under the same pressure as the kegmenter. You would also have a purged line through which to transfer.

Crazy enough to work, or just plain crazy?
I would have to drill a hole through the side of my fermentation fridge for a gas line to the serving keg for me to do this but its a used method in pro breweries as far as I know.
Its efficiency plus why not have your co2 tainted with the very beer your making meaning its like non lost flavor.
:cool:
 
Yeah, as long as you're not blowing off through the gas post, it's a great idea. Plus the receiving keg will already smell like the beer ;)
 
BTW, I realised I haven't given a final report back on these lovely Pure Screen Filters:

pure-screen-fliter.jpg


They're the ducks nuts. They keep yeast clumps and hop material from coming out the dip tube of your fermenting keg. When I am using them, I have not had an issue with transferring one. Single. Time. HOWEVER, they're sized for racetrack kegs dip tubes and corny keg dip tubes. I haven't tried them on 50-55L keg dip tubes, but I'm assuming they don't fit, as I know the 50-55 dip tubes are bigger. They fit the racetrack keg dip tubes perfectly, so my beloved 40L Corny fermenters are all set.

I do, however, have a couple 19L cornies for small ferments. The pure screen filters will fit those, but you'll need to crimp them on to get them to stay on. I crimp them to the dip tube, take them off, insert the dip tube just enough (ask her how much that is), slip the pure screen filter on to the dip tube, and insert the dip tube the rest of the way into the keg.

They have been working great for me, and as a test, I just now tried to transfer from a corny in which I had fermented and dry hopped, but had no filter on the dip tube, just to be sure. No. Effin'. Way. Headaches! Out post was clogged with hop matter in all of 1/30th of a second. Once I cleaned out the out post and put a pure screen filter on, all the beer transferred in one go.

I highly recommend these little suckers for those fermenting in racetracks and cornys. It means you can ferment and dry hop in the same keg with zero transfer issues. They won't keep hop and yeast haze out, but I am SO happy I gave these a go.

I get them from Clever Brewing; zero affiliation.
 
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well my kegmenters turned up, now time to build up some yeast so I can get brewing in these bad boys .
Starting off with a few lagers .
Going forward still not sure of the best way to dry hop my ales . Not real keen on opening up mid fermentation to drop some hops in if I am going to get a gusher.
Thinking I might pressure transfer into a keg with either free hops or bagged hops for a few days and then transfer again to a serving keg with biofine to clear up.
I will have to experiment with this as might get the same results by just dry hopping in the keg and then removing once at desired taste level.
Got a couple of floatball set ups from keg king so hopefully that will minimise transfering any yeast .
Thinking of setting spunding valve to about 5 psi for a few days and then to between 15 to 20 psi to get beer close to fully carbed once chilled and transferred . Seems there is a few different techniques more interested in what would be the optimum for yeast health .
Anyway love new toys ................now on the look out for a lagering fridge it just never ends lol
 
well my kegmenters turned up, now time to build up some yeast so I can get brewing in these bad boys .
Starting off with a few lagers .
Going forward still not sure of the best way to dry hop my ales . Not real keen on opening up mid fermentation to drop some hops in if I am going to get a gusher.
Thinking I might pressure transfer into a keg with either free hops or bagged hops for a few days and then transfer again to a serving keg with biofine to clear up.
I will have to experiment with this as might get the same results by just dry hopping in the keg and then removing once at desired taste level.
Got a couple of floatball set ups from keg king so hopefully that will minimise transfering any yeast .
Thinking of setting spunding valve to about 5 psi for a few days and then to between 15 to 20 psi to get beer close to fully carbed once chilled and transferred . Seems there is a few different techniques more interested in what would be the optimum for yeast health .
Anyway love new toys ................now on the look out for a lagering fridge it just never ends lol

I haven't had gushing issues dry hopping 40 litre batches with a shit tonne of dry hop. I usually keep the primary ferment around the 10 to 15 psi range. Maybe if the pressure went round past 25psi and there was lots more dissolved CO2 in there you might have an issue. I usually dry hop in a sanitised stocking, with a stainless steel part in there to weight it down and keep it submerged.
 
BTW, I realised I haven't given a final report back on these lovely Pure Screen Filters:


I highly recommend these little suckers for those fermenting in racetracks and cornys. It means you can ferment and dry hop in the same keg with zero transfer issues. They won't keep hop and yeast haze out, but I am SO happy I gave these a go.

I get them from Clever Brewing; zero affiliation.

Have you shorterned your dip tube at all when using these filters?
 
I haven't had gushing issues dry hopping 40 litre batches with a shit tonne of dry hop. I usually keep the primary ferment around the 10 to 15 psi range. Maybe if the pressure went round past 25psi and there was lots more dissolved CO2 in there you might have an issue. I usually dry hop in a sanitised stocking, with a stainless steel part in there to weight it down and keep it submerged.

Might try this approach I have two 26 litte kegmenters and will make roughly 21 litre batches so should be able to get the hops in without it being a gusher if I keep pressure to between 10 to 15 psi. Are you letting your hops in the stocking sink to the bottom or suspending with something like floss? Great info mate
 

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