Keg Dip Tube Sediment

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Lord Raja Goomba I

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Hey all,

Since we're all doing nothing (Except drinking) and no work tomorrow - just thought I'd ask the question.

My Rajadom AIPA is a great beer. Whacked a keg of a Belgian PA on the lines, and moved my Rajadom in the process.

It ends up stirred up and sediment and junk ends up in the beer. There's less beer in the keg than I'd thought (courtesy of it being a fantastic beer - one of my best, if not the best).

Now, I thought with the gelatin and settling a few days after carbing, that I'd run the requisite pint of junk out, and all good.

No show bozo.

So, the question is - is there some way to avoid this? I thought of an extension to the dip tube to really drag out the horrid rubbish in the bottom in the initial (patient) pour, and we'd be fine.

I'm just a little upset with this - it's a shame for the beer, and I'm putting down a Belgian (as above) for a poker night and am now seriously panicking of portability of the keg.

Cheers in advance for all your advice - hope you're enjoying your beer, as much as I am (Rajadom in bottles to compensate).

Goomba
 
wow from the sounds of that beer you deserve an award for "outstanding achievement in the field of excellence". lol.

You rack your beer into the keg with "junk" in solution. After time it settles to the bottom and you pour clear beer. If you move the keg you stir the "junk" back into solution and you pour cloudy beer. When you finish the keg and open the lid you see a layer of "junk" at the bottom.

This is a problem that many of us have.

You have a number of choices.

1. don't move the keg.
2. make styles that are meant to be cloudy. e.g. weizen.
3. don't rack beer into the keg with "junk" in it. Either extended conditioning or filtering.
 
filter the beer I have like 30ml of crap in the bottom when I am finished and the dip tube never reaches it. :p
 
I chill the fermenter before kegging to like 1-2 deg and I've filtered three kegs now and I only end up very fine film of sediment in the bottom of the keg each time and clear beer.
 
Hey all,

Since we're all doing nothing (Except drinking) and no work tomorrow - just thought I'd ask the question.

My Rajadom AIPA is a great beer. Whacked a keg of a Belgian PA on the lines, and moved my Rajadom in the process.

It ends up stirred up and sediment and junk ends up in the beer. There's less beer in the keg than I'd thought (courtesy of it being a fantastic beer - one of my best, if not the best).

Now, I thought with the gelatin and settling a few days after carbing, that I'd run the requisite pint of junk out, and all good.

No show bozo.

So, the question is - is there some way to avoid this? I thought of an extension to the dip tube to really drag out the horrid rubbish in the bottom in the initial (patient) pour, and we'd be fine.

I'm just a little upset with this - it's a shame for the beer, and I'm putting down a Belgian (as above) for a poker night and am now seriously panicking of portability of the keg.

Cheers in advance for all your advice - hope you're enjoying your beer, as much as I am (Rajadom in bottles to compensate).

Goomba

if you look inside your keg when its finished, you will see crud not only on the middle, but all around the base, all the way to the edges

if you did shorten/lengthen the dip tube then it would only deal with the crud in the centre, and you would still have the crud settled around the perimeter of the base, which would again be stirred up if you move the keg

the only solution is not either not move the keg or avoid putting the crud in the keg

its the worse thing when this happens to a kolsch, from being a fantastic tasting beer it not only goes cloudy but ends up tasting like shit
 
Ross from craftbrewer launched at last months babbs meeting an item adapted from a British real ale system, the name of which escapes me just now. It was a screened, floating pickup on a hose attached to a gas in post that replaced the diptube in a corny keg. Specifically it was another option for dry hopping in the keg, but as it sucks from the top of the fluid I would have to think it would cut down on the crud picked up when pouring. Unfortunately not up on the site yet.
 
Beaten by potof4x! B)
Not on the CB website yet but if you give Ross a call you should be able to get one for thirty clams. I'm lining up for a few, will probably have a few kegs getting shifted about over the next few months (moving house) so they should come in handy straight away but also useful in the longer term.
 
find filtering and dry hopping in a bit of voil would be better as after 2-3 day you will want the hops out of the keg anyway.
 
I chill the fermenter before kegging to like 1-2 deg and I've filtered three kegs now and I only end up very fine film of sediment in the bottom of the keg each time and clear beer.

I do the same - cold condition, gelatin and when the beer goes it, for the most part it looks fantastic going in.

After the first murky pint - it ends up very very clear. Even the bottles I pour are pretty clear.

But moving it causes this issue.

I'd like to know more about Ross' new product - still trying to figure out how it gets all the beer out.

Goomba
 
the floating pickup is still not going to sort out the issue if you move the keg and stir up the crud.

i'm still a keg Newbie to kegs but filtering would be the best option if the keg needs to be mobile (i dont filter) i think.

i hate the way a keg gets clearer and clearer and the beer looks better and better then it blows empty ...
 
I do the same - cold condition, gelatin and when the beer goes it, for the most part it looks fantastic going in.

After the first murky pint - it ends up very very clear. Even the bottles I pour are pretty clear.

But moving it causes this issue.

I'd like to know more about Ross' new product - still trying to figure out how it gets all the beer out.

Goomba

Never heard of it but I would think it's got a have a float on it and it lowers as the beer dispenses. Might not go to the top of the keg or even a quarter way up. Kinda like a toilet float idea by the sounds of your description :)
 
the floating pickup is still not going to sort out the issue if you move the keg and stir up the crud.

i'm still a keg Newbie to kegs but filtering would be the best option if the keg needs to be mobile (i dont filter) i think.

i hate the way a keg gets clearer and clearer and the beer looks better and better then it blows empty ...

It sucks when it's uber clear, because you go to the keg to pour a beer, with a pit in your stomach and hoping that you don't hear the hellish hiss.

I think it's going to have to be filtering, because I'm doing everything yeast clearing wise.

Normally, it isn't an issue, as I've learned the "don't move the kegs" lesson - but occasionally necessity requires it - and given the new keg is for a poker party, I'd like to have presentable beer (a-la the forum topic on pearls before swine).

Maybe, it'll be a case of taking the kegs over a couple days early and leaving them in his fridge (the best part of curly hose picnic taps).

Goomba
 
You can near guarantee if your having a poker party even if you leave the kegs at ya mates for a couple days, something gonna happen and your goin to have to disturb the kegs. For the price of a filter I would go that way.
 
Aldi Randall. Worked pretty well as an inline filter too :)
 
I've gone back to my well tried and tested system of racking from primary to a tall willow cube, with gelatine, which then goes into a cold fridge at around 2 degrees for a few days. I flush the headspace with CO2 and seal up tight. When kegging, first run off a couple of bottles and prime them, then the rest into the keg.

It's usually very clear straight away and crystal when it's gassed up after a few days. Even on moving and bumping, by that stage any murk that may get stirred up settles in a couple of hours anyway.

The flotation pickup tube is common in UK Pressure Barrels, been around for a good while.

Edit: to the OP, never put gelatine into a keg. (or into a bottle for that matter). It will drag down the yeast in spectacular fashion, but the result will be fluffy bottoms that billow up at the slightest excuse, presumably because the charged clumps that flocced out due to the electrostatic action of the gelatine, which is how it works, tend to want to repel each other and gravity can't overcome that when you move the keg or bottle.

The trick is to make use of the gelatine's miracle gig BEFORE transferring to keg or bottle - hence the intermediate chilling vessel. Many if not most breweries do it, good enough for me.
 
Edit: to the OP, never put gelatine into a keg. (or into a bottle for that matter). It will drag down the yeast in spectacular fashion, but the result will be fluffy bottoms that billow up at the slightest excuse, presumably because the charged clumps that flocced out due to the electrostatic action of the gelatine, which is how it works, tend to want to repel each other and gravity can't overcome that when you move the keg or bottle.

The trick is to make use of the gelatine's miracle gig BEFORE transferring to keg or bottle - hence the intermediate chilling vessel. Many if not most breweries do it, good enough for me.

Learned that the hard way with a BB last year.

Now CC, gelatin, leave for a couple of days, run the first bit into a bottle, then keg.
 
Maybe, it'll be a case of taking the kegs over a couple days early and leaving them in his fridge (the best part of curly hose picnic taps).

Goomba

You're almost guaranteed to get some funny looks if you do that.
The less fuss you make about your beer the better it will be received.

Ensure to get clear beer into the keg and be done with it. How you achieve that is up to you, filtering, secondary, whatever.
 
I do the same - cold condition, gelatin and when the beer goes it, for the most part it looks fantastic going in.

After the first murky pint - it ends up very very clear. Even the bottles I pour are pretty clear.

But moving it causes this issue.

I'd like to know more about Ross' new product - still trying to figure out how it gets all the beer out.

Goomba
I would post a link here if I wasn't on the phone, but do a search for cask widge and check out the spares section and you'll see the float setup, this teams up with a corny gas post.
 
With that float connected to the gas post, do you then connect the CO2 to the beer post?
 
With that float connected to the gas post, do you then connect the CO2 to the beer post?

Surely it would be the out post. Whats the point in filtering the gas? Zero in my books.
 
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