Kegging From A Cube With No Tap Fitted

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big78sam

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Hi all,

Due to brewing an emergency beer recently I had to finish fermenting an earlier beer in a willow cube. However, I used one that didnt have a tap fitted to the bottom (the bung hole is still sealed up so I can't easily unscrew the bung and replace with a tap). So I propose the following:

1 - crash chill for a week
2 - Hook up empty sanitised keg to gas and burp the keg so it's filled with c02
3 - remove keg lid and slowly pour from cube into keg

If I attempt the above will I likely introduce too much oxygen into the beer or should this be OK given co2 will be sitting in the keg so it will be co2 rather than o2 that enters the beer?

I'll try to drink the keg within a month or 2 so the beer doesnt have time to ozidise. I could attempt to siphon but I dont really have any hose that's long enough. And I guess sucking on the hose to start the siphon will introduce an infection risk. If I buy some hose is there any other way to start a syphon from a cube that doesnt require fancy equipment or sucking?

Does anyone have any brilliant suggestions?

Cheers, Sam.
 
Yes just siphon it, start your siphon with some starsan or what ever you use in it.

This video will give you the gist.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi all,

Due to brewing an emergency beer recently I had to finish fermenting an earlier beer in a willow cube. However, I used one that didn't have a tap fitted to the bottom (the bung hole is still sealed up so I can't easily unscrew the bung and replace with a tap). So I propose the following:

1 - crash chill for a week
2 - Hook up empty sanitised keg to gas and burp the keg so it's filled with c02
3 - remove keg lid and slowly pour from cube into keg

If I attempt the above will I likely introduce too much oxygen into the beer or should this be OK given co2 will be sitting in the keg so it will be co2 rather than o2 that enters the beer?

I'll try to drink the keg within a month or 2 so the beer doesn't have time to ozidise. I could attempt to siphon but I don't really have any hose that's long enough. And I guess sucking on the hose to start the siphon will introduce an infection risk. If I buy some hose is there any other way to start a syphon from a cube that doesn't require fancy equipment or sucking?

Does anyone have any brilliant suggestions?

Cheers, Sam.

Yes you will oxidise the beer.

Much better would be to siphon from the willow into the keg with a long plastic hose, keeping splashing to a minimum (and pre-fill the keg with CO2).

If you can't get your hand on a auto-siphon (two part siphoning kit), then you can try using a long plastic hose filled with (sterile / boiled and chilled) water to start the siphon off.

To do this, first, sit the willow on a bench or something higher than the keg you are filling) partly fill a sanitised plastic hose with water and use you finger or something more sterile to keep this column of water in the hose, then place the other end (dry) into the top of the willow such that it is a few centimeters below the fermented beer level. make sure the outlet of the hose filled with water is pointed towards the keg and then release the water from the hose. The effect will be to kick start the siphon (pulling water up the end of the hose immersed in the beer, over the top of the willow and towards the keg). Once you can see the beer about to exit the bottom of the tube (this will be pretty quick depending on how long the hose is), place it into the keg. Be sure to keep the willow end of the tube submerged or the siphon will stop.

Hope that explains it well enough

:beer:

edit: too long winded, video will prolly be better !
 
Thanks all. siphon it is then.
 
Think I've posted it somewhere before with pictures. Easiest way to syphon for me used to be:

Grab one of those little plastic nozzles that you use for silicone guns, you get them for free at Bunnings etc. and might even have one flying around the house.
Sanitise it, then insert the pointy end into your syphon hose, with the other end at the bottom of your cube. Suck on the wide end of the nozzle until beer flow, then discard the nozzle and quickly insert tghe hose into your keg.

Easy as, and sanitary as you're not sucking on the hose directly. If you're in a rush and haven't got one of these nozzles you might find something similar around the house to use, you might even get away with a piece of beer/gas line if you press your syphon hose together.
 
Think I've posted it somewhere before with pictures. Easiest way to syphon for me used to be:

Grab one of those little plastic nozzles that you use for silicone guns, you get them for free at Bunnings etc. and might even have one flying around the house.
Sanitise it, then insert the pointy end into your syphon hose, with the other end at the bottom of your cube. Suck on the wide end of the nozzle until beer flow, then discard the nozzle and quickly insert tghe hose into your keg.

Easy as, and sanitary as you're not sucking on the hose directly. If you're in a rush and haven't got one of these nozzles you might find something similar around the house to use, you might even get away with a piece of beer/gas line if you press your syphon hose together.

Hmm i've seen a slight modification of this where somebody put an inline valve so they could pause the siphone process.

tube valve tube. Saves the worry of liquid flying down the line at you.
 
^^ Just squeeze the syphon tube together before the beer gets to you, and release once the tip of the tube is in the keg. No mess at all.
 
I use a 3-way siphon, it's a length of tube cut in half that has a T splitter in the middle, which goes to a 3rd tube you can suck on to start the siphon. There was a thread about it on another forum, with pics, but for the life of me I can't find it.

Before I used that I did the separate insert method like Florian said, and that works well. I tried messing around with filling the tube with sanitiser, but I found I needed a 3rd hand (or an assistant) to get that working without tearing my hair out.

ed. huzzah I found the thread http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/flyguys-t-...tosiphon-25774/
 
I use a stainless jiggle siphon with boiling hot wort

http://www.gryphonbrewing.com.au/store/pro...products_id=348
siphon%20tip.jpg


My concern would be stirring up the trub
 
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