Kegmenter. Are they good to use?

[Chridech]

What's the recommendation on shortening the dip-tube to minimise pushing out trub when pressure transferring from Kegmenter to Corny? Don't want to lose too much beer but prefer minimal trub transferred. After my first ferment in the new Kegmenter yesterday I pushed the beer out (a Bo Pils). First to 4 PET bottles (as I new I put 25L of wort into the Kegmenter) and then to the 19L Corny. Unfortunately I over-pressurised the first PET and stirred up all the ***** with back pressure. The remainder of the transfer was cloudy. Not sure if this was due to stirring up the trub or would have happened anyway because I hadn't shortened the dip-tube.

 

[Coldspace]

I've shortened mine 20 mm. Seems good.but will try my first batch this weekend . May need another 5 mm, but a guy at keg king who uses 4 of these recons 15 mm. I did 20

I'll be running my lagers through my filter housing as I already have one. Under pressure

Cheers

 

[pcqypcqy]

I did 20mm or so. Will adjust later if need be.

I'm having troubles getting the spunding valve quite right, it's not as set-and-forget as I'd like. Got home yesterday to find it zero, but realised it had spun all the way around. Backed it right off, let the gas out of the blow-off corny, then saw the krausen shoot through for a while. Checked it a few times before bed last night and each time I thought I had it stabilised, came back to find that the pressure was way over/under where I wanted it to be.

Just a learning thing I guess, unless someone has some tips.

 

[zeggie]

I did the exact same thing. Brewed a beer yesterday and transferred to the kegmenter. Checked it today 24 hours later and saw 0 psi...then noticed it had spun all the way around...released a looooot of pressure to get it back to 15psi. Hopefully hasn't affected the beer.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Wow this thread got away from me and had to catch up. I've had pretty much all the experiences mentioned (assumed faults etc).
but its still the best beer and best method I can advocate.

eg:

O2:
I've got the air stone option but I don't use it. Its not necessary and its very fiddly and you have to be vigilant about the hygene of it all. Instead, I charge the kegmenter with ~ 4 to 10 psi O2. Disconnect the O2 and roll shake the kegmenter. A few minutes. Resist to release that pressure, keep it in there as much as you can.
All my ferments are fast to explosive potential. Ales FG in 4 days, Lagers 7 days. Temp controlled at the lower yeast temp range.

Head space: Some beers have big/huge Krausens. Like syrupy ports, stouts. They got me by surprize. Blow through the KK spunding valve a few times now. (note: the gauges haven't been affected,yet! but they cost $8 to replace. The rest of the arm is cleanable forever basically)
Meanwhile during blow through I Quickly replace with a blow off tube into a jar or flask of water (old school way). Its a gas disconnect with a length of flexi 4mm air hose.
Its a funny sight and sound to see. Pressurized Krausen through a 4mm hose into a half filled 3lt flask of water. Be ready to replace that water at first because it could breach that 3lt flask, ha. This is also a time to consider harvesting high Krausen yeast. But no. I only harvest from lighter beers. So far!
1 to 2 days feral ferment stage it slows and then you can click on the spunding valve to finish the ferment under pressure for natural carbonation.
To naturally carbonate is to aim at your beer finishing at around 21 psi at its finish ferment temperature. If its lower that's ok because your kegging anyway. If its higher than 21 psi then its over carbonated. Unless your making some freaky high carbonated thing.

Dry Hopping with pressure ferment: Because I don't like exposing a ferment and throwing something in. Especially because pressure fermented beer is also carbonated so you dip in a sack of hops and you get an eruption of beer froth that will spill and make a mess and I think this scenario also invites off flavours some way or another.

So my only method to dry hop is in a weighted hop sock filled with hop flowers (not pellets because they're too small particles etc)
placed into the serving keg before you fill it with your pre chilled beer. All done slowly under pressure there is no frothing. I leave the hops in their until finished. All the beer gets drawn through the hops etc.

In short, with all these pressure fluctuations I would be hard convinced there is any negative affects. All the hardware is better than my older ways with plastic fermenters etc. The beer is always better than my old ways. Many labour some steps seem to be avoided.

$0.02 I tried to keep it short! -_-

 

[malt junkie]

$0.02 I tried to keep it short! -_-

Don't! The more info the better. These methods are becoming more popular as is the refinement and availability of equipment aimed at these methods.

 

[zeggie]

Ok what's the trick to get the Kk spunding valve at 15psi. Seems like I need to adjust it every hour or so

 

[rude]

Wow this thread got away from me and had to catch up. I've had pretty much all the experiences mentioned (assumed faults etc).
but its still the best beer and best method I can advocate.

eg:

O2:
I've got the air stone option but I don't use it. Its not necessary and its very fiddly and you have to be vigilant about the hygene of it all. Instead, I charge the kegmenter with ~ 4 to 10 psi O2. Disconnect the O2 and roll shake the kegmenter. A few minutes. Resist to release that pressure, keep it in there as much as you can.
All my ferments are fast to explosive potential. Ales FG in 4 days, Lagers 7 days. Temp controlled at the lower yeast temp range.

Head space: Some beers have big/huge Krausens. Like syrupy ports, stouts. They got me by surprize. Blow through the KK spunding valve a few times now. (note: the gauges haven't been affected,yet! but they cost $8 to replace. The rest of the arm is cleanable forever basically)
Meanwhile during blow through I Quickly replace with a blow off tube into a jar or flask of water (old school way). Its a gas disconnect with a length of flexi 4mm air hose.
Its a funny sight and sound to see. Pressurized Krausen through a 4mm hose into a half filled 3lt flask of water. Be ready to replace that water at first because it could breach that 3lt flask, ha. This is also a time to consider harvesting high Krausen yeast. But no. I only harvest from lighter beers. So far!
1 to 2 days feral ferment stage it slows and then you can click on the spunding valve to finish the ferment under pressure for natural carbonation.
To naturally carbonate is to aim at your beer finishing at around 21 psi at its finish ferment temperature. If its lower that's ok because your kegging anyway. If its higher than 21 psi then its over carbonated. Unless your making some freaky high carbonated thing.

Dry Hopping with pressure ferment: Because I don't like exposing a ferment and throwing something in. Especially because pressure fermented beer is also carbonated so you dip in a sack of hops and you get an eruption of beer froth that will spill and make a mess and I think this scenario also invites off flavours some way or another.

So my only method to dry hop is in a weighted hop sock filled with hop flowers (not pellets because they're too small particles etc)
placed into the serving keg before you fill it with your pre chilled beer. All done slowly under pressure there is no frothing. I leave the hops in their until finished. All the beer gets drawn through the hops etc.

In short, with all these pressure fluctuations I would be hard convinced there is any negative affects. All the hardware is better than my older ways with plastic fermenters etc. The beer is always better than my old ways. Many labour some steps seem to be avoided.

$0.02 I tried to keep it short! -_-

So the biggest thing I got from you're post was same temp as normal but still finishes early

Temp controlled at the lower yeast temp range

Just did a kolsch thought pressure ferment was all about higher temps for speed but still clean

Will try this once I make my kegmenter pressurised & my 20 c fruity ester Kolsch finishes :unsure:

Would like to go the digital solenoid (Trevgale ) in a corny keg option for pressure control but $150 was streaching me a bit for now

We are blessed with the brewing gear available these days cheers all





Thanks for you're feed back

 

[Coldspace]

I click mine on after 18 hrs of pitch . I've only used mine once so far. With O2 injected chilled helles pitched at 9 degrees allowed to rise upto 11-12 over first 24 hrs.

Clicked on at 18 hrs next day it was at 15 psi, slowly wound it out, you have to wind it out a very little increments, till you hear the slight hiss, I put my ear next to valve to hear it , if it was an ale probably would hiss more.
Check it 1 hr or 2 later and slight adjustment till it was stable at about 12 psi is where I ran mine at.

Also, wet the silicone seal when placing lid on to help it settle in. And after hand tight the tri clove lid, get a screw driver into the turn bit and crank it up about a few more turns till tight as a nuns nasty...

Obliviously don't go too rank but you do need to tightened it up, otherwise the pressure will seep out instead of through the valve.

Danscraftbeer has covered lots, I've just started but happy so far...

 

[Chridech]

Information from an American blog on a homebrewers experience with fermenting under pressure and dry hopping. A lot of information to digest. Interested to hear AHB boffins comments, especially on his conclusions about using pressure fermentation techniques to target the beer characteristics you want and avoid those you don't. Too many variables uncontrolled to make firm conclusions I think.

http://scottjanish.com/fermenting-dry-hopping-pressure/

 

[malt junkie]

So the biggest thing I got from you're post was same temp as normal but still finishes early

Temp controlled at the lower yeast temp range

Just did a kolsch thought pressure ferment was all about higher temps for speed but still clean

Will try this once I make my kegmenter pressurised & my 20 c fruity ester Kolsch finishes :unsure:

Would like to go the digital solenoid (Trevgale ) in a corny keg option for pressure control but $150 was streaching me a bit for now

We are blessed with the brewing gear available these days cheers all





Thanks for you're feed back

I like the idea of digital control, but initially some trial and error would be needed to sort the size of the outlet. That is to say smoothing the opening and closing of the valve by using a jet or other small hole( 1mm has previously been quoted) to allow co2 to escape, venting a 1/4 fitting would be quite abrupt and you wouldn't be very accurate.

 

[5150]

I don't have a kegmenter, so this is purely an idea for dry hoping. (This is now going to be my next purchase )

Would it be possible to make a hoptea with your dry hops addition, pour it into a pet bottle, purge it of oxygen and charge it with co2 up to say 20+ psi and then transfer it into the kegmenter to the beer out post.

Just a thought.

 

[jimmyjack]

Ok Just bought one of these dudes from Keg King. Also have release valve that goes up to 15 PSI. Few questions. This is my understanding thus far and please correct me if I am wrong

1. Initial ferment pressure should be 8-12 PSI lasting around 3 days. What gravity/Pressure should I close the valve down to carbonate?
2. Can I ferment 20 L in the 50 L Kegmenter without pressure issues?

 

[pcqypcqy]

Ok Just bought one of these dudes from Keg King. Also have release valve that goes up to 15 PSI. Few questions. This is my understanding thus far and please correct me if I am wrong

1. Initial ferment pressure should be 8-12 PSI lasting around 3 days. What gravity/Pressure should I close the valve down to carbonate?
2. Can I ferment 20 L in the 50 L Kegmenter without pressure issues?

1. Keep in mind that your ferment temp is warmer than your serving temp, so you need a higher pressure at the warm temp to get the same level of carbonation than you would at a lower temp. Looking at the charts I don't think you'll be able to have a fully carbonated beer straight away. i.e. at 18 degrees and 15 psi (which is the maximum mark on the gauge), you'd only get 1.7 volumes.

2. Not sure what you mean by pressure issues, but I can't imagine the krausen from a 20 litre brew would hit the top, unless you're doing a barleywine or RIS or something. I would have thought 20 litres of fermenting beer would produce enough gas to carbonate itself with that kind of headspace.

 

[pcqypcqy]

Ok what's the trick to get the Kk spunding valve at 15psi. Seems like I need to adjust it every hour or so

I click mine on after 18 hrs of pitch . I've only used mine once so far. With O2 injected chilled helles pitched at 9 degrees allowed to rise upto 11-12 over first 24 hrs.

Clicked on at 18 hrs next day it was at 15 psi, slowly wound it out, you have to wind it out a very little increments, till you hear the slight hiss, I put my ear next to valve to hear it , if it was an ale probably would hiss more.
Check it 1 hr or 2 later and slight adjustment till it was stable at about 12 psi is where I ran mine at.

Also, wet the silicone seal when placing lid on to help it settle in. And after hand tight the tri clove lid, get a screw driver into the turn bit and crank it up about a few more turns till tight as a nuns nasty...

Obliviously don't go too rank but you do need to tightened it up, otherwise the pressure will seep out instead of through the valve.

Danscraftbeer has covered lots, I've just started but happy so far...

I'm finding that even if I do that, you have to unwind a long way to get the gas to start leaking, which if you left it like that would drop your pressure much more than you were hoping for.

This is my first use so I'm sure it'll loosen up with time, but it seems to be sticking a little bit so it needs large adjustments of the screw to start releasing pressure.

I'm slowly working it out, set it to 12ish last night and it was only up to 15 over night, so not as bad as previously.

 

[nosco]

I got my self a 30lt keg (thanks Tahoose ) and i already have a spare keg lid and a ball valve. So im looking to go stainless for under $100. The 30lt has a threaded post wich means i can either get a threaded fitting or tri clover. I ordered both from Alibaba so i can try both. The keg lid doesnt have a prv though so im not sure if that will matter.

Ill post when its finished but dont hold your breath.

 

[zeggie]

Do Kegking still do 10% for cash if you pickup? Been a while. I might buy another

 

[Zorco]

So...

I did this brewing event at work where 4 teams designed their beers by tasting varieties of grains, smelling lots of hops and chose ABV and country of origin. They waited a few weeks, got a case each and they loved it.


A lot it seemed.... Yesterday they did a mini thank you presentation and in the card was $150 of vouchers - plus a tiny hit in the kid's inheritance and I'm there. I pick up my first kegmenter today.

Thank you wild and crazy internet forum for your motivational juju

 

[pcqypcqy]

Wife: "Why did you spend $300 on another keg for brewing"
Me: "because the internet told me to"
Wife: "Fair enough, carry on."

 

[Zorco]

Me: "But don't worry, this is the last piece of brewing hardware I'll need."