Topping up a Keg

[scon]

So I was wondering if anyone has ever done this. I have a party I'm going to on the weekend and I was hoping to take two full kegs, I've ordered them but I'm not sure if they're going to arrive on time. The beer will likely all get drunk this weekend so I'm not hugely concerned about infections taking over.

So I was thinking of degassing the kegs and then just topping them up and force carbing. Will that work? Is there anything I need to watch out for?

 

[Phoney]

Look at this:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/16907-keg-transfer-made-easy/

Do that.

 

[Kodos]

What are you going to top them up with?

If water, boil it first (to sanitise and remove oxygen), then chill it to at least as cold (or colder) than the beer temp, and fill it slowly through the beer out disconnect, and open the purge valve on the lid. Any O2 entry at this point will ruin the beer faster than infection. Of course, this will dilute the flavour/body/mouthfeel etc, depending on what you've got to start with this will be OK.

If you're topping it up with beer, same applies except for the boiling. Get two beer disconnects on a bit of beer line, and with light CO2 pressure, push from one keg into the other. If you do it slowly, and vent the keg lid occasionally, you shouldn't need to gas. It's sort of like counter-pressure filling a bottle.

But overall, O2 is your No 1 enemy.

 

[scon]

Ah, I was unclear. I have fermenters filled with wort that I want to put into the kegs. It's the same beer, I made a double batch.

Edit: aaand the panic is over. Apparently the kegs have been delivered. Phew!

 

[angus_grant]

So you want to clean and sanitise your kegs. You then purge your keg with CO2 to a slight pressure.

Connect your transfer line to beer disconnect and then connect it to the receiving keg. You want to connect the transfer line to the beer post as then it runs to the bottom of the keg via the dip tube minimising foaming. The slight pressure in the keg will force CO2 up the transfer line purging it of O2 as well.

Connect your transfer line to the fermenter and open the tap. I pull the relief valve on the keg and then turn it sidewards to lock it open. This allows the C02 in the keg to vent out as the beer replaces it. If your kegs don't have a relief valve put a gas disconnect on the post connected to nothing. This will open the poppet and let the CO2 out.

If you cold crash your fermenter you can see the progress via the condensation line creeping up the receiving keg. Otherwise, pop the keg lid when your fermenter is almost empty and watch the beer level inside the keg.

Once completed, put your gas line onto a beer disconnect, purge the keg a few times to make sure there is no O2 left over. I carb my beers with beer disconnect on gas line so it bubbles up through beer. Does this make a difference? Buggered if I know but you can get an idea of carb level as the bubbling slows down and stops after a few days. I just let mine carb at serving pressure and this takes about 5 days or so.

There is a good post on here somewhere about the Ross force-carb method which you will need to look up as you don't have enough time to carb at serving pressure. Only used it once and over-carbed my keg to buggery. My last keg I had to carb in a hurry so had it at double-serving pressure for 2 days, and then dropped it back to serving pressure again.

Found this one although that is not the original: http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/8535-ross-method-of-forced-carbonation-of-kegs/

Here's a good thread with videos: http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/10667-guide-to-keg-forced-carbonation/

 

[Kodos]

Ah, I was unclear. I have fermenters filled with wort that I want to put into the kegs. It's the same beer, I made a double batch.

Edit: aaand the panic is over. Apparently the kegs have been delivered. Phew!

Glad the crisis is averted.

I wouldn't top up with unfermented Wort tho, that's just going to sweeten the beer, it wouldn't taste right. If you mean the beer is fermented, then that might be OK. I'd still get the fermenters down to the temp of the beer you're topping up, and follow the rest of the advise given here...

 

[scon]

Oops. Not wort. It's fully fermented and they're cold crashed at about 1C.

But yes, I'll just fill them as usual and force carb. Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[NickB]

Personally, if you have a keg of beer that's, say, half empty, and then you ferment out, and crash chill another cube of the same batch, topping up should be no issue, apart from the dilution in carbonation. If you either force carb, or give yourself a few days to reach equilibrium, no problems.

I know you've sorted the issue, but I, personally, would be fine with adding fermented beer to a half-full keg of beer as long as my sanitation was the same for each batch.

Enjoy your party, though, scon!




Cheers

 

[scon]

So the way I did it was I purged the kegs, the opened them up and squirted some co2 into them.

Then i drained from the fermenter while slowly putting some CO2 into the top of them to fill up what was being drained and then force carbed the kegs.

Hopefully this will all work!