Oxygen free transfer, Fermenter to Keg.

Hopped beers are best kept away from oxygen, They keep their freshness and aroma and colour for up to months if oxygen is kept out of the storage vessel.

If you brew your own, and log the changes in your brew over the period of drinking, you will soon see how much the storage of the beer affects the end product.

For a while now I’ve been brewing in a pressure capable fermenter and transferring to keg in an oxygen free condition and can keep a keg on hand for months without a discernible loss in quality.

My fermenting vessel is just a cheap clear plastic conical,  with a spunding valve, I don’t dump yeast, but I do cold crash.  I always ferment for over 7 days, usually 10, and always transfer to a c02 charged sanitized keg though a sanitized and purged line.

The only time my brew has a chance of being exposed to oxygen after my yeast addition is during my careful dry hop addition. As I usually dry hop between high krausen and before the end of fermentation, and carefully so as not to introduce any extra 02, I believe the little amount that is contained in the actual hop pellets is used up by the yeast during the second half of active fermentation. The second half of fermentation on an ale, is when I set the spunding valve to about 8-10 psi.  This gives enough internal pressure in the vessel to allow for the cold crash and carbonates the beer slightly. I’ve done both quick carb at 40 psi and slow carb at 10 psi in the keg and they always turn out great.

To sanitize my Corni keg, I’ll wash it first with pbw, ( powdered brewery wash ) rinse out with clean water, fill to the brim with water and sanitizer, ( usually stellarsan )  and hook up c02 to push out the sanitized water via the beer out connect. This leaves the keg purged of oxygen and filled with c02 and sanitized ready to be filled with beer.  The line I use to release the water from the keg remains on the kegs beer post, and being sanitized and purged hooks straight up to the fermenter out post. I like to have a little extra pressure in the keg and this will blow c02 through the floating dip tube of the fermenter to clear out any hop matter that may have made its way into the pickup. As the fermenter is cold from the crash and the keg is room temp from the sanitize and purge, I can see the condensation form on the keg as it fills so I know when its nearing full. I do need to release pressure from the keg and top up the fermenter with bottled gas during the process.  Hook the c02 bottle up to the keg and leave to condition in the fridge till ready to bring up to the bar. A week or two is enough for the keg to carbonate and rest a bit and after the first pour or two, the beer is clear and perfect.

Brew Love.