I’m at the point where I’d like to move into closed transfer to kegs. I don’t have a sight glass on my fermenter, so no way to tell how much is going into the keg. I don’t want to fill until beer exits the gas port, and taking off the lid to check the level defeats the purpose of closed transfer. The only ideas I have come up with is filling the kegs by weight, or making a sight glass. How do others do it?
I normally have less than 5 gallons in the fermenter so overfill is generally not a problem. I know some people do it by weight.
The easiest thing to do is go by weight, as Kramerog suggests. Filling with 42 lbs of beer would yield 5 gal for most final gravities. If you want it very exact, or if you have a very atypical final gravity, then use the Beersmith tool called Weight to Volume. Enter the SG of the beer and then adjust the weight in the “Current Container Weight” field until the estimated volume reads 5 gal.
May I ask why you don’t want to fill until beer exits the gas port?
More cleaning due to beer in the gas side. More wasted beer since I’d have to draw a few pints/quarts.
Fair enough. FWIW I’ve never found any extra cleaning to be involved, as I disassemble and clean all the keg parts between uses anyway, and it’s not much extra to clean another QD and some tubing at racking time. But if it’s loss you’re trying to avoid, and it’s not an option to just plan on a little extra brew length to account for it, I guess you need an accurate way of judging an invisible fill level, and weight would be the obvious choice. I don’t use Beersmith, but that tool RC mentioned sounds like a real help.
Just fill until it exits the blow-off. The waste is minimal and you should clean everything after the keg is empty anyways. Why waste the money on a scale just to weigh your beer? As a precaution after filling this way, I always hose off the kegs then spray down with Starsan. Pop a little CO2 in there too. This is what I do and I’ve never had any issues.
The Q is how do others do it. I fill thru the out post until it comes out the in post. Then attach CO2 and pull beer until I no longer hear gurgling. That way I know the keg is full and the headspace is filled with CO2.
If you discard the beer after pulling it out of the keg to create head space or leave that same beer in the fermenter; the amount, wether considered wasted or not, would be the same.
If you don’t want to do that get you one of these gizmos: Ball and Keg - Keg Level Indicator
As far as extra cleaning: it simply gets drained into the blowoff jar then dipped into the 5 gallons of sanitizer I just purged from the keg prior to closed transfer right alongside the tube I used to fill the keg.
Brilliant observation. The only reason not to fill until beer exits the gas port and then draw off to create a precisely known amount of headspace is, if you absolutely know that your fermenter capacity is insufficient to fill to the gas port. Then to know exactly how much beer vs. headspace you have absolutely requires a precisely measured fill, only practically achieved by weight, unless you can meter the flow. So the choices you are left with are: 1) buy a fancy scale to weigh the beer filled into your keg down to the fraction of an ounce above tare weight, having first calculated the weight of a given volume based on gravity (which is not as straightforward as you might at first think.) 2) pay even more for some kind of flow metering system. Or 3) fill to overflowing and draw off, “wasting” some beer. Note you will “waste” the exact same amount of beer in scenarios (1) and (2) but it will be far more complicated and expensive to do so. Losses are part of brewing. All brewers expect losses at every stage of the process. They plan ahead and account for them. Returning to top: make sure your fermenter volume is sufficient, problem solved.
Exactly. I don’t consider the beer drawn off to create headspace waste any more than I consider wort loss to grain absorption, trub, hydrometer samples, etc. waste. It’s all pre-planned loss.
All very good points. Was leaning toward weight, but now filling until beer exits the gas port makes more sense. Many thanks.
I fill until some beer comes out of the gas port. Then I clean that mess with a towel and some diluted bleach. That is definitely waste: a few ounces of beer on the ground. Then I connect the keg to co2 and draw off a few ounces into a glass. I drink that beer so it cannot be called waste.
When I do closed transfers I go by weight. I bought a $30 scale just to do this but I find it comes in handy for weighing all sorts of things, like my grist, transfers to the travel keg, exactly how much is left in that serving keg, and even other things outside of the brewery. Nothing wrong with filling until it comes out the gas port except that it requires being more attentive when it’s almost full. With the scale I can do other chores in the brewery while just keeping an eye on the weight, always knowing exactly where it’s at. Not necessary but definitely nice to have.
Warm, flat and yeasty, but not wasted!
If you’re doing a gravity transfer with the gas line returning to the fermenter, flow will stop when the level in the line equalizes, and you’ll only leave a small amount in the line.
I transfer pushing with CO2. I used to place the line out of the gas post in a bucket of iodophor, and it would give an audible signal – rapid bubbling – that beer was flowing. When the bubbling slows radically, stop those other chores in the brewery instantly, the keg’s nearly filled. Thanks to forum member macbrews for the idea.
My current adaptation is to put a picnic tap on the gas post. Bleed pressure periodically as needed to keep flow going – sort of a poor man’s counter pressure fill. Then when beer finally exits the port, you needn’t spill a drop. Then a picnic tap over on the liquid side to draw off another pint, and no “waste” if you drink it, or at least cook with it. But like BrewBama, I consider it part of my planned losses. It’s minimal though.
This device is coming soon:
Cheers!
That looks like a pretty cool device! Definitely would be a bit more efficient than the tubing I use on the gas-in post that goes to a jar of sanitizer. Might hve to invest in one of these.
If you have more than one keg in your serving system you will get a pressure drop when you serve from another keg, and the full keg will back-flow into the gas lines and make an outstanding mess! You might get around that by tilting the receiving keg until the gas port dip tube was roughly aligned with the 5 gallon mark.
I was assuming that we were considering filling the keg in isolation from the rest of the system. I keep a separate gas cylinder and regulator just for use in transfers and kegging so there’s no crossing with my carbonation and serving regime.
+1. I fill with gravity isolated from the rest of my system.
Where do you live? If there’s any appreciable humidity and you cold crash first, you see a pretty quick line of condensation appear on the keg at the beer level. I find this is a decent guide for avoiding a mess coming out of the gas tube.