Closed loop transfer + natural carbonation?

[thegrantickle]

Hi all,

I am looking to start doing a closed loop transfer from fermenter to keg.

But, I don't like force carbonating my beers - I prefer to naturally carbonate.

As the whole point in closed transferring is to minimise oxygen, I don't want to open up the fermenter and mix the priming solution in there.

My idea is to fill the transfer line between the fermenter and keg with the priming solution, so it flows into the keg, and the beer follows behind.

Has anyone tried this / does anyone have any alternative ideas or can see any problems with this approach?

Cheers

 

[Buffers brewery]

That’s a coincidence! I’m planning to closed transfer my beer at the weekend from FV to pressure barrel (King keg). Force carbonating is out for me so what I do is, having filled my sanitised PB with CO2 from the fermentation process I connect the PB to the FV vent line. I connect the beer transfer line to the tap on my FV and connect the other end to my “priming jug”.

Opening the FV tap bleeds the air out of the transfer tube as it fills with beer. N.B. You have to hold the priming jug above the level of the beer in the FV or you have a mess on your hands.
Having bled the line, the priming solution is added to the jug which can be slowly raised to allow the priming solution to run into the line. Before all the priming solution runs into the line, the line is disconnected, sealing the line that can then be connected to the beer out post on the PB allowing beer to flow from FV to PB and CO2 to flow from PB to FV.