Closed Transfer From Bucket to Corny Keg

[Buffers brewery]

To be honest @DocAnna has already summarised it right there. As with all designs there's a trade-off. If I find this syphon arrangement doesn't work so well in the longer term it's not hard to add a tap later on.

If you find a tap works well for you then that's great. I had some reservations about adding a tap - sanitising, leaks etc - so decided to go with this syphon arrangement. The purpose of this post was more to show that if you want to do it this way then it can be done, and more specifically how to do it since I had trouble finding any examples out there that didn't use carboys or taps. It's certainly not to say you should do it this way

I’m a great believer in “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”. (No cats were injured in this post ). Always interested in seeing how other people tackle a problem.

 

[cheeseyfeet]

I messed around with buckets and bulkheads but eventually just got myself a fermzilla all rounder.

Best move ever

 

[samale]

I messed around with buckets and bulkheads but eventually just got myself a fermzilla all rounder.

Best move ever

Do they fit in an under counter fridge

 

[Wynne]

To be honest @DocAnna has already summarised it right there. As with all designs there's a trade-off. If I find this syphon arrangement doesn't work so well in the longer term it's not hard to add a tap later on.

If you find a tap works well for you then that's great. I had some reservations about adding a tap - sanitising, leaks etc - so decided to go with this syphon arrangement. The purpose of this post was more to show that if you want to do it this way then it can be done, and more specifically how to do it since I had trouble finding any examples out there that didn't use carboys or taps. It's certainly not to say you should do it this way

Thanks @matt76 - I find it intriguing to see how we all approach things differently and are concerned about different things.

 

[DocAnna]

I messed around with buckets and bulkheads but eventually just got myself a fermzilla all rounder.

Best move ever

I already have a snubnose which is great but I can only fit one into my brew fridge whereas I can fit two buckets in there, and I don't need to/wish to ferment lagers under pressure, and they tie up my fridge for weeks with cold conditioning too. I'm trying a bit of an experiment at the moment not temperature controlling my snubnose at 20-22 C ish in the garage but under a little bit of pressure 10psi to compensate for the lack of temperature control.

 

[cheeseyfeet]

Fair points, I am lucky enough to have a tall larder fridge in the garage which takes the all rounder easily, it would probably fit the 60L one too which I am eying up :)

The 30L also fits in my undercounter fridge if I angle it so the disconnects aren't pointing directly up, not very convenient but workable.

What I do is use the all rounder in the tall fridge, then transfer to a corny and lager there if required in the undercounter fridge. Or if it's a pale ale then I just cold crash for a few days, transfer to corny and stick it directly into my kegerator (there is always room as my consumption outstrips production every time!)

 

[matt76]

I messed around with buckets and bulkheads but eventually just got myself a fermzilla all rounder.

Best move ever

I may have missed something @cheeseyfeet , but I don't see any advantage from this for me at least. The big killer is I make 10-12L at a time so I just don't need a 30L FV. I'm not interested in fermenting under pressure. Only useful feature I can see is that since it's designed to take pressure one could presumably be a lot more haphazard using CO2 to do a closed transfer to a keg whereas I'll need to be careful with my bucket.

But hey, if 20-30L batches and fermenting under pressure are your thing then I guess it's ideal so more power to you

 

[stripeyjoe]

You could put a leave a small amount of pressure in your corny after purging it. Then, after the syphoning has started into the Corny has started, disconnect the CO2 and connect the gas in of the corny to the gas in of your FV to do a closed transfer, the liquid + gravity will push CO2 from your Corny into the FV.
You could even use the CO2 produced whilst fermenting to purge the corny initially. I did this with my first brew in a bucket but, as you can get an all rounder for £49 now, just went that route - is a lot simpler!

 

[gavp1979]

Do they fit in an under counter fridge

I get mine into an undercounted fridge but I need to stand it in a bowl instead of using the provided stand

 

[Broken Toe]

I don't have the experience to say but it sounds plausible. Try it and report back!

Just put a lager into the 'primary corny' to about 16l in case of Krausen. So far so good...

 

[Broken Toe]

I don't have the experience to say but it sounds plausible. Try it and report back!

So the process was really easy. Crashed down to .5°C to really try and compact the cake. Hooked up the line out to an open line and drained off the slurry into a jar until it ran clear. Took my hydrometer sample and then hooked up to fresh purged keg and tuned up the gas.

Ran through to new keg until I felt the condensation on the first reach the bottom. Then dropped the pressure and waited for bubbles in the line. Didn't get bubbles but I did get slurry. So I stopped.

For me this was the ideal. Easy cleaning and did it while the youngest was napping. Win win.

 

[Badgersack]

This is my DIY setup
View attachment 49853
And the resulting beer which stayed bright to the last pint
View attachment 49854

Did you ferment this in a pressure barrel? I've been considering trying this as might be an easier way to closed transfer. Without buying more gear...

 

[matt76]

I did my first live kegging/closed transfer yesterday using the method described in the OP.

It all went pretty smoothly and was mostly uneventful, so I'm pleased the practice runs with water paid off. In fact the only issue was something I hadn't practiced - a slightly leaky inline filter (more below)...

Before cold crashing from 20 down to 0degC I replaced the airlock with a hi-tech purged and CO2 filled bladder

I was surprised actually that after cold crashing the bladder (2L volume) had totally suctioned and shrivelled up! Not what I expected from my calculations and something to monitor next time.

After a couple of days cold crashing I transferred to the keg having first made sure absolutely everything was purged with CO2. The only change from the OP was the addition of a filter to catch any hop bits:

For the most part it wasn't really needed except right at the end of the transfer. The main issue was beer leaking - weeping really - from the threads between the filter body and the 3/8" adapters (both sides). It continued weeping even after I tightened then up on the fly mid-transfer with grips.

I'd already wrapped PTFE tape around the threads. Need to do a bit of investigating to improve it, might just be a case of more PTFE tape needed and/or a rubber washer somewhere

Happy enough so far that it works, just a couple of minor tweaks needed

 

[Galvers]

I did my first live kegging/closed transfer yesterday using the method described in the OP.

It all went pretty smoothly and was mostly uneventful, so I'm pleased the practice runs with water paid off. In fact the only issue was something I hadn't practiced - a slightly leaky inline filter (more below)...

Before cold crashing from 20 down to 0degC I replaced the airlock with a hi-tech purged and CO2 filled bladder

View attachment 51633

I was surprised actually that after cold crashing the bladder (2L volume) had totally suctioned and shrivelled up! Not what I expected from my calculations and something to monitor next time.

After a couple of days cold crashing I transferred to the keg having first made sure absolutely everything was purged with CO2. The only change from the OP was the addition of a filter to catch any hop bits:

View attachment 51631

View attachment 51632

For the most part it wasn't really needed except right at the end of the transfer. The main issue was beer leaking - weeping really - from the threads between the filter body and the 3/8" adapters (both sides). It continued weeping even after I tightened then up on the fly mid-transfer with grips.

I'd already wrapped PTFE tape around the threads. Need to do a bit of investigating to improve it, might just be a case of more PTFE tape needed and/or a rubber washer somewhere

Happy enough so far that it works, just a couple of minor tweaks needed

Great set up! Can you share more on the bladder please as this is an upgrade to my almost closed transfer. Thanks Mike

 

[matt76]

Great set up! Can you share more on the bladder please as this is an upgrade to my almost closed transfer. Thanks Mike

Sorry, I thought it was obvious what it really is - it's a 2L catheter bag off eBay The valve at the top makes it easy to purge .

I know other folks have had success with foil/mylar balloons - I have some but not tried these yet (I think @DocAnna uses them???)

 

[Alastair70]

(I think @DocAnna uses them???)

Only for brewing I’m sure! I’ve been trying to think of a suitable gas collection vessel, they are perfect. (I knew what it was when I saw it, also purely from a professional capacity and not personal)

 

[matt76]

Only for brewing I’m sure! I’ve been trying to think of a suitable gas collection vessel, they are perfect. (I knew what it was when I saw it, also purely from a professional capacity and not personal)

I can't claim to have come up with it myself, someone else on the forum mentioned it recently though I don't recall who.

I'd have said they're ideal too, although I'm confused/surprised/a little concerned how the bag shrivelled up during cold crash

 

[Alastair70]

I can't claim to have come up with it myself, someone else on the forum mentioned it recently though I don't recall who.

I'd have said they're ideal too, although I'm confused/surprised/a little concerned how the bag shrivelled up during cold crash

Picked up a 6L collapsible water carrier in Trespass, £4.95 in the sale. Should be enough to cope with the cold crash, I’ve only got 10L headspace in the FV. Will report back in a couple of weeks.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

The main issue was beer leaking - weeping really - from the threads between the filter body and the 3/8" adapters (both sides). It continued weeping even after I tightened then up on the fly mid-transfer with grips.

Perhaps it would help to add an ‘O’ ring or thick rubber washer on the shoulder of the adaptor where it butts up against the body of the filter? I got a mixed set of different size ones from one of the online sites and they come in handy remarkably often

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Picked up a 6L collapsible water carrier in Trespass, £4.95 in the sale. Should be enough to cope with the cold crash, I’ve only got 10L headspace in the FV. Will report back in a couple of weeks.
View attachment 51870View attachment 51871

Great idea