Thinking about pressure fermentation

[redrocker652002]

I have been thinking about doing this for a couple of reasons. I brew mostly Ales, so not sure this is really going to do much but it looks like it might help with the O2 battle. I have a few 5 gallon cornies that I can use and they seem to hold pressure. So, my thought is, hooking up two to both pressure ferment and try and do a sealed transfer. Here is my thought. After brewing, I would transfer my wort into keg 1, pitch my yeast and seal it up. Run a jumper line from gas post of keg 1 to the liquid line of keg 2 so that any blow off would be in keg 2 instead of all over my floor. I would probably hook up a floating dip tube on it as well to shorted the line into keg 2 (I hope that makes sense). Then, run a jumper line from gas post of keg 1 to the gas post of keg 2 to catch and purge the keg of any O2 and maybe put my dry hops in keg 2 so that they are ready to go. Add a spunding valve to keg 2 for any excess pressure and off we go. On dry hop day, I would simple add gas to keg one and transfer the beer to keg 2 for dry hopping. On keg day, I would then move the beer from keg 2 to my serving keg via closed transfer. The reason I am doing it this way it to keep my batches at 5 gallons and try and keep the blow out contained in keg 2. Does this make sense? The reason I don't go from keg 1 to serving keg is that my converted mini fridge is not able to hold the taller kegs, so I had to buy a Torpedo keg that is a few inches shorter to fit. So, that is my only serving keg at this time. Eventually, my hope is to get a kegerator that will fit the taller kegs and just do a two keg fermentation where the final beer ends up in keg 2. I have plenty of hose and plenty of QD's to do this I believe, but wondering if my process is solid or not. If anything, I am going to try and do a pressure ferment one of these days, but in my research, they say that ale's really don't benefit from it. Anyway, sorry to ramble, but any input would be great as I have at least 2 kegs that are holding O2 pressure and have for at least 2 or 3 months.

As usual any input, good or bad, is welcomed. Thanks for reading.

And in the effort of complete transparency, I am also going to post this in another forum to try and get as much info as I can.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I am a little confused, which is not unusual. You're shooting blowoff and fermentation gas from #1 gas post to #2 liquid post, but you're also running gas alone from #1 gas post to #2 gas post? Are you moving the line after you ferment? You can't have two lines on #1 gas at the same time, so I'm trying to figure this out.

I pressure-ferment in Torpedos, but I don't save the CO2. I guess I could save it.

I put the wort for a 5-gallon batch in a 6-gallon Torpedo with Fermcap to prevent krauzen from coming out through the spunding valve, which goes on the gas post. So far it has worked, even with wheat. I use a Youtube trick for dry-hopping. I put hops in a bag along with a sous vide magnet, and I put another magnet on top of the fermenter lid. When I'm ready for the hops to go into the beer, I pull the outer magnet off, and the bag falls into the fermenter.

I push the beer into a 5-gallon serving Corny with CO2 from a tank, using two liquid disconnects, a hose, and the liquid posts on both tanks. I use floating dip tubes on both, and so far, I haven't had any hop clogs. Of course, it's all beer gas for stouts, and I use a 5-gallon Torpedo for beer gas brews because it has to fit on the hump next to the beer gas tank.

I try to remember to purge the tubes when moving fermented beer.

Before moving the beer to the fermenting keg, which starts out full of Star San solution, I use CO2 to pump the Star San out, and I do my best to get all the Star San out of the lid and so on. The Star San moves to the next keg I plan to use for serving, and I use pH strips to check it.

This has worked fine for me. Maybe people will say I waste a lot of CO2.

 

[redrocker652002]

I am a little confused, which is not unusual. You're shooting blowoff and fermentation gas from #1 gas post to #2 liquid post, but you're also running gas alone from #1 gas post to #2 gas post? Are you moving the line after you ferment? You can't have two lines on #1 gas at the same time, so I'm trying to figure this out.

I pressure-ferment in Torpedos, but I don't save the CO2. I guess I could save it.

I put the wort for a 5-gallon batch in a 6-gallon Torpedo with Fermcap to prevent krauzen from coming out through the spunding valve, which goes on the gas post. So far it has worked, even with wheat. I use a Youtube trick for dry-hopping. I put hops in a bag along with a sous vide magnet, and I put another magnet on top of the fermenter lid. When I'm ready for the hops to go into the beer, I pull the outer magnet off, and the bag falls into the fermenter.

I push the beer into a 5-gallon serving Corny with CO2 from a tank, using two liquid disconnects, a hose, and the liquid posts on both tanks. I use floating dip tubes on both, and so far, I haven't had any hop clogs. Of course, it's all beer gas for stouts, and I use a 5-gallon Torpedo for beer gas brews because it has to fit on the hump next to the beer gas tank.

I try to remember to purge the tubes when moving fermented beer.

Before moving the beer to the fermenting keg, which starts out full of Star San solution, I use CO2 to pump the Star San out, and I do my best to get all the Star San out of the lid and so on. The Star San moves to the next keg I plan to use for serving, and I use pH strips to check it.

This has worked fine for me. Maybe people will say I waste a lot of CO2.

Not quite. I would hook up the gas to #1 gas post when I am ready to move the beer from keg 1 to keg 2. In the fermentation phase I would simply have a jumper from keg 1 to keg 2 to catch any of the blow off but still keep it under pressure by putting the spunding valve on keg 2, sorry I think I may have omitted that. So, in theory, line from #1 gas to #2 gas for blowoff. Spunding valve on #2 to keep the pressure up on both kegs until dry hop. Then, gas to #1 gas line, jumper line from #1 liguid to #2 liquid and probably a line out of #2 gas for venting while filling, or I can just open the PRV I guess on #2. Confusing I guess, but in my head it works.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I use a spunding valve on the serving keg while filling.