Ball lock keg strictly for lagering

[slarkin712]

I'm going to pick up a few ball lock kegs to use for lagering/secondary fermentation. I do not have a full kegging setup, and in fact cannot serve from a keg right now. But I do have a CO2 tank and regulator, and have access to kegging parts from a local source. I want to know what I would need for the kegs to use them strictly for lagering. I will rack into them once fermentation has completed and then lager them in a fridge until ready and then bottle. I want to use the kegs because they take up less space. So if I get a used ball lock keg, what parts would I need to set it up for lagering?

 

[movet22]

I am currently lagering a Pils in a corny, and my setup is simple: take off the gas-in QD with a keg wrench, place 1/2'' tubing with a hose clamp and run that tubing into a wine bottle filled with a water/star san solution that is duct-taped to the side of my keg. Boom! super simple lagering.

I will post a pic later.

 

[cupido76]

movet22:

Why do you need to remove the gas-in line? Isn't the liquid level below that anyway?

Also, are you serving from that same keg or racking to another (maybe pushed with CO2)?

I was thinking you could just use a spare gas-line ball-lock fitting with some hose into starsan... I.e. no modification of the keg itself. You don't get any more krausen on top of the beer, do you? If not and there's no beer in the gas line, it would be easiest to just remove the blow-off tube, attach your gas-in line and start carbing, no?

 

[KegWrangler]

I have 2 kegs I use for this. I cut about 1/2" off the bottom of the "beverage out tube" and about the same from the "gas in" tube. That way the space between the gas tube and the beverage tube is still 5 gallons. The sediment gets left behind in the keg when I rack to a clean keg for serving.

As far as equipment goes you just need a keg. The is no krausen in the secondary that I've ever seen. If there is a little extra fermentation in there the keg can handle the pressure, and if it gets too high it will blow-off from the release valve in the lid before doing any damage to the keg. When you're done lagering just rack to your bottling bucket and bottle as normal.

 

[slarkin712]

As far as equipment goes you just need a keg. The is no krausen in the secondary that I've ever seen. If there is a little extra fermentation in there the keg can handle the pressure, and if it gets too high it will blow-off from the release valve in the lid before doing any damage to the keg. When you're done lagering just rack to your bottling bucket and bottle as normal.

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. Since fermentation will have been completed, very little buildup of pressure should occur in the keg. I will not be serving from the keg, just long term storage in the fridge for lagering. When it's ready I'll rack from the keg to a bottling bucket. I don't keg and know very little about it, so that may be why my questions don't make sense.

I have 2 kegs I use for this. I cut about 1/2" off the bottom of the "beverage out tube" and about the same from the "gas in" tube. That way the space between the gas tube and the beverage tube is still 5 gallons. The sediment gets left behind in the keg when I rack to a clean keg for serving.

I don't quite get this. Are you cutting the dip tube? Could you explain this a little more?

 

[E-Mursed]

Don't cut your liquid out tube!!!

Since you are just lagering, use can use a auto-siphon to pull the beer out after lagering to your bottling bucket. If you cut your tube, you will need to replace it later, and the shortening does very little to reduce sediment pick up, especially when you go full time kegging.

You can also just add co2 to the keg after transfer, and bleed off oxygen from the head space with a few pulls of the pressure release valve. Do this a few times and you should have all the oxygen purged.

I have been doing closed system pressurized fermentation for a while now and it is a simple and clean process. What you are wanting to do is just a few elements of the process.

 

[SpeedYellow]

^^^ Listen to E-Mursed. You don't need ANYTHING beyond the keg if you're just using it for lagering. But do you realize you're like $10 away from a full keg system? You have everything you need except a couple feet of gas line, a grey gas quick disconnect, a black liquid quick disconnect, a few feet of hose, and a picnic tap.

Given that, I don't know why you'd want to bottle. After my lagers finish primary, I rack to the keg, lager it there for several weeks, then serve from there.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Oh and regarding the dip tube, don't bother cutting it, just bend it a little bit so it's not at the very bottom. After bending it, you'll end up leaving behind say 10-15 oz which is about perfect. Any less and you'll be pulling up a lot of yeast; any more and you're wasting beer.

Of course, you could always just use a siphon wand instead of the Liquid Out post.

 

[KegWrangler]

I don't quite get this. Are you cutting the dip tube? Could you explain this a little more?[/QUOTE]

OK, I take the dip tube out of the keg. The top has a flare to hold it in place so leave that end alone. With a hack saw I cut 1/2" off the bottom of the tube. Then when I put it back together there is about 12oz of dead space at the bottom of the keg which leave most the sediment in the keg when I rack from one keg to another.

If you will be using a racking can you can leave the keg intact for now.

On mine I used the dip tube as the racking cane so the 1/2" gap achieves the same effect as that widget on the bottom of a "normal" racking cane.

If you get a set of "beverage" )black) and "gas" (gray) ball locks and attach some beverage hose to the black one when you are ready to rack just attach it the the port on top of the keg and the beer will start coming out (assuming there is a little residual pressure in the keg). If the beer doesn't start flowing give the keg a little CO2 from the "gas in" connection via your regulator and tank (2psi is usually enough).

 

[KegWrangler]

Oh and regarding the dip tube, don't bother cutting it, just bend it a little bit so it's not at the very bottom. After bending it, you'll end up leaving behind say 10-15 oz which is about perfect. Any less and you'll be pulling up a lot of yeast; any more and you're wasting beer.

Of course, you could always just use a siphon wand instead of the Liquid Out post.

Yeah, bending works too.

I cut mine so that when I take them apart for annual deep-cleaning they end up at the same point when I put them back together. I have 2 kegs (of 9) that I only use for secondary so it's no big deal to me that I've made these permanent mods.

 

[movet22]

movet22:

Why do you need to remove the gas-in line? Isn't the liquid level below that anyway?

Also, are you serving from that same keg or racking to another (maybe pushed with CO2)?

I was thinking you could just use a spare gas-line ball-lock fitting with some hose into starsan... I.e. no modification of the keg itself. You don't get any more krausen on top of the beer, do you? If not and there's no beer in the gas line, it would be easiest to just remove the blow-off tube, attach your gas-in line and start carbing, no?

I remove the gas in post because I do not have a spare QD for blowoff (I misspoke and may have cause confusion, my bad).

This is my first time doing this, but I plan on transferring to a clean keg before serving. And my Krausen has been minimal-to-none because of fermcap (nifty little buggers)

I was going to auto siphon into the next keg, but the question I have is, since I didn't bend the dip tube, can I put the gas post back on and use some PSI to move the beer.

My thought is that I would transfer with a picnic tap and a long racking cane (a al the we don't need no stinking beer gun setup). That way I could catch the yeast/trub in a separate container first, then transfer to the bottom of the clean keg. I am assuming a small amount of beer loss, but otherwise I imagine this would work fine, no? Am I missing something major? (That is entirely possible )