Low Oxygen Brewing - Sanitizer Purging method - Help

[Augusto Sotero]

Hi guys. I was reading a post from low oxygen brewing (http://www.********************/bre...erring-stabilizing-finished-beer/#comment-212) and got really confused about their purging method and would like some help from you guys. I could be just my english but any help is much appreciated!

The post says:
Process:

1. Completely fill keg with water.
2. Add a low foaming sanitizer.
3. Attach the gas-in post to the faucet. Open up the PRV. Turn on the water to push any oxygen left in the headspace out through the PRV.
4. Connect the gas-in post to the CO2 tank and the liquid-out to a bucket or in the drain.
5. Turn on the CO2 gas to 10 psi and push all the sanitizer out.
6. Make sure to remove the gas-in and liquid- out posts with pressure still in the keg. (Didn't get this. It is not dangerous the remove the post with pressure in the keg? And buy removing it wouldn't I be allowing air to get inside the keg again and making everything pointless?)
7. When keg has been completely drained of sanitizer there will be a small amount of sanitizer remaining. Invert the keg, making sure that the gas-out (shouldn't it be gas in or liquid out? what is gas out? the PRV?) is the lowest point in the keg. You may have to trim the gas dip tube as short as possible so it is not protruding into the keg at all. This will force out the remaining sanitizer (how to you actually force it? apply pressure?). (tip:If you keep a slight pressure in the keg what you can do is as you connect your hoses and your lines to the fermenter you can depress (what does he mean by depress the posts? didn't get this) the gas-in post and the liquid-out post for a little bit and purge the lines of any oxygen in the lines then connect them to your fermenter).

Thanks guys! I jus found the whole text confusing... If someone could just explain me in another way... I don't have any problems understanding anything in english generally.

Cheers!

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Whoa, wait...
Where did you get step 6? You do not do that.
ONe technique you can do is to remove the gas in poppet if you are doing primary fermentation in the keg, but for that, you don't need to purge the keg. You may be getting those two separate processes mixed up.

Purging a keg is for when primary is almost done and you are spunding (sending the nearly finished beer into a keg to finish in a sealed container and naturally carbonate itself). Steps 1-5 look correct, but step 6 has no place in the process and is completely wrong. Eliminate step 6 altogether.

 

[Rodent]

my application of this is such:

6) close the PRV. disconnect the line from the gas out post and then disconnect the line from the gas in post, being sure to leave a couple pounds of CO2 pressure remaining in the keg

7) invert the keg and allow time for the sanitizer to collect in the lid. flip the PRV open so the remaining sanitizer is blown out. close the PRV before the CO2 pressure is completely gone. Next, with the keg still inverted, use the line connector tip to slightly depress the poppits on the gas in and fluid out posts, blowing out any remaining fluid that might still be in there.

my workflow is possible because my keg lids have a PRV that allows for manual opening to release of keg pressure. I assume the original workflow was written to accommodate a keg style where the PRV was not able to be manually opened

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Ah, I see what you are saying. THAT makes sense. Sounds like the OP took that step and thought you meant actually removing the POST, not disconnecting the QD FROM the post.

OP: What he said is how you get rid of the remaining sanitizer. You will need to do something like that if you cut your dip tubes to prevent sucking up sediment.
But keep in mind that a little sanitizer won't hurt your beer. It's food grade and has no taste in low concentrations.

 

[Augusto Sotero]

my application of this is such:

6) close the PRV. disconnect the line from the gas out post and then disconnect the line from the gas in post, being sure to leave a couple pounds of CO2 pressure remaining in the keg

7) invert the keg and allow time for the sanitizer to collect in the lid. flip the PRV open so the remaining sanitizer is blown out. close the PRV before the CO2 pressure is completely gone. Next, with the keg still inverted, use the line connector tip to slightly depress the poppits on the gas in and fluid out posts, blowing out any remaining fluid that might still be in there.

my workflow is possible because my keg lids have a PRV that allows for manual opening to release of keg pressure. I assume the original workflow was written to accommodate a keg style where the PRV was not able to be manually opened

Thank you very much @Rodent! That was exactly what I was looking for, instructions like those. My keg is like yours and makes more sense...

I have done that yesterday and went out pretty good. Today I am going to transfer the beer to the purged and sanitized keg. For the transfer how do you do? I am thinking about just open the PRV until all the pressure is gone and then siphon my beer with CO2 from my bottling bucket (I have a carbonator cap on the lid and can apply some pressure to do that). Is that how you guys do?

 

[Augusto Sotero]

Ah, I see what you are saying. THAT makes sense. Sounds like the OP took that step and thought you meant actually removing the POST, not disconnecting the QD FROM the post.

OP: What he said is how you get rid of the remaining sanitizer. You will need to do something like that if you cut your dip tubes to prevent sucking up sediment.
But keep in mind that a little sanitizer won't hurt your beer. It's food grade and has no taste in low concentrations.

Thanks for the reply. That step 6 I just got from the website I post, from the guys from ********************. I found it really confusing, I first thought that it would make more sense to just disconnecting the QD but they wrote like that so...

I also am thinking is to little sanitizer left in the keg, don't think it will hurt my beer or anything

 

[mongoose33]

I'm going to repeat my method for purging kegs here.

I start by filling a keg with Star-San. I then crack the lid, add a line with CO2 to the OUT post, and start pushing short shots of CO2 in there. Yeah, you need a BLACK QD on the line to do this. This creates bubbles. BTW, don't give it one long blast unless you want Star-San all over everywhere. Don't ask how I know.

In doing this, I'm creating bubbles at the top of the keg, and enough that eventually they will fill the headspace, the area under the keg lid, and all the surrounding area. What do those bubbles contain? Why, CO2 of course.



I then push that Star-San out of the keg into another clean keg (rotating kegs as I go forward), using a jumper and CO2 on the normal IN post. At that point, I have about as good a purged keg as I can get.

I don't worry about short dip tubes or anything else. The next time I need a purged keg, I push the star-san out of this one, and of course the only thing in it is CO2, plus a tiny bit of residual star-san.

******

How to get rid of that little bit of residual Star San? I take that keg over to the sink and attach a QD to the OUT post, a QD that has a 20-inch section of tubing attached. As soon as I attach it, of course, the CO2 starts blowing out through the tubing. I rock the keg so the escaping Co2 takes the star-san with it out the tube, such that by the time the keg is depressurized, no star-san is left. Just CO2.

In my Torpedo kegs, the dip tube is in a depression at the outside of the keg, so I just tilt the keg toward that post, the star-san gathers there, then up the dip tube it goes. With soda kegs, the depression into which the dip tube extends is in the center so I let the keg sit flat.

In either case, a little rocking of the keg and that star-san is gone.

 

[oakbarn]

I just purge the Keg with CO2 after pouring out the sanitizer. I think filling with a soultion like SaniClean (not Startsan) is overkill. Co2 is more heavy than air, so it will push out the air. I do use a Black Out to push the air out using the Beer Out side to introduce the CO2 in the bottom of the Keg. If you use the 1/4 MPT Ball Locks, they are eay to change on your CO2 setup. Norcal has a Low Oxygen Wand System with a great video on how to do it.