Moving Sunday - 3 Beers in primary - What would you do?

[buckeye2011]

To make a long story short: Poor brew planning and an earlier than anticipated move date has left me with 3 batches of beer in primary that I need to move across town.

The first batch is a milk stout brewed 3 weeks ago that is taking forever to finish. OG 1.068 Anticipated FG 1.020 Currently at 1.029 but its still dropping little by little according to the hydro. I doubt its done for at least another week.

The second batch is a Christmas ale that has been in primary for 8 days. OG 1.081, anticipated FG 1.020. I pitched a massive starter of White Labs 013 London Ale and it took off like mad. Still seeing a little airlock activity every 30 seconds so I have not measured gravity but I imagine its probably getting close to FG. I still need to add some spices to this one during secondary, but it can condition for 2 months once I get it moved.

The third is a batch of BM's Centennial Blonde which is done and cold crashing. I'll keg it tomorrow. This one should be fine to move.

My thoughts on the first two are to keg them Sunday morning (leaving as much yeast cake behind as possible), purge the oxygen thoroughly and seal them at 30 psi for the move. My understanding is that if I transport them in a sealed and oxygen free keg, there won't be any issue other than some shook up beer. Will 30 psi for a short period of time kill the yeast in solution? Should I try and seal them up with less? I will take them over in my car to minimize them getting shook up.

My real question is what to do when I get to the new place? Both beers should be close to FG so I'd like to leave them in the keg to continue conditioning for a few more weeks (basically as a secondary fermentor). I know there will be some pressure built up due to rousting the yeast during transport as well as the additional fermentation that will occur. Should I vent these things every day or so, or just let it ferment under pressure? If I seal at 30 PSI some of this will slowly get absorbed into solution so the pressure on the yeast should be pretty low I would think.

Obviously, the blonde ale can go right into the kegerator to begin carbing.

At least on the plus side I have a brew room at the new place to store all my stuff.

Any advise would be helpful in saving my beer.

 

[ksbrain]

I wold just move them in the fermenter (except the one you're ready to keg). I did that a few years ago and it was fine. This was a mile distance between the old place and the new, but it sound like that's not to far off from what you're facing.

 

[bwomp313]

I moved recently and am moving again soon. What I did last time and what I'm going to do again; leave them and primary and take them with you. Just be as gentle as possible with them.

 

[iaefebs]

Sounds to me like you know exactly what to do. I hope you like the new place.

 

[petey_c]

Move the beer first (priorities!). Provided you're not going off-roading to your new digs, you should be okay just moving them how they are. But then again, I'm still new to this game...

 

[buckeye2011]

Thanks for the help guys. I think I'm going to go ahead and keg them. I'm worried that if I leave them in the carboys they'll get oxidized with all the sloshing around or they'll spill all over the back seat of my car. I'm not sure which is worse. I've got extra kegs so I think I'll build a jumper and just transfer from these kegs to a new one after they've had a month to settle down and finish.

 

[Revvy]

If you can keg them, that IS the best bet. It's an enclosed, air tight container that you will flood with co2, that will prevent oxidation. Kegging or bottling are the only truly safe way of doing it without risk of oxydation.

A fermenter with an airlock is NOT an airtight environment, no matter what folks think. As the beer is sloshing around you could just as easily get 02 being sucked in through the airlock. You could solid bung it and flush the headspace with co2, but if you have kegs and so2 that's the best option.

 

[buckeye2011]

If you can keg them, that IS the best bet. It's an enclosed, air tight container that you will flood with co2, that will prevent oxidation. Kegging or bottling are the only truly safe way of doing it without risk of oxydation.

A fermenter with an airlock is NOT an airtight environment, no matter what folks think. As the beer is sloshing around you could just as easily get 02 being sucked in through the airlock. You could solid bung it and flush the headspace with co2, but if you have kegs and so2 that's the best option.

Thanks Revvy. Do you think it's fine to leave them under pressure until they finish? Any chance this will kill off the remaining yeast? I've got to crack open the Christmas ale to add some ginger and cinnamon in a few weeks but I'll seal it back up and age it til December. The milk stout I'd like ready as soon as possible since I've been trying to finished off most of my bottles to avoid moving them.

 

[Revvy]

Thanks Revvy. Do you think it's fine to leave them under pressure until they finish? Any chance this will kill off the remaining yeast? I've got to crack open the Christmas ale to add some ginger and cinnamon in a few weeks but I'll seal it back up and age it til December. The milk stout I'd like ready as soon as possible since I've been trying to finished off most of my bottles to avoid moving them.

I don;t know, but I think there' s thread that's floated to the top over the last couple days about fermenting in a keg under pressure. CHeck that one out.