When are my kegs full? Auto shut off worth it?

[jim_CdY]

I'm new to kegging my beer so please don't flame me for a stupid question

I kegged a nice ale today using a closed pressure system transfer between my Grandfather (GF) conical fermenter and my keg. The transfer went along perfectly until the keg was almost full. I had been venting the gas in the headspace but I had no way of knowing how full the keg was.

I 'assume' that the beer will eventually spit from the pressure relief valve but there has to be a better way. I did find this today https://www.kegland.com.au/duotight-flow-stopper.html. I don't mind making the purchase but is there something better?

 

[Robert65]

I'm new to kegging my beer so please don't flame me for a stupid question

I kegged a nice ale today using a closed pressure system transfer between my Grandfather (GF) conical fermenter and my keg. The transfer went along perfectly until the keg was almost full. I had been venting the gas in the headspace but I had no way of knowing how full the keg was.

I 'assume' that the beer will eventually spit from the pressure relief valve but there has to be a better way. I did find this today https://www.kegland.com.au/duotight-flow-stopper.html. I don't mind making the purchase but is there something better?

I've looked at that and it looks like a good solution. But what I do is, I put a picnic tap on a gray QD on the gas post of the receiving keg. I use that to vent the pressure, and stop the flow when beer starts to come out the gas post. Then I just dispense a pint or so in the usual way from the liquid side to create the desired head space. Drink the pint of flat beer.

 

[Yooper]

Not a stupid question at all!
An easy way would be to put the empty keg on the scale, and stop when you got to 40 pounds +/- if you want to transfer about 5 gallons.

 

[day_trippr]

^that's^ what I do, mostly because I need an accurate starting volume measurement to feed to my tap list, but also to avoid putting more than 5 gallons in the keg (which would bring the level up into the keg shoulder thus narrowing the surface area which in turn slows carbonation)...

Cheers!

 

[DVCNick]

I have volume graduation marks on the fermenter and transfer exactly 5 gallons using them as the reference.