Transfer from Coopers FV to Keg

[Frankie4Fingers]

Hi all

 

I am looking at purchasing a second FV so I can endeavour to have two brews running concurrently.  My first FV is an original fermentasaurus with a pressure kit which makes for a simple transfer to keg.

The FV with the Coopers kit looks like it would do the job and isn't overly expensive but how do you transfer from that unit to a keg?  Is it as simple as say using a piece of silicon hose from the unit and into the bottom of the keg or is there a skunkworks type adaptor that people use to hook a liquid disconnect onto?

The other option is a different fermenter entirely but I am keen not to spend a great deal on this hence the appeal of the Coopers bucket.  What do others on the forum use, especially those that keg.

Cheers

[Shamus O'Sean]

I have done the silicon hose using a 4cm length of bottling wand, straight into the keg.

Now I have a real skunkworks connector.

4cm bit of bottling wand; larger diameter silicon tube; narrower diameter silicone tube; carbonation cap.  I use a liquid to liquid jumper to get the beer into the beer out post.  Gradually push out the CO2 filled keg via gravity with a gas disconnect on the gas post.  This takes a long time to get 19L into a keg though.

[iBooz2]

Before filling my kegs, the beer has been cold crashed to 2 C for about 1 week.

I just use a 4 or 5 mm ID beer line (8 mm OD) pushed into a Duotight connector which screws onto a beer out ball lock connector.   The other beer line end pushes up into the coopers supplied bottle wand tube perfectly when the blue bit is removed, which in turn is pushed up into the Coopers FV tap.  Will take a pic tomorrow and post here for you.

Remove the lid from a sanitized keg and sit it loosely on top, connect the CO2 line to the keg gas in post, open gas bottle and give it a big squirt of gas.  You are not going to get all the air out anyways so don't stress too much.

Open the Coopers FV tap and the keg will slowly fill via the beer out dip tube at bottom of the keg, no frothing will occur.  Take about 30 minutes to fill the keg.  When full, close Coopers tap. disconnect beer line, re-sanitize the lid of the keg and re-seal.

Gas up to 40 psi and burp about 4 times then leave on gas at 40 PSI for 18 hours then disconnect it until pressure in keg drops to about 10 -12 psi ( takes 24 hours to drop back to normal serving type pressures) then reconnect gas at serving pressure and leave that way for about 1 week before testing a beer and carbonation levels.

Don't worry too much about oxidization as you will drink all the beer in the keg before it even gets close.

Cheers - AL

Edited July 20, 2020 by iBooz2

[Frankie4Fingers]

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I have done the silicon hose using a 4cm length of bottling wand, straight into the keg.

Now I have a real skunkworks connector.

4cm bit of bottling wand; larger diameter silicon tube; narrower diameter silicone tube; carbonation cap.  I use a liquid to liquid jumper to get the beer into the beer out post.  Gradually push out the CO2 filled keg via gravity with a gas disconnect on the gas post.  This takes a long time to get 19L into a keg though.

 

10 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

Before filling my kegs, the beer has been cold crashed to 2 C for about 1 week.

I just use a 4 or 5 mm ID beer line (8 mm OD) pushed into a Duotight connector which screws onto a beer out ball lock connector.   The other beer line end pushes up into the coopers supplied bottle wand tube perfectly when the blue bit is removed, which in turn is pushed up into the Coopers FV tap.  Will take a pic tomorrow and post here for you.

Remove the lid from a sanitized keg and sit it loosely on top, connect the CO2 line to the keg gas in post, open gas bottle and give it a big squirt of gas.  You are not going to get all the air out anyways so don't stress too much.

Open the Coopers FV tap and the keg will slowly fill via the beer out dip tube at bottom of the keg, no frothing will occur.  Take about 30 minutes to fill the keg.  When full, close Coopers tap. disconnect beer line, re-sanitize the lid of the keg and re-seal.

Gas up to 40 psi and burp about 4 times then leave on gas at 40 PSI for 18 hours then disconnect it until pressure in keg drops to about 10 -12 psi ( takes 24 hours to drop back to normal serving type pressures) then reconnect gas at serving pressure and leave that way for about 1 week before testing a beer and carbonation levels.

Don't worry too much about oxidization as you will drink all the beer in the keg before it even gets close.

Cheers - AL

Thanks @Shamus O'Sean and @iBooz2 for the replies.

I had hoped there would be an option and that someone in the ever creative home brew world would have solutions.  Both seem like good options.  I already have a stainless steel carb cap although that could possibly be less ideal on a plastic tap.  The idea of an already purged keg with a gas disconnect on is a good one if oxidisation is a real concern although it looks like that may not occur in the short term.  Out of curiosity @iBooz2, what would you say is the length of time that oxidisation would begin to be noticeable?

If you could provide a picture @iBooz2 that would be great. as its always worthwhile seeing multiple options.

Another option I suppose (assuming a further spare keg was on hand), would be to have that sanitised with a gas jumper attached and then the keg receiving the liquid connected to it.  I presume this would then transfer the CO2 into the spare keg ready for the next time.........or maybe I overthinking that?

[Shamus O'Sean]

22 hours ago, Frankie4Fingers said:

Another option I suppose (assuming a further spare keg was on hand), would be to have that sanitised with a gas jumper attached and then the keg receiving the liquid connected to it.  I presume this would then transfer the CO2 into the spare keg ready for the next time.........or maybe I overthinking that?

I think that the best you could hope for with the above approach is a 50:50 mix of CO2 and air in the second keg.  I use CO2 to push 19L of water out of my kegs to get them mostly full of CO2.  I do this in pairs, so at least the water is reused a few times.  Then I push 2L of starsan into each keg.  Shake it around then transfer it into the next keg, etc, etc. 

I have been impressed by those that connect their fermenter to an empty keg to push the free CO2 produced during fermentation into the empty keg.

I will have to investigate @iBooz2's approach because it sounds simpler than what I do.

[Pale Man]

Why couldn't you just use a long enough length of hose into the bottom of the keg and at the top just attached to a piece of bottling tube?

[ben 10]

2 hours ago, Pale Man said:

Why couldn't you just use a long enough length of hose into the bottom of the keg and at the top just attached to a piece of bottling tube?

I do that.

Hose onto tap into keg.

[Frankie4Fingers]

6 hours ago, Pale Man said:

Why couldn't you just use a long enough length of hose into the bottom of the keg and at the top just attached to a piece of bottling tube?

Can't see why that wouldn't work.  I was interested to see what people did in trying to keg whilst minimising exposure to oxygen.  Based on the info from Ibooz2 it looks like oxidisation isn't a massive concern, although not sure exactly what time frame the beer would need to be stored for it to become an issue.

[Bribie G]

I bought two of the new style Coopers FVs which came in barebones kits (no drops or tin or bottles etc) with hydrometer, bottling wand etc. so I ended up with a spare bottling wand. I just removed the blue bottling valve and stuck the wand into a length of pvc tube that gets perc treated then Starsan at every use. Of course the wand fits snugly into the tap.

Works fine, as described by Pale Man.

In my oxygen Nazi days I would fill a keg with dilute phosphoric acid solution and just "serve" that through kegerator tap into 3 litre jugs and tip it out. This would leave me with a keg of pure CO2. You can daisy chain a number of kegs and only need to fill No. 1.

Then open the lid a crack enough to allow tube to reach bottom of keg and start the transfer. Little, or insignificant, oxidation as any air that got into the would be pushed back out, along with the CO2,  by the rising level. Then after closing the lid, a good flush.

Of course this used twice as much CO2 but not expensive in the scheme of things. However I haven't done this for a year or so, I just transfer then a good flush and at the speed I get through a keg everything is fine.

[iBooz2]

This is what I use in this situation, simply the Coopers supplied bottle filler tube with the blue end removed and some 5 mm ID beer line pushed inside one end.  The other end of the beer line is pushed into a Duotight connector and is screwed onto a beer out connector.  Simply couple that to your keg beer post.  The idea being to minimize any cavitation and foaming by having the same ID size all the way from the tap down to the bottom of the keg.  I prefer this way as nothing going down inside my sanitised kegs, after all the dip tube is going down to the bottom of the keg anyway so why not use it. 

My kegs are usually consumed within the month so I have no fear of oxidization nor noticed any.  If you were to keg and store say a stout or a lager for the longer time frames involved then you may need to be a bit more pedantic.

Cheers - AL

Edited July 24, 2020 by iBooz2

[Pale Man]

Im not kegging just yet but I thought any fear of oxidisation can be taken care of by giving a burst of gas straight after you've kegged, say around 30psi. Burp the keg and another burst, and maybe a third time. Then gas as normal. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Pale Man

[Hairy]

My routine is simple:

• give the keg a burst of CO2. This creates a layer of CO2 in the keg
• run a hose from the FV into the keg
• fill
• put lid on
• connect to gas and burp the keg a few times
• drink beer

 

[Pale Man]

5 minutes ago, Hairy said:

My routine is simple:

• give the keg a burst of CO2. This creates a layer of CO2 in the keg
• run a hose from the FV into the keg
• fill
• put lid on
• connect to gas and burp the keg a few times
• drink beer

 

That's all is needed to know. Sometimes brewers can overthink things. I mean what fancy stuff do you need to get beer into a keg. As long as it's not splashing.

[Frankie4Fingers]

22 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

This is what I use in this situation, simply the Coopers supplied bottle filler tube with the blue end removed and some 5 mm ID beer line pushed inside one end.  The other end of the beer line is pushed into a Duotight connector and is screwed onto a beer out connector.  Simply couple that to your keg beer post.  The idea being to minimize any cavitation and foaming by having the same ID size all the way from the tap down to the bottom of the keg.  I prefer this way as nothing going down inside my sanitised kegs, after all the dip tube is going down to the bottom of the keg anyway so why not use it. 

My kegs are usually consumed within the month so I have no fear of oxidization nor noticed any.  If you were to keg and store say a stout or a lager for the longer time frames involved then you may need to be a bit more pedantic.

Cheers - AL

Presumably you could sanitise the keg, purge with CO2, attach your liquid disconnect, open the tap and then open the pressure relief valve on the keg and then fill that way.

Same way in reality as you do today but without having the lid off.  Would that work and have the potential that oxygen isn't an issue?

I try to have 2-3 kegs filled and ready in my spare fridge whilst having 3 in the kegerator.  Based on that it may take a month or two before one of the kegs gets put into the kegerator for drinking.....hence wondering about the timeline that oxygen becomes a concern.

[Boozadog]

On 7/20/2020 at 4:38 PM, Frankie4Fingers said:

Hi all

 

I am looking at purchasing a second FV so I can endeavour to have two brews running concurrently.  My first FV is an original fermentasaurus with a pressure kit which makes for a simple transfer to keg.

The FV with the Coopers kit looks like it would do the job and isn't overly expensive but how do you transfer from that unit to a keg?  Is it as simple as say using a piece of silicon hose from the unit and into the bottom of the keg or is there a skunkworks type adaptor that people use to hook a liquid disconnect onto?

The other option is a different fermenter entirely but I am keen not to spend a great deal on this hence the appeal of the Coopers bucket.  What do others on the forum use, especially those that keg.

Cheers

I cut the bottle wand from the DIY kit 5mm beer line fits inside it perfectly around 60cm of line the smaller end goes on the fv tap larger one hangs inside keg works a treat for me.

[Bribie G]

21 hours ago, Boozadog said:

I cut the bottle wand from the DIY kit 5mm beer line fits inside it perfectly around 60cm of line the smaller end goes on the fv tap larger one hangs inside keg works a treat for me.

Never thought of cutting like that, I'll do it.

Having the large end stuck in the tap makes it a bit awkward to put the thing in the keg, plus having the large end in the keg ensures that the hose doesn't thrash around and splash / foam.

[Boozadog]

On 7/27/2020 at 1:15 PM, Bribie G said:

Never thought of cutting like that, I'll do it.

Having the large end stuck in the tap makes it a bit awkward to put the thing in the keg, plus having the large end in the keg ensures that the hose doesn't thrash around and splash / foam.

Yes and it is a very slow transfer.

Fv is obviously above the keg so I just let gravity do it's thing

 So No real splash/ foam at all

There's CO2 into the keg as others have suggested But normally this is from having sanitizer in the keg and run it through my beer line (cleaning) the excess froth rises up as it's filling.

Yes I have to open the keg to fill and some oxygen may get in then but I seal and CO2 purge it a few times straight away.

Rest and chill I'm no expert but this way is working fine as a easy filling method for me.