Primary to Keg? Kegging Noob needs advice!

[Brew Engineer]

There's a very helpful thread stickied to the top of the kegging forum that has a ton of links on cleaning and using a keg system from a newbie's perspective. Check it out!

Bugeater provided most of the best links there!

[noremorse1]

I've been listening to a lot of Jamil's steaming audio shows and... yeast needs times to reabsorb fermentation by-products, finish out, etc.

This.

2 acetyl groups = diacetyl

The butter aroma found in fermentation products, cheese, etc. The yeast produce alpha-acetolactate early in fermentation through valine synthesis, which is rapidly decarboxylated into diacetyl. As fermentation slows near the end of the process, the yeast re-absorbs it and reduces it (via a redox reaction) to 2,3-butanediol, which is not very flavor active. If you shut down the fermentation early (by cooling it down) in an effort to get the beer out into the market faster, the yeast hasn't had the time to reduce the diacetyl, therefore you get buttery beer. At low levels this can be good, as it acts as a flavor modifier, but once it gets to recognition thresholds, it's a problem.

[Brandt]

Thanks Bugeater...I just read another post of yours about "bright tank" rather then secondary. Do you rack your beer to a "bright tank" before kegging? Or do you "Crash cool" it? It seems like you need to do something to make sure all the yeast Flocculates out. Or do you just rack it to the keg and pour a pint or two of trub before getting clear beer?

I usually wait a couple of weeks after terminal gravity, then auto-siphon in to a keg. This is the keg I will drink from and I will let it lager around 36-40 (refrigerator temp) for a couple of weeks before I really start drinking it. I have always wondered why so many people get sediment in the first pint though. I get crystal clear beer right up until the last glass which has all the gunk in it, thats how I know the keg is about to blow. I have not cut my dip tubes.

[Mylo]

So when you "cold crash" a carboy, you just put it right in the chest freezer for a few days, just so yeast and other stuff precipitates out of suspension, right?

One thing to keep in mind whenever you cool your beer is that the pressure inside the carboy will drop. If you keep your airlock on there, the water from your airlock will get sucked into your beer. I take a sanitized piece of aluminum foil and cover the top of the carboy, instead.


Mylo