Beer Forum

After listening to the show a couple weeks ago Chad mentioned cold crashing while still in the carboy before transferring to the keg. I usually transfer and crash in the keg, but I gave this a try on the last two batches. As the gas in the headspace and blowoff tube cools it contracts and creates a vacuum and starts to suck the starsan up the blowoff tube toward the carboy. I caught it the first time about half way through cooling but it still sucked a little starsan into the beer. This time I am taking it down 10F at a time (70 to 40) and I am able to empty the blowoff tube back into the container with the starsan in it at each step and keep it from being drawn into carboy. The little bit of air that is let in each time I do this is still lighter than the CO2 blanket in the carboy and does not get to the beer, I would think.

I've never been able to figure out the trick of drying off the carboy rubber stopper after soaking it in starsan - it always seems to work it way out of the glass neck, so lately I've just kept a 1 1/2" blow off tube for the entire 7-10 days before moving things over to a corney keg. Is there a snap clip that would help the rubber plug stay in place?

bcmaui wrote:I've never been able to figure out the trick of drying off the carboy rubber stopper after soaking it in starsan - it always seems to work it way out of the glass neck, so lately I've just kept a 1 1/2" blow off tube for the entire 7-10 days before moving things over to a corney keg. Is there a snap clip that would help the rubber plug stay in place?

also be sure to put the stopper in first... then insert your airlock. this usually does the trick for me.

whiteManCanHop wrote: be sure to put the stopper in first... then insert your airlock. this usually does the trick for me.

Now that is a simple solution. I'm pretty sure I have had the airlock in first most of the time.

Use an s-shaped airlock filled very minimally with starsan/vodka. If your stopper keeps popping up when it is wet simply tape it down to the glass. The best tape to use is the blue painter tape as it is easier to remove from glass without leaving residue.

I use a carboy cap. Also whne I crash cool, I take the airlock out and put a piece of santised foil over the port the airlock came from.
Just my $ 0.02 worth.
Cheers.
Fritz

Fritz Eye wrote:I use a carboy cap. Also whne I crash cool, I take the airlock out and put a piece of santised foil over the port the airlock came from.
Just my $ 0.02 worth.
Cheers.
Fritz

Couldn't that lead to oxidation if the beer is finished fermenting? I know there still remains a layer of CO2 over the beer (and CO2 is heavier than oxygen) but couldn't that CO2 layer eventually reach equilibrium with the oxygen above?

I may be super crazy about it, but I just cant make myself crash cool a carboy. You have to be pulling bacteria and at least 02 into your carboy, right? I always keg first then crash.

Not at all if you do it in the method I described above...