One of the things I really focus on is keeping my fermented beer from ever touching air till I pour it into a glass which then goes into my belly! I started by being very methodical when bottling but the self priming siphon I used to transfer beer also bothered me since clearly that was exposing my beer to oxygen. So, I rigged up a carboy cap with a flared connector so that I could hook my CO2 tank to it and got a stainless steel racking cane so I could purge the whole system with CO2 and then push the beer using C02 as well. Note: you really don’t want the hose clamp at the base of the carboy cap since it could be a safety issue if the fermenter gets over pressurized.
My process:
1) Make sure all the parts are clean and sanitized
2) Put the racking cane into the carboy cap
3) Put the carboy cap on fermenter
4) Hook the CO2 tank to carboy cap
5) Connect the hose to the racking cane and put down into clean purged keg. Make sure your hose is long enough to reach the bottom of the keg
6) Set the racking cane so it is about an inch above the beer and turn on the CO2 to about 3 psi. this will push CO2 through the racking cane and hose down into the bottom of the keg thereby purging the fermenter headspace, racking cane, hose and keg in one fell swoop. nice!
7) turn off the gas and push racking can down to about an inch from the yeast cake
8) turn on the gas to 3 psi
9) when keg is 90% full cut the gas and when it is 99% full pull up the lip of the carboy cap up to drop the pressure in the fermenter so the beer stops pushing or use a hose clamp (i’ve had mixed results with the hose clamp but you can see one in the first picture midway down the hose).
Partlist:
Carboy Cap (model depends on type of carboy you are using)
Stainless Steel Racking Cane
1/2″ PVC tubing
1/4″ Barb to 1/4″ Male Flare (I actually use a 1/4″ barb to 1/4″ Female Flare and a 1/4″ Male Flare to 1/4″ Male Flare Adapter since I had the parts laying around)
2 x Small Hose Clamps
Here are some pictures:
My process:
1) Make sure all the parts are clean and sanitized
2) Put the racking cane into the carboy cap
3) Put the carboy cap on fermenter
4) Hook the CO2 tank to carboy cap
5) Connect the hose to the racking cane and put down into clean purged keg. Make sure your hose is long enough to reach the bottom of the keg
6) Set the racking cane so it is about an inch above the beer and turn on the CO2 to about 3 psi. this will push CO2 through the racking cane and hose down into the bottom of the keg thereby purging the fermenter headspace, racking cane, hose and keg in one fell swoop. nice!
7) turn off the gas and push racking can down to about an inch from the yeast cake
8) turn on the gas to 3 psi
9) when keg is 90% full cut the gas and when it is 99% full pull up the lip of the carboy cap up to drop the pressure in the fermenter so the beer stops pushing or use a hose clamp (i’ve had mixed results with the hose clamp but you can see one in the first picture midway down the hose).
Partlist:
Carboy Cap (model depends on type of carboy you are using)
Stainless Steel Racking Cane
1/2″ PVC tubing
1/4″ Barb to 1/4″ Male Flare (I actually use a 1/4″ barb to 1/4″ Female Flare and a 1/4″ Male Flare to 1/4″ Male Flare Adapter since I had the parts laying around)
2 x Small Hose Clamps
Here are some pictures:
