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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon May 17, 2010 2:06 pm 
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Travisty wrote:
thatguy314 wrote:
I do tend to get a little bit of starsan sucked in, which I'd much rather than oxygen.


O2 could still get into the carboy by this method. If CO2 can get out by positive pressure inside the carboy, than O2 can get in when that pressure differential is reversed. It kind of a reversed bubbler then. If you were able to keep adding starsan to the airlock before the level of the outside column of starsan was sucked down below the holes in the middle piece of the airlock, then you might be able to avoid getting oxygen in the carboy.

I wonder just how much O2 gets pulled into a carboy during the chilling time. I know that quite a bit of liquid can be pulled up into a blowoff hose during that time, but I wonder if the amount of O2 in an equivalent volume of air is enough to really cause any problems. In one of the last session episodes, Chad talked about how he purges his hoses with CO2 prior to transfering beer due to the volume of air that he thinks can cause oxidation problems. If that bit of air would cause problems, then certainly the volume pulled into a carboy druing cooling could too, right? I realize that during transfering the beer is being agitated while the beer in the carboy isn't; and there's alos a blanket of CO2 over the beer in the carboy so maybe the comparison isn't valid.


Sure, but it'll take less pressure to suck the starsan in than the O2, unless the starsan falls below the level of the cap, so I'm still in inclined to believe that this is a good enough method.

You could always flush it out with CO2 and put a cork on, but as the pressure goes down it's going to create a vacuum and suck air in when you remove the cork

Either way, any time you take the cork off your carboy you're going to introduce a little bit of oxygen. I guess it's just up to you to choose the time and place to do so. Doing it my way, I've never had comments about oxidized beers, even months after I bottled it. I'm inclined to believe that if there is introduction of oxygen, it's fairly minimal.

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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:02 am 
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I've been dealing with this issue for awhile now. First in carboys and now with my conical. I think I have come up with a solution that works but might be a bit of a pain. I'm going to try and attach my CO2 to a bung on the top of the conical and set it to oh I don't know say 2 psi and leave it connected as I chill. Any vacuum created should be filled with C02 and solve both problems of sucking in blow off or airlock solution and preventing 02 from entering either.
Anyone have any reasons this shouldn't work?
My biggest fear is maintaining a good seal so that the CO2 tank isn't gone the next morning.

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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:40 pm 
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I used to have this issue. I switching to using the s-shaped airlock like brewinhard mentioned and it does not such any starsan into the carboy.


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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:30 pm 
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Yes, S bend are less prone to sucking liquid in... also keep it below the max fill line.

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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 2:47 pm 
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Unfortunately with my current set up this is not an option as I have approximately 1.5" from the top of the conical to the top of the fridge that it ferments in. Unless I rig up an extension hose and mount the airlock on the side of the conical. May have to give that a shot. Thanks guys

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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 2:56 pm 
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I've thought before about running a blow off out to a 'neutral' balloon/bag (one that isn't going to give plastic aromas), capturing CO2 from ferment, then using this as a source of CO2 when cooling to keep it from taking back in O2, since a it cools, it will just pull CO2 back in from the bag...

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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 3:44 pm 
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I always crash in the carboy. Leaves a cleaner beer in the keg. Never had an infection from doin this. The risk of infection would seem great from transfering to keg and then to another keg plus more steps involved. I just put cheap vodka in my airlocks in case it does get into the carboy. But a small amount of star san will not hurt ur beer. As far as ur stopper popping out i use a carboy cap and i think they work better


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 Post subject: Re: Cold Crash in the Carboy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:34 pm 
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If you stick your blow off tube just barely under the liquid in the blow-off jar as opposed to down to the bottom of the jar filled with starsan, you will run out of liquid before it ever gets to into the carboy ... there will be an "burp" of air releiving the vacuum, liquid will fall back into the blow-off jar, and you will still maintain a closed system (minus the burp of air). Same thing would apply with an airlock by just filling the airlock with as little liquid as necessary to maintain the liquid barrier (not enough liquid to suck up to airlock tube).

Doesn't fix the O2 concerns, but does fix the air-lock/blow-off solution getting into your beer problem.

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