Kegging..

[Rowang]

Hi Guys,

I have just finished and kegged my first brew, into a cheapy youngs style keg, with a co2 cylinder fitted lid.

There is a bit too much air space.. what should i do? I was thinking about just gently letting the air out after a few days? Is there anything better to do? perhaps with my CO2 cylinder?

Cheers!

[Chard]

what i do to purge all the air out is to fill the keg with beer, fasten the lid then give it a little blast with the S30 cylinder. then wait 5-10 mins. as the CO2 is heavier than air it will sink to the bottom pushing the air to the top. after youve waited either pinch the rubber PRV to let out the air or unscrew the lid. once all thats out you can either repeat the process to make damn sure its all CO2 in the keg or you can just let it do its secondary ferment. ive also heard of people filling the empty keg with CO2 before syphoning in the beer just to make sure. i did this with my corny but i dont think ill bother with my king keg.

[Rowang]

Cheers Chard, Thats great!

Do i need to worry about it having been exposed to the air for these last couple of days? i suppose its just the same as when in the primary fermentor..?

[Chard]

yeh thats fine. the yeast break down the priming sugars and convert them into CO2. this rises off of the beer broviding a 'blanket' of CO2 ontop of the beer. the only problem would be if you syphoned the beer into the keg from a height (thusgetting bad O2 in) or if you syphoned the beer into the keg then shook the keg about! moving it would have been fine.

the purging method isnt necessary but i like to do it as a safety precaution. in theory the CO2 produced naturally would displace the air.