Time to fill kegs

[Swags]

Just starting to fill our first kegs and I seem to be losing too much CO2 during transfer. I am using 1/2 inch tubing to Sankey couplers that have shutoff valves on the in and out. So far I have been letting Pressure off the BBT down to 5psi just for transfer to try and avoid foaming in the kegs.

How slow should I go? Any tips?
Thanks for any advice.

[soia1138]

Why are you bleeding down the pressure in your bbt? Are you pressurizing the kegs? If not that is your issue. You should be counter pressure filling the kegs. Simply if your bbt is at say 12 psig, then your kegs should be pressurized to the same. Filling would be accomplished by slowly venting the keg while maintaining the pressure in the bbt with CO2. There are probably multiple threads on the topic throughout this forum.

[ColdFusion]

You don't mention how much you are losing. What carb level are you starting with and where do you end up in the keg? What temp do you have your BBT at?

We don't lose much transferring at 13 psi into kegs pre-pressurised to about 10psi as long as we keep some counter pressure for the first bit of the fill. The last 2/3 seems to be much less of an issue and we fill almost as fast as it will go through 1/2" hose. We haven't weighed the kegs to monitor fills but we still likely over-fill kegs doing it this way based on BBT volume; almost no foaming. Of course, our BBT is usually between 29 and 30F.

In any case, you are likely getting break out because you have turbulent flow and not enough pressure to keep the gas in solution. Fill at higher pressure, slowly, and cold to limit foaming.

[dantose]

Just starting to fill our first kegs and I seem to be losing too much CO2 during transfer. I am using 1/2 inch tubing to Sankey couplers that have shutoff valves on the in and out. So far I have been letting Pressure off the BBT down to 5psi just for transfer to try and avoid foaming in the kegs.

How slow should I go? Any tips?
Thanks for any advice.

As has been said, pressurize your kegs to even with the tank, don't vent your bright. My bright has a vinyl tube connected top and bottom with gas posts. My keg fill assembly has a gas post for adding pressure. What I do is use the sight glass to pressurize the keg with CO2 and then open the beer valve on the bottom to let it start gravity filling allowing the keg co2 to just vent right back up the sight glass to the tank. On a 4 BBL system, the first 4 kegs will fill completely on their own with no minding while I run around doing other stuff (generally keg washing on fill days). For the next 4, I start off doing the same thing, then once the fluid level equalizes, I pop off the sight glass and vent as usual to top them off.

The transfer is a bit slower, but since I can ignore them for the bulk of that time, it allows mw to get much more done over the course of the day.

[Swags]

Thanks

Thanks for all the replies. I was pressurizing the kegs, maybe too little pressure, and venting them too soon in the transfer. Found it helps to keep the gas outlet valved closed for about 30 seconds until some of the beer has entered the kegs.

Thanks to all for replies. I invite all Probrewers to have a free beer or two at Honky Tonk Brewing Co. In Nashville.

Scott

[CharlosCarlies]

All the above is good advice, but I'll add not to forget about hydrostatic pressure when trying to find an equilibrium pressure. We often keg straight out of our 40 BBL unis and, especially at the beginning of the kegging run, the tank pressure might be 8-10 psi while our kegs are pressurized to 12-13 and we'll still get flow.

For the most part this isn't a huge concern since most of us don't have extraordinarily large tanks, but especially with some of our highly carbed beers we've noticed that keeping the two pressures as close as possible and filling very slowly is the best way to prevent excessive foaming. Just something else to think about!

[krenshaw]

my setup is a bit awkward, but does show higher pressures are better.. my brite is on our first floor while i keg in the basement, with a hose connecting the two.. i have to set the brite to like 18 psi or so, then go downstairs to fill.. after each keg i'll have to go back upstairs to add to the pressure (since after 1 keg it drops down to like 10 or so), and after each other keg as well.. its only 4bbl so it doesn't take too much extra effort.. when i clean our kegs i put them to 10 psi so they start to easily fill right away.. i'll vent off the gas very slowly, especially until when i think the spear is covered, then i can open it up a bit more..