Keg to Keg Transfers

[BlackDuck]

I'm bringing two kegs to a graduation party this weekend at my brothers place, about a 2.5 hour drive. I decided to transfer the beer into a second keg so all the sediment wouldn't mix back into the beer during the transport. I researched how to do this and found many different opinions/ways on how to get it done. I'm not saying how I did it is the best, it's just how I did it. Here's a step by step of how I accomplished this.

I'll first assume that your receiving keg has been cleaned, sanitized and flushed with C02. And make sure your receiving keg has been chilled to the same temp as the originating keg, this will lessen the amount of foaming.

1. Shut off the gas on the originating keg at the shutoff valve on the regulator and bleed pressure from the originating keg. I left the pressure setting at my normal serving pressure of 12 psi.
2. Hook up a transfer line from the "liquid out" on the originating keg to the "liquid out" on the receiving keg. You'll need a short beer line with a liquid disconnect on both ends, mine is 5 feet long.
3. Open the pressure release valve on the receiving keg and twist to lock it open.
4. Slowly open the shutoff valve on the regulator to begin pushing the beer from the originating keg to the receiving keg. I only opened my valve about a 1/4 of the way. Although I didn't time how long it took, it was quite a few minutes to complete the transfer. Maybe in the 5 to 10 minute range. A slow transfer is what your looking for, no need to rush this. It will reduce foaming.
5. Watch the beer line closely as the originating keg is nearing empty. As soon as it starts to gurgle like every blown keg does, quickly remove the liquid disconnect on the transfer line from the receiving keg to end the transfer. This will keep just about all of the sediment from being transferred.
6. Close the pressure release valve on the receiving keg, hook up to the gas and flush with C02.
7. Your done...proceed to cleaning the originating keg as normal.

A couple of observations from my transfers:
Make sure that you put the receiving keg in a bucket or pot in case it foams through the pressure release valve. Makes clean up a lot easier. On my first transfer, I forgot to bleed the pressure from my originating keg so I got a bit of foam that came through the release valve because it was transferring too quickly and under too much pressure. Luckily the keg was in a bucket to catch all the foam running down the keg. I figure any carbonation that I lost here, will be taken care of this week while it sits in the fridge hooked up to the c02 tank. I made sure to release the pressure on the second keg and I had no foam come through the release valve.

It's quite an easy task really. If you really think about it, it's not much different than bottling from keg, your just putting the beer into a really big bottle. The only additional piece of equipment you need is the transfer line with the liquid disconnects on both ends.

Hope this helps anyone wondering how to do this.

[Beer-lord]

Great step by step. This should be a sticky!
Thanks for sharing.

[BlackDuck]

This should be a sticky!

Aren't you a mod?

[Beer-lord]

Yes, but a lazy one. However, I 'stickied' it. If you want to remove our comments and lock it, you have this mods permission to do so.

[Inkleg]

You two are weird. Can I join the club? Not the moderator club (as my first act would kick myself off the forum ) the weird club.

Great step by step write up.
I've done this before when taking my 2.5 gallons kegs to a family gathering. As I was not transferring a full 5 gallons I went by weight. Knowing that 1 gallon of water is around 8.3 pounds I put my kegs on a scale. Beer is slightly heavier than water and when I reached 16.5 pounds I stopped. It's a great way to transfer clean beer for transportation for others to enjoy.

I'm not able to chill my receiving kegs before transfer. One advantage to this is I've noticed is that you can actually see the condensation line move up the room temperature keg from the cold beer coming in from the donor keg giving you an idea of how full it is.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Great step by step for sure. Believe it or not there is a formula to tell how much each certain beer weighs per gallon, I did search it on the internet and it has to do with Specific Gravity. Original keg kind of acts as a secondary and receiving keg becomes a bright tank.