German Brewing

That's right.

Note that i don't use them for primary. For primary I would use one with a shortened spear to avoid having to push out the yeast before transfer.

Since I only use them for secondary, the fact that the yeast.does come out works to my advantage to avoid the dangers of autolysis.

I may change my mind, but for the time being that's what I'm experimenting with.

The ideal lager vessel would be one which is horizontal (easier on the yeast) and with a dump valve to discard old yeast.

When you look into the Lagerraum at many German breweries, that's what you will find.

After witnessing Star San being used for acid washing Sacc, I am convinced that it's only useful at killing bacteria. I purge all kegs with boiling water now, filled to the rim with flush cut gas tubes and full length liquid tubes. Heat is the simple solution for pasteurizing and eliminating O2.

Totally agree about not trusting starsan that's why I use the kettle and take my purging solution above 85c. Would really love to be able to purge with steam like AJ DeLagne outlined on another forum but it's just not possible at the moment.

What was his method?


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He has a boiler that heats his house with a culinary steam filter attached so he can blast out his kegs with authority.

How did he justify the expense to his Mrs?

I got the impression the boiler was part of his house heating system and the only additional piece was the steam filter. No idea what those cost but I imagine having a source of steam in the home brewery would be handy for many things. I'm jealous.

[quote="Weizenberg"]I am using 20l kegs with A-Type spears.

When going into secondary it is not necessary to purge the vessel since the remaining fermentables and active yeast act as sufficient anti-oxidant.
/quote]

Do you mean that you can do an "open loop" into secondary? In my mind cold beer picks up oxygen very fast (very fast), and when the beer is cold the yeast is not that active, so my take on this is that the yeast can not consume the o2 fast enough.

If your point is correct then it should not be an issue with regular bottle-filling with added extract for carbonation, since the yeast would scavenge the o2 from the headspace?

I never do closed loop transfers.

If you want to know definitely, then try 2 methods several times and compare the results. Measuring is also a good idea.

It may save you a raft of unnecessary work (PS: I don't use mash caps either)