Vacuum transfer

[Brew Cat]

Has anyone used a shop vac to transfer beer? I watched a BYO video of it being done. Pretty clever and low tech

 

[Craigerrr]

Could you post a link to that video?
I use Co2 to move beer, sanitizer and cleaning solution around, curious how that would work

 

[Brew Cat]

I'll try
The way he did it was pulling yeast from the bottom of his fermenter but I'm sure it can scale up. Put a racking cane in your fermenter with the tube attached to your liquid post then another tube from your gas post the other end a large stopper that goes to the hose of the vac. Turn the vacuum on cause a vacuum in the keg to draw the beer over.

 

[Bigbre04]

so MOST gear(homebrew or pro) is not Vacuum rated. Hoses CAN be vacuum rated, mine randomly are, but the majority are not. Tanks are VERY VERY weak to vacuum...think about how you can suck a plastic bottle and crush it with your lungs but there is no world where you could pop it with your lungs.

I would say Pressure transfers are far safer then vacuum. Either way you have to be making up the volume with CO2. but if you can do that why not just use gravity and pressure combo?

 

[Craigerrr]

so MOST gear(homebrew or pro) is not Vacuum rated. Hoses CAN be vacuum rated, mine randomly are, but the majority are not. Tanks are VERY VERY weak to vacuum...think about how you can suck a plastic bottle and crush it with your lungs but there is no world where you could pop it with your lungs.

I would say Pressure transfers are far safer then vacuum. Either way you have to be making up the volume with CO2. but if you can do that why not just use gravity and pressure combo?

A very, very good point @Bigbre04 , much like pressurizing containers that are not rated for pressure can cause damage and or harm

 

[Bigbre04]

A very, very good point @Bigbre04 , much like pressurizing containers that are not rated for pressure can cause damage and or harm

Exactly. I wouldnt want to put much pressure on a glass carboy, but i would probably allow 1 or 2psi and a gravity transfer. generally speaking if you are just using a rubber bung or something that does not mechanically screw on that would be your safety valve for over pressuring a carboy imo atleast.

SS tanks that are not pressure rated, i would do the same with by just using a rubber bung in a port or something like just shoving a vinyl hose into a ball valve. as long as the failure point is far lower then the vessel can actually handle you should be safe. Hell even a balloon ziptied on would offer enough safety i would think.

i would use a ball valve to regulate the flow rate of the liquid compared to the CO2 in order to keep the balloon inflated but not stretched.

 

[Craigerrr]

I am one of those fools that use to do pressure transfers from glass carboys. They didn't scare me then... my carboy incident wasn't related to doing a pressure transfer, but I look back now and realize how foolish that was.

 

[Brew Cat]

A keg can handle pressure. Purge the keg and pull it over it's not a sealed carboy your just sucking the liquid over.
I didn't say anything about a stopper in the carboy just stick the wand in. Sure it's not completely oxygen less transfer but may be a way to move star San in and out of a keg without wasting CO2

 

[Brew Cat]

This is just a mental exercise

 

[Bigbre04]

A keg can handle pressure. Purge the keg and pull it over it's not a sealed carboy your just sucking the liquid over.
I didn't say anything about a stopper in the carboy just stick the wand in. Sure it's not completely oxygen less transfer but may be a way to move star San in and out of a keg without wasting CO2

kegs are very tough.

moving sani and shit is a different thing then beer. o2 is not a big deal unless you are gonna put finished beer in the keg. if you are treating like a finishing tank or brite tank, pushing the liquid out with CO2 and then purging the tank is industry standard.

totally get the mental exercise portion. was just recommending caution with vacuum/pressure.

 

[Bigbre04]

You can actually pump beer from tank to tank, but the tanks both need to be sealed and need to have an open hose between them to balance the pressure between them while preventing O2 from coming in. Not as common as just pressure transferring but it would def be faster, but there is a def risk factor involved. a pump can pull plenty of vacuum to crush a big tank. i have seen 1000 bbl tanks that had been imploded from temp or pressure differences. thats a bad day.

 

[Minbari]

You can actually pump beer from tank to tank, but the tanks both need to be sealed and need to have an open hose between them to balance the pressure between them while preventing O2 from coming in. Not as common as just pressure transferring but it would def be faster, but there is a def risk factor involved. a pump can pull plenty of vacuum to crush a big tank. i have seen 1000 bbl tanks that had been imploded from temp or pressure differences. thats a bad day.

Look up rail car implosion. You pump out your product with out opening the vent and that tanker has a bad day. Those are allot sturdier than beer tanks