Saving CO2 in your Homebrewery

Here's a two-part video of Dan showing you some tips on how to use less CO2 in your homebrewery from fermentation to kegging!
Utilising the CO2 from your fermentation is a great way to save on using fossil derived CO2. Using a pressure vessel like the Fermzilla you can let the yeast carbonate your beer during fermentation, and at the same time purging your kegs (you could also purge kegs without a pressure vessel) with the by-product which is CO2.
The filling of the kegs is done under pressure using gravity instead of using forced CO2 transfer.
In this video you will see that the only forced (bottled) CO2 needed in the whole process was at the crash cooling stage.
Let us know in the comments below if you have any other ideas or do something similar. Happy CO2 saving!
𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲!
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[@AM2PMReviews]

And then you can fill little plastic soda bottles for mini tanks for dispensing on the go.

[@OutDoorsMan1342]

Great video gave me heaps to think about cheers

[@leagueofbrewers]

Cheers!

[@andrewbayley1689]

Theoretically you could bleed the pressure out of the keg with the valve on the keg, to not require the CO2 tank

[@sanbe729]

another great perk of pressure fermenting

[@leagueofbrewers]

Sure is! 👍🏻

[@brewing8094]

Good video, great way to save C02, a small stainless steel weight in the filter on the end of the floating dip tube helps with transferring.

[@leagueofbrewers]

That’s a great tip there. Cheers 😊

[@gregmcdoon2917]

Hey Dan. I popped in to the shop and spoke to you about this (at length...) 4 weeks ago. Great idea. I've since brewed a NEIPA with this method with no oxidation or use of CO2. I haven't got a Fermzilla, so used an idea from a previous video of yours about fixing a gas connect through the lid of my plastic fermenter and following pretty much the same fermenting set up to purge the kegs and then using the closed loop as explained here for closed transfer. Works really well with very little set up or cost. Cheers!

[@leagueofbrewers]

That’s a great result mate, glad it’s working well! thanks for sharing 👍🏻

[@beeroquoisnation]

Prior to letting the CO2 into the kegs put them in a freezer. Let the CO2 escape in the beginning. Just enough to purge the kegs. Then close them and let them build pressure. When frozen the gas is more dense. When removed from the freezer the gas will expand and actually increase pressure within the kegs and you will have harvested some CO2.

[@MrBoisen11]

I use the exact same method for the transfer, but I am kegging into 8 litre Oxebars. I regularly brew under pressure. I was interested to know how much the pressure dropped when crash cooling the brew, so I did a little experiment by not putting the brew under external CO2 pressure during the cooling process. I am using a 50/60 litre Fermzilla. (50 litres beer, about 10 litres head space.) And the results: 24.7 PSI @ 23.2*C = 12.6 PSI @ 1.8*C. So, basically no CO2 needed during the crash cool. Only a little to purge the Oxebars. That too could be eliminated if I purchased a heap of PCO38 Tapping Heads, ball lock disconnects and tube…

[@leagueofbrewers]

Hey Kent, this will awesome information mate. Thanks for your feedback. I think we might have some tapping heads in stock 😊

[@HogTown06]

Thanks for the video, very helpful! I was wondering if you could have the spunding valve connected direct to the fermzilla and then the outlet of the spunding valve then connected to the serving keg? This would ensure that the pressure would be constant in the fermenter and the serving keg would be purged slowly, do you think it's doable? And would it be possible to purge Starsan out of the keg?

[@aidancurran7046]

I've done this type of transfer a number of times with good success but last night I had a bit of a nightmare transfer. There were bubbles coming through in the line. It would flow slowly for awhile but then stop. I had to transfer some pressure in another keg (cause my co2 is tied to the fridge out in the garage) a couple of times to get it going again - took over 2 hours and I gave up on the last couple of litres. Not sure why it was so problematic this time, only thing I can think of is it must have been the way the floating intake was sitting. The floating intakes can be a bit temperamental and it's not easy to move them if they are in a bad position. The float was attached to the middle point on the filter, I might try it in a different position next time.

[@dhagenaar1276]

Hey Aidan, sounds line your hose might be too long? You want it as short as possible just so the ball touches the bottom of the fermenter. Also see comment here where a brewer is using a weight to help keep the filter well under the beer. Should work a treat! 🍻

[@aidancurran7046]

@@dhagenaar1276 Possibly could be shortened a tad. I did one more transfer since then (my Marchfest brew) and that went fine. I did add a small weight inside the filter which may have helped.

[@erikbesselman-pv9jl]

Hi Dan, when you crash cool, what pressure do you set your regulator to?

[@dhagenaar1276]

Sorry mate, only just saw this message. Crash cool at the same pressure as you already in the fermenter is a good rule of thumb 👍🏽 hope this helps.

[@twodogswalking840]

Hope the Commies don't get to hear about the 400 litres of CO2.