Ss BrewTech UniTank Filtering and Kegging

[@jayspies9860]

Hey, better late than never, but I have several tips for you. 25 year homebrewer turned pro brewer here. As one poster said below, you will need to purge **all** of the O2 from your filter and keg before you transfer. Especially for hoppy beers, you'll get oxidation and staling effects within a few days that can and will ruin your great batch of beer. Tip 1: If you're going to use a canister filter, I'd suggest completely assembling it and hooking it up to your fermenter's blowoff line during the second half of fermentation (after high kraeusen), and let the CO2 from the ferm flow through it. This will naturally displace all the O2 over the course of a few days, and doesn't waste any of your bottled CO2. You can also completely fill the filter with sanitizer and push it out with CO2. If you do this, don't use an iodine-based sanitizer. I use peracetic acid, but that's usually only available on the pro level. Tip 2: When sanitizing your keg, *completely* fill the keg with sanitizer (StarSan is fine here), and push it out with CO2. This will eliminate any trace of O2 in your keg. If you already do this, good on ya. Tip 3: Once everything is hooked up and you're ready to transfer, pressurize your filter, receiving keg, and lines to the exact same pressure as your fermenter. Open all the lines, and then begin bleeding off pressure slowly from the receiving keg. Blasting beer through the lines and filter will only break all of your CO2 out of solution that you worked so hard to put in, and will make your receiving keg a foamy mess. You want to take at least 10-15 mins to fill a keg if you're filtering. Slow and quiet is the key here. Tip 4: Have a dump keg handy. When you first begin the transfer, hook your liquid out line to a pressurized dump keg until the beer runs clear, then switch it over to your receiving keg. You'll waste a pint or so, but this ensures that you're only pushing liquid, and not any O2. Tip 5: Before doing Tip 4, position your racking arm at about 4 o'clock, and as you're slowly pushing beer into the dump keg, rotate the arm up toward 3 o'clock until you see the flow clear a bit. This will make your filter do less work. Use a teflon filter on the racking arm valve if you don't already. These will make rotation of the valve possible while tightened. Silicone or EPDM gaskets can't rotate once tightened. Tip 6: For your fementer, make sure you crash cool, then harvest or dump yeast from the cone, *then* carb. Carbing before you've cleared the cone will only stir up a lot of sediment that you then have to deal with. Tip 7: (Last one). Get a carbonation chart (they're all over the internet), and set your regulator based on your crash temp before you carbonate. 18 PSI and 36 degrees will give you 3.28 volumes of CO2 in your finished beer, which is extremely high. I aim for about 2.4 volumes for most beers, especially dark ones like you have there. At 36 degrees you want to be at about 10 psi. Once it's in, CO2 is hard to get out without a lot of time and effort. Anyway, I hope this helps. Cheers, Jay

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Thanks for an “Brewers” outlook on the whole process. Really enjoyed everything about that. Anything to help the process. I have abetter understanding of the carbonating process! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Cheers!

[@StonkeyKong]

These are some awesome tips.

[@sellerscasey1]

Fantastic video sir! You just earned yourself a subscriber. I’ve been contemplating buying this very unitank, and I believe this video just persuaded me.

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Marge Beer me that’s awesome! I love mine. Ever since I got it I’ve had no problems with fermentation. Definitely recommend it! I believe they have some deals going on for cyber Monday! 🍻

[@precariousbyte]

When I'm doing closed pressure transfers to a keg, I'll actually purge the keg with CO2 and allow it to escape through the dip tube, ball lock fitting, and TC flange on the conical side to reduce the risk of oxygen exposure. Also I would grab a spare ball lock gas fitting and let the keg vent to atmosphere during the transfer rather than burping it using the PRV on the lid. The difference in pressure between the two vessels is what moves the beer, so if your conical is at 18 PSI, trying to rack into a vessel that is also at 18 PSI, ain't nothing gonna move! 18PSI and atmospheric pressure? It's gonna haul ass. I usually transfer at 8PSI and it takes about 5 minutes. Oh and added bonus of venting the gas post to atmosphere? Clear telltale that the keg is full. Just be sure to disassemble and clean it well when the keg kicks. Filtering looks super effective! I've got a heavily dry hopped IPA burning a hole in my beersmith recipes so I'll have to invest in one of those housings before that brew day. Cheers!

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

precariousbyte the knowledge and experience you just dropped is awesome! Thanks for the comment and hopefully others will see this and make adjustments to their own systems! Cheers and good luck dry hopping! 🍻

[@satmuts]

is it possible to use multiple filters at the same time let's say 3 filters before it gets to the kegs ? the first filter should be 5 micron goes to > the second filter 1 micron goes to > the last filter 0.5 micron that goes to > the keg

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

I think it would work. Just might need to really pressurize the tank before hand to get the beer through all the way. Also might need to purge the lines with C02 to not have that make oxygen enter the system. Might be too much filtering. Depends on what you are trying to achieve. 🍻

[@shnapp1]

Just stumbled upon this video. Great job and it may push me to get this unitank. Question, the filter doesn’t cause the co2 to come out of suspension and foam like crazy?

[@DMCSerenity]

Can you go into more details about the Unitank pressure setting and the co2 tank setting and the the keg pressure setting? From what I understand the keg needs to be pressurized as well to help prevent foaming. So say the Unitank is set at 15psi is your co2 tank set at the same psi or what psi do you set it to, to push the beer? What’s should be the difference psi setting between the Unitank and keg? I’m not seeing very much clear information on this out there. Also did you ferment under pressure and at what point do you close everything off to start pressure fermentation with the yeast co2?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

I understand what you mean. Even on the SS BrewTech website and forums finding the exact answer is difficult. I burst carbonate with my C02 PSI gauge to around 30 to get to about 20 PSI. So my target at the UniTank is to reach 20 PSI. After about 24 hours my UniTank pressure meter may be +/- 1 of the goal of 20. In order to "push" through the filter I leave the c02 meter at a 20 PSI setting. As you saw in the video it has enough force to get through. If you do it and find that it's not pushing through don't adjust the c02. "Burp" the keg! Ss Brewtech just recently started selling a spunding valve which is ideal for natural fermentation. That is the best way to do it. After checking your "FG," you know fermentation is complete, that's when you can begin. If you can you can purge C02 through the filter and keg to reduce Oxygen. Just need to figure out a method with your equipment. Hope that helps! Cheers!

[@thesehecticthoughts6554]

Dude that’s awesome!!! I have to try a batch

[@98pharaoh]

Nice vid, thanks. How do you know when the keg is full? I assume you want to leave some heads pace and not fill it right up?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

98pharaoh I do not weigh the kegs before and while filling. I usually have luck with the condensation in the air. The beer is around 40 degrees while I transfer. I will get condensation on the outside of the keg. I can follow that as I fill with beer. I always seem to just have enough beer for two kegs! Hasn’t failed me yet.

[@deancollins3111]

Great video. I see that you force carb your beer. I have the same tank and I do a slow carb to get it to about 15PSI and then let it sit for about 7 - 14 days or longer. However, I transfer to bottles with a Blichmann beer gun. I am finding that even though the beer is great, some people like to have a good carb head on the beer when poured and I have not achieved that yet. Any recommendations?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Dean Collins I bottle from the keg like you do with the blichmann beer gun as well. It’s hard to get the right balance of having the keg charged to push the beer and bottling to have it get that foamy head. I’ve learned to be messy with the beer gun. It hurts to waste some homebrew. I find that if I fill it to where there is room at the top of the neck allow overflow while I cap I get a great pour a week to a month later. Great beer is worth sharing! Hope that makes sense.

[@deancollins3111]

@@albumspizzeriabrewery I fill to the top like they advise and give a blast of CO2 to fill the top, sometimes forgetting to pull the wand and then you do have a mess. Thanks for the feedback - greatly appreciated.

[@slipknot73745]

Was going to ask a similar question: Could I fill cans directly post filter? I have a unitank and plan to force carb, filter, can.

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

@@slipknot73745 if you are happy from the results from the UniTank then yes. I’ve never configured my beer gun to the unitank. I believe it will work. You may still need to have the co2 tanks attached to push it through plus maybe a second tank?

[@adroc9841]

How do you have the FTSs temp controller mounted on your unitank?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Adam W when I purchased the UniTank it was bundled together. It is a welded triclamp fitting. They do have something similar on the Ssbrewtech website in accessories. I believe the new one is put between the thermowell fitting and the UniTank.

[@adroc9841]

@@albumspizzeriabrewery Interesting, that must be a new item they are including. Ill have to pick one up. Thanks!

[@Holdmuhbeer]

Gelatin finings would be cheaper, easier and you would run less risk of oxygenating your beer. Plus, you spent all that money on the fancy unitank, you should be able to crash your beer out to be pretty clear on it's own lol.

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

HOLD MUH BEER very true. I’ve had great success with Gelatin. My unitank is in a garage in Arizona. This helps so I’m not cold crashing and running my glycol chiller longer then I need to with this system. But yes it’s fancy! Haha.

[@Holdmuhbeer]

@@albumspizzeriabrewery my unitanks are also in my garage in Arizona haha

[@armyguy209]

What is the rating of that filter? 1 micron, 5 micron, etc? And absolute or nominal? Last time I tried that setup with carbonated beer, it just foamed up in the filter/lines and ended up with foamy beer in the keg.

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

armyguy209 it is a 1 micron filter. As far as the nominal and absolute guidelines for the filter I purchased I am not aware of. It does well at getting out heavy materials saturated through the beer. I just use enough pressure to push it through. My beer ends up a little foamy. By the time I’m done and cleaned everything the beer is ready to pour. Good luck! 🍻

[@Holdmuhbeer]

By the looks of this video, he had 100% foam leaving the filter to his keg lol.

[@firecoclothing]

I like the setup! Do you lose a lot of carbonation through the filter though?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Kingman Mais you definitely loose co2 pressure through the process. The co2 helps “push” the beer through the filter. The beer itself is stable and will be fine once set up on a keg system.

[@firecoclothing]

Albums- Home Brewery & Pizzeria I was thinking about setting up a hop rocket (I think that’s what it’s called) using that same filter and method... only difference being filling all the space along the sides of the filter with hops. Any experience doing something similar?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

What are you trying to accomplish by using the hop rocket and filtering at the same time? What’s your end goal/idea?

[@firecoclothing]

Albums- Home Brewery & Pizzeria to get a massive amount of hop flavor in my ipas as its being transferred into the keg. Some people say to just use a hop bag and throw it directly into the keg but I’m not a big fan of that idea...

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Kingman Mais that makes sense. With homebrewing it’s always a gamble. Once you have wort putting it through the hop rocket unto the fermenter is a good method. Then filter afterwards. The scenario you mentioned is worth trying. However, I would be worry about the oxygen from fermented beer, hop rocket, filter, then keg.

[@kennygraley824]

Do You sanitize the filter and hoses? If so how do you do that? Cheers

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

The hoses are on a keg fitting. I unscrew the ball lock and soak with StarSan. The filter housing I submerge in StarSan. Let it dry. Then I spray once I put onto the keg and the UniTank. The actual paper filter I do not.

[@kennygraley824]

Albums- Home Brewery & Pizzeria Thanks for the quick reply!!!! Very interesting.... not to sanitize the filter.... I may give this a go?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Kenny Graley it comes sealed and wrapped. I personally don’t know how to dry a filter after sanitizing and how effective it will be. I just haven’t done it. So far no off flavor or contamination.

[@bombbrew4119]

Question for you, I didn't see anyone ask it below. Is the filter able to be used multiple times, or is it a one shot deal? Awesome setup, love the idea! Amazing to see the side by side of filtered and unfiltered! Thanks for the video!

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

After all the yeast, hops, and trub I always throw it away. At that micron level even a rinse will not clean it. Also, after taking it out it expands. They are relatively cheap so I just use one and dispose of it. Thank you! 🍻

[@bombbrew4119]

@@albumspizzeriabrewery Yeah after thinking about it probably not a good idea to keep haha! Thanks!

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

@@bombbrew4119 thanks for asking! Might be able to dry it out and start a campfire with it! Might smoke up the place!

[@bombbrew4119]

@@albumspizzeriabrewery hahah me just trying to be cheap with an expensive hobby! Thanks again! One day I will have a sweet setup like you!

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

@@bombbrew4119 Thanks! I totally went DIY with my brewery. I fabricated the kettles myself. Super easy to do with the right tools. I live in Arizona and it got to hot to do propane so I went electric. The fermenter is the most important piece of the brewery. Paid a pretty penny for that. Made the glycol chiller myself. Got a used upright freezer on craigslist for my kegerator. I don't have an RV, ATVs, JetSkis, or anything like that. Just an awesome pizza oven and a sweet garage brewery!

[@andresa.ramosrojas7375]

Nice way to oxidize your beer!!!

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

Andrés A. Ramos Rojas never had any issue. No cardboard or paper taste when I’ve done it. Also, if you are concerned, you can purge everything with c02 before hand. 🍻

[@andresa.ramosrojas7375]

Albums- Home Brewery & Pizzeria dont get me wrong, Im not a troll. The keg its almost not an issue, but the filtration system you use really adds oxygen. Im pretty sure that you know that CO2 and air when are together are not like water and oil. You get a mixed gas and, for that reason, you need time to get all the air out (and the 21% that matters too). That oxygen will diminish your shelf life (if you bottle your beer). Oxidation is quite an issue, pretty complex to eliminate. Cheers from Lima, Perú!!!

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

I have bottled my beer from the keg for immediate consumption. Never sat on beer that long. I do 10 gallon batches with it usually lasting a month depending on what’s happening. I will continue to use the filter knowing the possibility of oxygen. Same with diacetyl, acetaldehyde, and all the others. Working in a garage is incredibly fun and the filter is a great way to do just that. Every added step in the brewing process adds a new dimension and a risk. That’s why I love doing it. Peru is great. Been there twice. Lago Titicaca, Machu Picchu, Arequipa, Tequile Island, and Lima! Enjoyed Inca cola, cuesquena, and Arequpena! Pisco sours are great! Chow y Salud! 🍻

[@mkavanau]

@@andresa.ramosrojas7375 , I too am concerned about both filtering and not adding any oxygen in the process, with a clean closed system. Have you seen any solutions for the homebrewer that would do better than simply purging the system?

[@BeerGeekGamer]

What size is that UniTank?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

It’s the 14 gallon!

[@rdpacheco]

Awesome! Keep up the Unitank vids! What are you using to cool the beer? Is it a glycol chiller or something homemade?

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

rdpacheco I will definitely try to do more! It’s a homemade one. Was super simple to make. I watched “DIY Glycol Chiller,” by Matt Smith on KZbin. It was awesome!! 🍻

[@jonathanwilliams1974]

You need to purge the hose and filter of O2 first. You just pushed all the O2 from that filter into your purged keg. You should run off a few ounces of beer first. Or…why not just cold crash, add gelatin, wait a few days during carbonation to transfer. After crashing and adding gelatin, that filter is entirely unnecessary. I get crystal clear beer in my keg doing it that way. Seems an unnecessary step and another way to oxygenate your beer. Which defeats the purpose of a unitank. Just my .02. At a minimum though…purge that filter first.

[@albumspizzeriabrewery]

How would you add gelatin without introducing oxygen?

[@jonathanwilliams1974]

@@albumspizzeriabrewery You can purge your keg, then add the gelatin solution real quick to the keg and do another quick burp or 2. Or if you have a unitank (next on my list) you can add it through the same device you would use O2 free dry hopping.