So I have read the posts about spunding and looked at the posted links, but I'm not clear about all the details. Is there any chance that someone could post some detailed pics and describe the steps? So here are some of the ambiguities for me:
1. Do you fill 2 kegs half way or one to the top?
2. If 2 kegs, do you have a spunding valve on each?
3. Do you have a line connecting the 2 kegs to balance pressure?
4. What post does the spunding valve go on?
5. If you have beer in 2 kegs you must rack into a third when finished, yes?
6. To rack, do you connect 2 beer out posts and push gas through gas in post?
1. One Keg Filled to 4.25-4.5 gallons, you have to do either smaller batches, or lose some beer to the ferment. In that case, I have used a 2nd keg in line to catch the krausen and protect the valve.
2/3. The 2 keg system has a line running from the gas post of the ferment keg to the liquid port on the 2nd keg, then the spunding valve on the 2nd keg to relieve the pressure.
4. If only using a single keg it's on the gas post of the ferment keg, if using a second keg to capture krausen, on the gas post of the capture keg.
5. N/A
6. Yes, the process is...
>Sanitize the serving keg and pressurize it to whatever pressure is currently in the ferment keg minus a pound or two.
>Attach spunding valve to the gas post of the serving keg.
>Attach a tap or open ended line to the liquid post of the ferment keg and drain off a cup or two of the trub from the bottom of fement keg, hopefully it clears up.
>Attach a line between the liquid post of the ferment keg and the liquid line of the serving keg. Beer should start flowing very slowly. The slower the better. If beer doesn't start to flow, then back off on spunding valve a bit to create a pressure differential.
>Attach gas to in post of ferment keg from your co2 tank, and slowly increase pressure to maintain the flow of the beer from ferment keg to serving keg. Slower is better. You should hit the point where the in pressure from the regulator=the spunding valve release pressure, and you're transferring at the same pressure, keeping the natural carb in the beer while releasing the CO2 that was in the serving keg as it it replaced by the beer.
>As soon as you get to the bottom of the ferment keg, disconnect the transfer line, before it starts moving the balance of the trub across.
2 kegs to ferment has been done by fakr, when he brewed too much, he can advise on the variant that he developed to cope with that. It could be done for 9 gallon batches, and then you'd need different connectors, or just run this system twice.
There is also a way to use other inline capture devices for the krausen instead of a second keg...fakr made up a PET bottle with an in and out that looked pretty cool, but since I have a rediculous number of kegs, I find that easier.
JQ