Keg Sediment

[johnnymac]

Guys, my beer has been conditioning very well in the keg. I usually rack straight to keg after primary fermentation from my conicals. All-in-all, it is a great process and I have had some really great results.

The only issue that I have now that I'm brewing more frequently is keg sediment. If I simply leave my keg in the keg fridge over a period of a couple weeks, everything drops out and my beer is clear and conditioned... however, move the keg at all, and it stirs up the sediment leaving small particulate in the glass and re-clouding the beer all over.

Aside from filtering, is there anything that can be done? I was wondering about geletin... wouldn't geletin solidify and drop to the bottom effectively sealing the sediment in the jello cake?

It's not a huge problem, but I have a separate storage fridge in my garage. If a keg runs out, I simply go out to the garage and swap it out. I had a cream ale that was clystal clear in my keg fridge, but when I carried the second keg across the house and hooked it up, the movement redistributed the stuff that dropped to the bottom of the keg.

Any ideas?

[StLBeer]

To resolve this, I simply transfer to another keg. I did try filtering once, but it stripped so much flavor out of the beer I won't be doing that again.

The keg serves as a pseudo-secondary/bright tank where the beer can carbonate and clear.

[siwelwerd]

What about racking to a new keg once it is pouring clear? You should be able to do this without stirring up the bottom. Just jumper the out posts, apply a small amount of pressure to the full keg (2-3 psi), and pull the release valve on the empty keg.

I have heard of people modifying a keg by cutting the dip tube, explicitly to use as a brite tank--they leave the beer there to settle, then rack to a serving keg as described. Sounds like your unmodified kegs have room for things to settle under the dip tube though, so this may not be necessary.

[johnnymac]

Not a bad idea.... I might just try this.... Assuming that the lines are clean, it's a completely enclosed system so it should be a very easy way to do it. Thanks guys.

EDIT:
This does seem to be a possible solution... but I'm only moving the kegs 50 feet. Surely there must be another solution. I might as well just bottle the beer from the first keg (Bright tank).

[Mike C-Z]

or you could just wait for the sediment to settle out. After getting the keg where you want it, the cold temps in the fridge will help the particulate settle out again. Just drink something else while you wait Anyway, that's what I do, but then again I usually use a secondary to reduce the amount that settles to the bottom of the keg in the first place.

[RobertHSmith]

IMHO, waiting is the best option, unless you really like cleaning kegs.

[johnnymac]

I'm 'just thinking about the times when you've got friends over.... keg runs out. Go out and get another one from storage... only to have it all shaken up.

[RobertHSmith]

Dump the first pint. That would do it.

[Kerth]

Leave it in the storage fridge using a picnic tap, till you can move it later.