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I'm starting to ferment in kegs, and want to naturally carbonate my beers by using a spunding valve. My batches yield 3 kegs, and I'm already using a 4º keg to aerate them after no chill and after the fermentation is done to transfer the beer to clean kegs.

How to set the pressure on 3 kegs? First I was thinking in just make 3 complete spunding valves. But the parts here for me are a little expensive to do that. So I made a interchangeable system based on quick-disconnects that allow me to control 1 or 3 kegs, based on this project.

But I've read an answer here, from MalFet, that says he use a filter cage as a blowoff trap, and somewhere else in other forums (sorry, I was not able to find it again) a guy saying that he uses another keg as blowoff and attach his valve on this keg to avoid beer get the valve at all.

So my real question is: can I connect 3 kegs (by its gas in posts) to a liquid out post of my 4º keg (with some sanitizer inside) and just a single spunding valve on the gas in side? It should work as a big blowoff vessel and a spunding valve, and I'm planning on set the system since fermentation is begun. Do you think that it will work? Any tought to realize this project another way? Thank you.

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I imagine some flow of foam between kegs might be possible, but not necessarily bad. Almost a Burton Union system if done right. I would make sure that each keg has it's own relief valve (these are cornies, right?) and try to use clear tubing as much as possible, so you can see that foam is flowing and each keg is fermenting on schedule.

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  • Thanks again, Pepi, didn't know about the burton union, its nice, I'll give it a try on croping yeast using this method! I'm using cornies, and all of them have relief valves.
    – jards
    Jan 16, 2015 at 14:06
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The only issue I can see is potentially overwhelming the blow-off setup by sending in three primary fermentations worth of foam through one dip tube, since you indicate you'd set this system at the start of fermentation. Between the long, skinny dip tube and all the narrow passages through posts and fittings, I could imagine some of the really chunky first kräusen maybe giving you trouble.

Also, clean-up sounds like it could potentially be a pain, but hey, you'll already be cleaning three cornies so adding a bit more won't break the deal for you I'm sure.

That being said, I think if you're careful about keeping foaming to a minimum (as it seems MalFet has been able to do with this method) and all kegs have their own pressure relief, you'll do just fine.

Out of curiosity, how do you plan to do your yeast pitching on this system? Will you pitch it then split it? Or split it and do three separate pitches?

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  • Hi, Franklin, thanks for your answer. My method is fully discribed in the first link of this question. I pitch them separatedly.
    – jards
    Jan 16, 2015 at 14:02

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