Hi all,
I've switched over to SS Brewtech buckets for fermenting. Big step up from plastic buckets both with stainless and with the temp control add-on.
The one drawback over the more expensive alternatives is you can't pressure transfer (well, I know some have hacked it for that by drilling through the lid and someday I may go there...). I bottle some, but I primarily keg. For filling the keg I'm lifting the bucket up fairly high and doing a gravity feed into the keg. I'd love to leave the fermenter where it's sitting and pump into the keg instead both for my back and so that I don't have to remember to do it well in advance to allow the yeast to re-settle. However, the barb on the bucket is 3/8" as opposed to the pump standard 1/2". I've thought about doing a coupling to move up to 1/2" but a) I worry about trapped air bubbles and oxygenating all of the beer as it goes through and b) the coupling into the keg is the corny 3/8".
Should I just be looking for a pump with a 3/8" intake and outtake? I've read here and there that going down to 3/8" introduces cooling issues with the pump but I don't know that would matter for a simple 5 gallon transfer. Any gotchas to just doing a 3/8" pump or anything I'm missing?
I've switched over to SS Brewtech buckets for fermenting. Big step up from plastic buckets both with stainless and with the temp control add-on.
The one drawback over the more expensive alternatives is you can't pressure transfer (well, I know some have hacked it for that by drilling through the lid and someday I may go there...). I bottle some, but I primarily keg. For filling the keg I'm lifting the bucket up fairly high and doing a gravity feed into the keg. I'd love to leave the fermenter where it's sitting and pump into the keg instead both for my back and so that I don't have to remember to do it well in advance to allow the yeast to re-settle. However, the barb on the bucket is 3/8" as opposed to the pump standard 1/2". I've thought about doing a coupling to move up to 1/2" but a) I worry about trapped air bubbles and oxygenating all of the beer as it goes through and b) the coupling into the keg is the corny 3/8".
Should I just be looking for a pump with a 3/8" intake and outtake? I've read here and there that going down to 3/8" introduces cooling issues with the pump but I don't know that would matter for a simple 5 gallon transfer. Any gotchas to just doing a 3/8" pump or anything I'm missing?