Moving Beer from Keg to Keg (Oaking)

Technique / By

Recently a couple of us brewed up a 10 gallon batch of imperial stout.  The plan was to oak the stout after fermentation.  We brewed the 10 gal. and then split it into two 6 gallon carboys for fermentation.  Our ferment did not attenuate fully, so we ended up with 5 gal. @ 1032 and 5 gal. @ 1022 (wanted to hit 1018).  With fermentation complete we prepped the oak cubes (american medium toast) by soaking them in high proof bourbon (Baker’s Bourbon) for sanitation.  1 oz of oak cubes (w/o the bourbon) went into each corny keg and we racked  5 gal of stout into each.  After 7 days the oak flavor was where we wanted it to be – now time to transfer the beer off the oak.  Our plan was to blend the two kegs together so we would balance the two F.G.’s together.

Step One: 2 Kegs w/beer (on the left) & 2 Kegs w/o beer (on the right).
Step One: 2 Kegs w/beer (on the left) & 2 Kegs w/o beer (on the right).
Step 2: Jumper cable with two outs (black connects). Connect to the out of the full keg and to the out of the empty keg. You connect to the out of the empty keg so that the beer fills from the bottom of the keg, not sprays out from the top of the gas in connect. Also, on the empty keg, be sure to open the release valve so that the pressure is lower in the empty keg than the full keg and the beer flows.
Step 2: Jumper cable with two outs (black connects). Connect to the out of the full keg and to the out of the empty keg. You connect to the out of the empty keg so that the beer fills from the bottom of the keg, not sprays out from the top of the gas in connect. Also, on the empty keg, be sure to open the release valve so that the pressure is lower in the empty keg than the full keg and the beer flows.
Step 3: Push beer from full keg to empty keg using CO2. We filled each keg with 1/2 of the high gravity and half of the lower gravity beer so that they were of equal strength/taste.
Step 3: Push beer from full keg to empty keg using CO2 10psi. We filled each keg with 1/2 of the higher gravity and half of the lower gravity beer so that they were of equal strength/taste.