Closed Brewing - Written By Chris Graham

Closed brewing is the concept of going from the end of the boil to the time your beer is served in as closed an environment you can. The purpose of this is as long as you clean and sanitize well, you can eliminate airborne yeasts and bacteria from having a noticeable effect on your brew. The outlined process will focus around carboys, but can be easily adapted to conicals as well.

Requirements for Carboys:
-A boil kettle with a spigot on the bottom (either weldless or built in)
-Wort chiller (any type works)
-Tin foil
-Inline Sterile Filter, carboy hood, and racking set up. Or a Sterile Siphon Starter. (see below)
-Kegging set up
-A Ball Lock Beverage Out - Flare
-Alpet D2 - ok, not required, but makes life easy
-Sanitizer and Cleaner (Starsan and PBW are our favorite)

It all starts during the boil. With 10-20 minutes or so left in the boil, make sure your carboy(s) are good and clean.

In my opinion there is very few substitutions for PBW and a carboy brush. We are working with some friends on a carboy/keg cleaning station, but that will be another project. When cleaning with PBW, I still prefer to fill the entire carboy with water and a tablespoon of PBW as apposed to a small amount of cleaner, however, there are good arguments for swirling around a small amount as well. I usually then start a siphon with my siphon set up(see below for setup), minus the sterile filter, . After the carboy is clean, give it a good rinse with water to remove all the cleaner.

Set up your Siphon Starter.

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You can either purchase a combo set or put the three pieces together quickly and easily. Some tips, when putting the racking cane through the middle post of the hood, make sure the racking cane is wet so that it slides on easier. About the inline filters: There is an "in" post and an "out", when you first get it, the direction doesn't matter, however, you want to take note of which way you use it and always keep it that way. There is a molded in arrow on the edge that we use to keep it always facing that direction when using it. The filter should never get wet, so don't try and sanitize it by dunking it in sanitizer. If you want to clean the outside of it, use Alpet D2. To store the filter, use a little tinfoil on the "In" of the filter and store in a zip-lock bag.

Purging the Carboy: Fill your carboy to the top with Starsan and let sit at least 2 minutes. Set up your racking cane without tip as shown in picture A. Use a book to prop the carboy on edge (careful not to lean it too much as carboys are little bombs waiting to go off when tipped over) before draining. Put in the siphon starter in and put the racking cane all the way at the bottom as shown in picture B. Then insert the air filter into the unused side of the hood, and blow in it's "in" post to start the siphon. Quick Tip; Once the siphon is going, pinch the tube where the cane meets the soft tubing to push the air bubble out. Completely drain the carboy, when at the end of the siphoning, try your best to tilt the carboy to get as much sanitizer as possible. Don't worry if there is a little bit left, you can either take the filter off and flip it upside down to drain the little bit out or just not worry about it.

Picture A	Picture B

Now we have a carboy that has been sanitized and drained, but all the make up air is bacteria free. I usually remove the Air Filter at this point as well as the Racking Cane from the hood, replacing them with Tin Foil that I have kept in the StarSan.

Now, to fill the carboy: This is where I love Alpet D2 spray sanitizer, spray any connections that you want before hooking the tubing up let it sit for a minute after hooking the line before use and it shouldn't have any thing left to impart into your beer. Use sanitized tubing (the size of your barb on your kettle ball valve or output of counterflow chiller) to connect your kettle or chiller to your hood. If using 3/8" tubing the longer post works great, if 1/2" you can fit that over the center post. Keep the tin foil on the other post, making sure it is loose enough to let air out of the carboy when filling, but not too loose that it will just blow away. Proceed to fill the carboy to your normal fill height.

Adding Yeast and Oxygen: Feel free to geek this out as much or as little as you want. For oxygen, just make sure your stone is as sanitized as possible (we prefer to boil it) and the tubing is cleaned and sanitized as well, I usually have a piece of tin foil in my sanitizer that is about 8-10" square. Spray above the hood with Alpet D2 (optional) and pry the hood up but let it rest on top of the carboy.Turn the gas source on first to both empty out any fluid that might be in the stone, and to regulate the flow before putting it in. Lift the hood off and put the stone into carboy replacing the hood with a piece of sanitized tin foil while you oxygenate. Since your are making a positive pressure inside the carboy it is not really allowing anything to get in, but I find having the tin foil on top is better piece of mind. I try and make as small of a bubble as possible. Adding Yeast, If you really want to go nuts you can make a similar type siphon setup using two holed stoppers and flasks to push the starter into the carboy, but I find it easier to do the following. Alpet, Alpet, Alpet can't really get too much of this stuff. Spray your work area, and then the air above to pull down any airborne's. Lift your tin foil and add your yeast to the carboy and put back your tin foil. Now set the carboy up with however you like to ferment, personally I use my hood with 1/2" tubing running to a jar with a small amount of water incase I have an overflow during ferment.

After Fermentation: First clean your keg. I am a big fan of taking all parts of and cleaning them with brushes, inspecting them for defects or build up, soaking small parts in PBW before putting the keg back together. Give the keg a good cleaning with a carboy brush when the long dip tube is out, then rinse the entire keg completely. Fill the keg up with StarSan and let sit for 2 minutes minimum then seal it up with the lid. Put your Siphon Starter back together, but leave off the Inline Filter. Now, using a hose clamp add a ball lock qd to your siphon setup (picture 1), also you should take it apart to clean and sanitize the small parts(picture 2). Put that on the "out" of the keg and and push the liquid out using co2, I put the racking cane and hood in a bucket so it can collect the sanitizer. Let it run till you are confident most of the sanitizer it out of the keg. Then take the co2 quick disconnect off so that you are sure the keg is not under any pressure, then you can remove the qd so the racking setup is not connected anymore. Now set up the siphon setup in your carboy (which should be high enough to rack from, if it had to be moved hopefully you did it well in advance) so that the siphon cane tip is under the liquid but far from the bottom of the carboy as to not disturb the sediment. Hook the siphon setup back up to the keg (you may want to pull the pressure relief valve to make sure it's not under pressure) and then put the Inline Filter on the hood. Now for the outlet of gas from the keg while filling. You can either pull the pressure relief valve (picture 3) or set up a gas qd with tubing to a jar of water, personally, I think since you will have positive pressure in the keg, the relief valve is just fine. Blow on the dirty side of the air filter, pinch the line where the cane meets the soft tubing to push any air bubbles out and you are golden. Just lower the cane now slowly while it siphons and you will pick up minimum amounts of trub.

Picture 1	Picture 2	Picture 3