Splitting a brew between keg and bottles

[dontbother]

I've brewed my first successful Extract brew, I scaled down to produce 20 x500ml bottles. (If it had turned out rubbish that would have been a good decision).

For the next brew I'm planning on repeating the same again but at a full 5 gallon brew.
I quite like the idea of experimenting with priming during secondary, but wouldn't want to spoil 5 gallons of beer.

I've got a KingKeg from the kit brewing days (with the little CO2 bulbs), is it sensible to split the brew between the keg and bottle. (I don't have 40 bottles).

From reading various bits and pieces I'm a little worried about oxidisation problems which might occur if I only put half the volume in the KingKeg.
Is it worth adding CO2 straight away or could this prevent secondary fermentation?

Appreciate any pointers.

Adam

[crafty john]

I would only bottle 6 or 8 bottles due to the amount of head space that you will have in the keg if you bottled any more, I always bottle 6 or 8 pints from every 5 gallon brew and never had a problem.

[dontbother]

Thanks... only bottling 6 means I don't need to keep an eye on getting all the bottles back from this brew

[sladeywadey]

if you decided to bottle up a few more, couldn't you just pump in a little CO2 into the Keg to take account of the extra head space?

[jason123]

if you decided to bottle up a few more, couldn't you just pump in a little CO2 into the Keg to take account of the extra head space?

Would the yeast suffer or underperform on the secondary fermentation if starting off already at full barrel pressure The trouble with the little CO2 bulbs is that there all or nothing

[chris_reboot]

I sometimes take 6-8 bottles off a keg's worth with no ill-effects.
it may mean gassing earlier than usual to get the last of the beer out, but hey-ho

[macleanb]

I have to admit to being a bit of a slut when it comes to many things (my brew buddy could perform surgery in his brewing environment).

But I reckon if you are worried you could "flush" the air out of the keg by charging with a bulb, and then slowly releasing the pressure from the top (CO2 sinks right) and then doing either letting secondary or another bulb give you pressure - and this woud give you are fairly oxygen free keg?

[jason123]

(CO2 sinks right)

Spot On CO2 is heavier than air so would sink although in such a small area I'm not sure if the initial mixing of air and CO2 after injection would make this. You would though achieve a good level of dilution between air and co2 which after venting off would leave you with a much reduced concentration of oxygen overall. I don't think its worth worrying about if your only bottling a few pints.

[dontbother]

The intention was to play it safe and not split, but in the end events took a different turn and I did split between bottles and the keg.
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=29657&p=327214#p327214

There's no downside as far as I cann tell.... but the beer won't have to stand the test of time