Pressure barrel question

[clatters69]

The primary fermentation of my Burton Bridge Summer Ale is now complete and tomorrow it's going to go into the keg (if the hydrometer says it should). I'm really excited as it's my first brew for many years. I've always bottled previously, but this time I'm going to use a pressure barrel. I have read through many posts on here and some people have implied that a squirt of CO2 into the barrel before filling drives out any oxygen. I know that you need a little oxygen to trigger the primary ferment, but am not sure about the secondary ferment.

I will start off by using the 8g CO2 bulbs and will hopefully upgrade at a later point. Would it be a good idea to discharge one bulb into the barrel before filling it?

[Jim]

Yeast needs oxygen to reproduce when you first pitch it, so that the few (million/billion?) cells that you pitch can multiply to form enough cells to ferment your 5 gallons or whatever. Once the first rush of primary fermentation is over oxygen is bad - you need to keep it away from your brew (within reason, obviously).

I've never bothered purging my pressure barrels with CO2 myself, but those that do report that the beer keeps longer and better than without. I doubt if you need a whole bulb of CO2 to fill a barrel at atmospheric pressure, though.

[clatters69]

Thanks for that. I'll get through it pretty slowly, being a lightweight, so I'll experiment by emptying a bulb into the barrel beforehand if it keeps it better for longer. I take your point about a whole bulb being rather too much, but once I've opened the bulb there's not much I can do with the rest of it, so it'll all get discharged into the barrel. Not ideal, but at just over £3 for 10 bulbs it's not too much of a worry.

Another question has just occurred to me. My starter's kit came with a FV, some other odds and ends and a sachet of finings. The beer kit itself mentions that finings can be added on transfer to the keg, but none were provided. If my beer will possibly clear naturally then I won't bother and will let nature take its course. The other posts on finings have confused me a little, so does anyone have any thoughts? The sachet of finings I have doesn't say what sort it is.

[Ditch]

The other posts on finings have confused me a little, so does anyone have any thoughts?

Put them on the compost heap.

[martyn142]

If you have the barrel in a nice cool place to mature it should clear very nicely on its own. Don't foget to keep it somewhere warm for a few days though first to get the secondary fermentation going.

Then sit back and enjoy

[clatters69]

Thanks gents. My brew has now been put into the barrel and is sitting in a warm place. In a couple of days time it'll go into the chilly cupboard under the stairs and then in a couple of weeks time...

[KevP]

and then in a couple of weeks time...

Tenner says you don't last 2 weeks!

[clatters69]

and then in a couple of weeks time...

Tenner says you don't last 2 weeks!

Would you like cash or a cheque?

[KevP]