Beer Forum

I have read that a lot of people fill their carboys with CO2 before siphoning the wort into it. Not having access to CO2 myself, I was wondering if another gas such as helium, from say a few ballons from the local party store, might work? The idea being to minimize contact between your wort and oxygen. Does helium have any adverse effects? Honestly, my beer has always turned out somewhere between drinkable to pretty good, so I am not sure I need to worry about it, but curious more than anything if such a "hack" would work.

Cheers!

Helium is inert. I'd more worry about contamination in the balloons going into your keg. Like from the fat sweaty dude filling your balloons.

Helium won't work for purging carboys because it is that it is lighter than air. As soon as you took the cap off, the helium would rise and air would rush in to take it's place. It might work for purging cornies - but you would have to bleed the pressure from the liquid line (where the air would sink to).


Mylo

Mylo wrote:Helium won't work for purging carboys because it is that it is lighter than air. As soon as you took the cap off, the helium would rise and air would rush in to take it's place. It might work for purging cornies - but you would have to bleed the pressure from the liquid line (where the air would sink to).


Mylo

I assumed that I would have to fill the carboy in the upside down position, and then cap it with some foil. I know that it is lighter, but I guess I wasn't thinking about how fast it would rush out...

You would have to hold on to your carboys the whole time to keep them from floating away

Who wants light beer, anyway?

I guess the answer is, no, it won't. A CO2 tank (along with kegs, hoses, regulators, chest freezers, etc...) is worth the investment.

Brandon wrote:You would have to hold on to your carboys the whole time to keep them from floating away