Low Carbonation/High Foam

[warriorpoet]

Hope someone can help here.
We transfer beer into 3bbl BT's, clarify and then carbonate. We have noticed originally, over a period of time that we need to increase the psi to be able to get the correct carbonation. We cleaned the stones and the same thing happened. Now we are having drastic problems in that we increase the psi even more (and risk a pressure valve blow off) to the point it is ridiculous. All of this still doesn't get our beer carbonated to the right pressure and then we have a problem of foaming after kegging the beer.
I hope you understand what I am trying to say and can either help or refer someone. We are in Marin Co., CA.

Alan Atha
Baeltane Brewing
415-328-1373
alan@baeltanebrewing.com

[HR3]

When you are carbing, what is your entire process?

We also operate on a 3BBl setup and my process today is:

Crash to 32, push 5psi over wetting volume, have 10psi head pressure on tank, wait for pressure on tank to finish at desired psi for specific volume. ususally 11.8psi to 12.2psi.

[warriorpoet]

When you are carbing, what is your entire process?

We also operate on a 3BBl setup and my process today is:

Crash to 32, push 5psi over wetting volume, have 10psi head pressure on tank, wait for pressure on tank to finish at desired psi for specific volume. ususally 11.8psi to 12.2psi.

We crash to 38 and transfer into brite and have only a few # head pressure on tank. We originally had used #'s very similar to yours and some slightly higher depending on the brew. We then had to start going up towards 18psi and now even higher. Yes, we have cleaned our stones and also bought new ones to carb with. Even then we are having trouble and of course end up having foamy beer in a keg.

[Meheen]

Low carbonation & foaming

What temperature is your glycol system? Temps below -1C can cause freezing/thawing in the tank which makes for excessive foaming even at low carbonation levels. Information about this is on our website http://www.meheen.com/support/education/ Look at Carbonation demystified and our talk from 2014 CBC video "Carbonation and conditioning techniques".

[Gim]

If you have too much head pressure it will take a lot longer to carbonate. The stone needs to dissolve co2 up through the beer. Try dropping head pressure to <5. Set your stone pressure to desired co2 + wetting pressure. And <24 hours later your pressure gauge should read around where you want it to be.

[gitchegumee]

Don't lower your head pressure!

Please read some of the many threads on carbonation here. Do not lower your pressure and do not vent your tank. You should be able to carbonate in a matter of hours without foaming your beer--which both of those will cause. More pressure actually DECREASES the length of time it takes to carbonate. If you have CO2 going into your stones (you must have a flowmeter), and you shoot your head pressure up fast without much CO2 going into solution, then you have leaky stones that send up large bubbles. Look at them in a bucket of water. You should see a fog of CO2 and NO bubbles.