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I have always used head pressure to carbonate my beers, but recently started useing a carbonation stone secured to the top of my Grundy tanks. Do I need to release pressure from the top of tank while carbonating? Also, what is a good method of getting Nitrogen into a stout? My tanks are all rated for up to 45 psi.
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First, try to keep all the "natural" CO2 in the beer. Use a spunding device on the fermenter, if you can. Otherwise, keep the beer pressurized to the highest extent possible from fermentation all the way through to serving. When you tweak the carbonation, never release pressure from the tank! You'll just drive all the aromatics out of your product. Carbonate very slowly, using a rotameter/flowmeter is the best way to measure flow rates to ensure they are slow. You don't want to foam your beer with fast flow rates.
Regarding nitrogen, there are many threads on this subject. Try the search function. Are your tanks actually rated for 45psi, or just hydrotested at 45psi? If you are in the US, this tank isn't rated for 45psi use unless it has an ASME stamp. I believe it would be a "UV" symbol for "unfired pressure vessel".Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager-- -
why is your carb stone in the top part of your tanks? It should be low, the idea is the CO2 rises through the beer absorbing into solution, if its in the top it has no where to rise except out the tank.
You can quickly carbonate your beer with a carb stone, you need the beer as cold as possible to absorb the co2, and allowing the tank to gas off as you blow co2 through the stone is the standard way of doing so. You could also keep it shut and gas up the tank to high pressure through the stone, this will save your co2 bill and aromas if your worried about that. It will take longer as well.
You can easily over carbonate, you may need to get a co2 tester.www.Lervig.noComment
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The tanks don't have a fitting for a carbonation stone so I extended the stone so it is close to the bottom of the tank. In order to "gas off" I have to unscrew the fitting on top alittle and let the gas out slowly. Otherwise I could just hook up a pipe with a tri-clamp fitting onto the bottom valve and put the stone in that. The other option is to just leave the tank sealed while carbonating. Just wondering what the best option is.
Thanks for the response.Comment
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