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Bottling distance and head height

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  • Bottling distance and head height

    Hi all,

    I have a 5000 litre bright tank and am trying to decide where to place it in relation to my bottler. Ideally, the tank and bottler will be in separate rooms (though only about 15 ft apart). This raises the following questions:

    1. Rather than run the bottling line through a doorway from tank to bottler (obstructing the doorway), I'd like to send it up the wall, over the door, and then into the bottler. So, the liquid would be travelling about 9 ft high from the bottom valve of the tank to the high point above the door, and then down a few feet to the bottler. I imagine this would work when the tank is mostly full, but what about when it has only 200 litres left, for example? Does anyone have experience bottling with head height like this? Does it work? Are there problems associated with it?

    2. What is generally regarded as a maximum healthy distance between tank and bottler?

    3. Does anyone know of a good method to save product from the line at the end of a day's bottling? Can it be pushed back into the tank somehow? Or, is there a way to send it into the bottler without drawing more product from the tank into the line?

    Thanks for your help!!!

    Mike

  • #2
    Why up and over?

    Why not through the wall? Up and over invites breakout in the line. Personally I wouldn't. Maximum distance is that required to keep beer cold enough and not excessively foaming in the bottle. To get the last out of your line, I let the gas push out the last. Might not work well for unfiltered beers, so the yeasty last bit of beer would just be cost of doing business. BTW, you don't need a 1 1/2" line to your bottler. Use as thin a tubing as you can get to increase resistance in the line, keep your beer cold, and waste less beer if you have to toss last bit.
    Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Mike Lachelt View Post

      3. Does anyone know of a good method to save product from the line at the end of a day's bottling? Can it be pushed back into the tank somehow? Or, is there a way to send it into the bottler without drawing more product from the tank into the line?
      Add a T connection with shut off valves before attaching the bottling line hose. the tank with shut off connects to one side of the T, CO2 with a shut off on the another, line to filler (no shut off required but doesn't hurt). When you are done with the tank shut it's valve, charge up the CO2 line and open the CO2 valve to push the remaining beer in the line to the filler. Same amount of pressure as the headspace in the tank should keep it flowing consistently.

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      • #4
        Thanks for the advice! I had thought I might want the bottler on the left side of the door and the tank on the right (and on the other side of the wall)...in which case over would be the only way to keep the line out of the way. But if you're right it will cause problems I may have to organize them differently.


        [QUOTE=gitchegumee;198742]Why not through the wall? Up and over invites breakout in the line. Personally I wouldn't. Maximum distance is that required to keep beer cold enough and not excessively foaming in the bottle. To get the last out of your line, I let the gas push out the last. Might not work well for unfiltered beers, so the yeasty last bit of beer would just be cost of doing business. BTW, you don't need a 1 1/2" line to your bottler. Use as thin a tubing as you can get to increase resistance in the line, keep your beer cold, and waste less beer if you have to toss last bit

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        • #5
          Excellent idea!! I'll do just that. Any idea where I might find a backflow preventer to stop liquid from possibly going up the co2 line?


          Originally posted by maw ebb View Post
          Add a T connection with shut off valves before attaching the bottling line hose. the tank with shut off connects to one side of the T, CO2 with a shut off on the another, line to filler (no shut off required but doesn't hurt). When you are done with the tank shut it's valve, charge up the CO2 line and open the CO2 valve to push the remaining beer in the line to the filler. Same amount of pressure as the headspace in the tank should keep it flowing consistently.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Mike Lachelt View Post
            Excellent idea!! I'll do just that. Any idea where I might find a backflow preventer to stop liquid from possibly going up the co2 line?
            Depends on your CO2 line but any homebrew shop should have ball valves with checks.

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            • #7
              We run our hard pipe from our two brights to our bottler overhead just as you describe, and about the same distance. We use CO2 pressure to push the beer to the bottler. No problems whatsoever. "Breaking" cannot occur if there is a positive pressure differential that is higher than the EQ pressure of your beer.
              Timm Turrentine

              Brewerywright,
              Terminal Gravity Brewing,
              Enterprise. Oregon.

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