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Carbonation techniques

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  • #16
    Originally posted by burcher
    Are distribution only breweries using brite tanks to carbonate and the transferring to kegs under pressure, carbing each keg via a manifold, or some other technique for carbonating? Seems like a brite tank doubles as a serving vessel and a carbing vessel. What am I missing (on this point, anyway).

    Chris
    I carbonate all our beers and sodas in the brite tanks. I bring the temp down to low-low 30's (28-29 is better but start to risk freezing), push CO2 through a carb stone hooked up to the bottom racking port, bring head pressure to around 15 psi and then bleed off CO2 from the CIP arm into a bucket of sani. The goal is to achieve equilibrium with the gas in and the gas out. When the tanks are nice and cold, I can get a 10bbl batch carbonated to 3.0 volumes in about 6-7 hours. It seem there is a logarithmic relationship to as the temp is increased, the duration needed increases substantially.
    Prost!
    Dave
    Glacier Brewing Company
    406-883-2595
    info@glacierbrewing.com

    "who said what now?"

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    • #17
      Originally posted by BMOOR
      We have stones that we could use and ports in the servers, but don't use them. We carbonate fully in the fermentors. Here's our procedure for most beers:
      4-7 days fermenting
      2-3 to cool and start dropping yeast
      5-10 days (depending on beer and CO2 level needed) to carbonate by adding head pressure. 16.5-17 psi every day. CO2 dissolves into beer and I just keep adding until desired level is reached. I test using Zahm and of course by tasting.

      we do this for a couple of reasons. One, the stones have been removed by the brewer before me and I would have to find, clean, sanitize, inspect them all.(It worked for him, it works for me, don't fix what ain't broke). Two, we don't own a filter and the head pressure helps floc our highly flocculent house yeast. And Three, we have enough time in the FV to get this done. Those brewers who need to turn beers in 10-14 days won't have this luxury.
      It works for us though.
      Bunging the tank prior to full attenuation will capture some CO2 before crashing and filtration. I will carbonate inline between the filter and the tank using a stone. The stream of beer in the pressurized line ends up picking up a fair amount of CO2. I will then carbonate in the tank using a stone (0-2 degrees C). For kegging the beer will be fully force carbonated in a matter of 3-6 hours, depending on the size of the run. For bottling it takes even less time as I condition to bring to target.

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