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Carbonating In Brite Tank

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  • #16
    Originally posted by bdalik View Post
    Can you explain a bit of step by step for this once the beer is in the brite? I am having a terribly difficult time carbonating without bleeding off co2 from the CIP arm on our brite tank. We have a 7BBL brite and often are trying to carb 5 BBL of beer. We have small co2 canisters and a co2 regulator, no flowmeter. Any help is appreciated.
    For starters, get the flow meter.

    After the brite is filled...

    CO2 into headspace to roughly 2/3 final pressure (ie. I go to 10psi initial with a 15psi final target)

    CO2 into rotameter (under $100 Canadian). Line out to carb stone. Set regulator to calculated value (target psi for temp and volume+whetting pressure+1psi for every 18" of beer in tank (might be 28", will have to go back to my notes). For my tank this means setting to 20-22psi on regulator.

    With all gas valves open, adjust rotameter to a suitable flow rate. Small tanks and stones usually take a lower flow rate. Larger tanks can take higher. For my tanks, I set the rotameter just above 5 liters/min and make sure that the little bead is vibrating.


    For my 1Bbl pilot tanks I set head pressure to 8psi, regulator to 15psi and rotameter to about 2 liters/min.

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    • #17
      Webb pretty much has it. No need to start with 2/3 of your required head pressure though, we often start at zero, sometimes 4 or 5, it depends on how carbonated the beer is when you transfer it. Get the rotameter, it is money well spent and not too expensive. For now, here are the steps to follow, which we did prior to having our rotameters.

      1. Set the pressure on the regulator to the carb stone to a few psi over the wetting pressure of the stone. If you dont know what that is, please search for it on the forum, it has been covered several times before.
      2. Listen to your regulator, you will hear CO2 flowing, when it stops, add another psi or three.
      3. Repeat step 2 until you are nearing your saturation pressure in the headspace.
      4. Carb check the beer, increase the psi to the stone as needed, if you need 1 more psi to get to your desired carb level, then increase the regulator by 1. The same applies if you need 2 or 3 psi, just increase to the level you need.

      Thats it, slow steps. The reason you only do small pressure increases is to keep the flow rate slow. Make sure your beer is cold by the time you are done, 33 degrees is the minimum.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by jebzter View Post
        Webb pretty much has it. No need to start with 2/3 of your required head pressure though, we often start at zero, sometimes 4 or 5, it depends on how carbonated the beer is when you transfer it. Get the rotameter, it is money well spent and not too expensive. For now, here are the steps to follow, which we did prior to having our rotameters.

        1. Set the pressure on the regulator to the carb stone to a few psi over the wetting pressure of the stone. If you dont know what that is, please search for it on the forum, it has been covered several times before.
        2. Listen to your regulator, you will hear CO2 flowing, when it stops, add another psi or three.
        3. Repeat step 2 until you are nearing your saturation pressure in the headspace.
        4. Carb check the beer, increase the psi to the stone as needed, if you need 1 more psi to get to your desired carb level, then increase the regulator by 1. The same applies if you need 2 or 3 psi, just increase to the level you need.

        Thats it, slow steps. The reason you only do small pressure increases is to keep the flow rate slow. Make sure your beer is cold by the time you are done, 33 degrees is the minimum.
        This is very good info thank you. However, the way we transfer presently, we usually end up with about 15 psi of pressure in the brite when the beer is finally done moving (our tanks are rated to 15 psi). Does this mean I should bleed out the excess pressure from the brite prior to getting the carb stone going? Or should I find a new way to transfer? From what you guys are saying it seems like you don't start with much pressure at all in the brite and through the flowmeter/stone is where you gain all the CO2 from.

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        • #19
          Keep your pressure...

          Don't start with much less pressure than the saturation pressure. No need to blow CO2 through the beer just to raise head pressure. Start with all the head pressure you want/need and inject CO2 directly to the liquid. Read the threads on this board about carbonation. Buy a flowmeter. Use the isobaric procedure that I outlined. Problem solved.
          Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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          • #20
            You don't gain much co2 from the head pressure, and if your head pressure is above what your saturation point is, then you will end up with an overcarbonated beer if you do the isobaric method mentioned. You will need to reduce your head pressure to something below your saturation point, doesn't need to be zero, but it should be a 2 lb or so below your final point, otherwise your co2 pressure into the stone will be higher than you need, and you will end with slightly overcarbonated beer. Typically we are 3-5lb under our target at the start. We set the regulated pressure into the stone as wetting pressure+head pressure+hydrostatic pressure+pressure needed to reach target. So for our 10bbl tanks, wetting pressure is approx 3 psi, head pressure is 5, target head pressure is 10, and hydrostatic pressure is roughly 1.5 psi, regulator pressure needs to be at about 15 psi. Carbonation will stop naturally at our target this way. With a flow meter you can also see how close you are to finish by the indicator ball, flow rate will decrease as the tank nears the saturation pressure.
            Note, you need to find your wetting pressure for your stone, it is not the same for all equipment.

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