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  • Exploding Tank

    I had a tank today that, moments after a dry hop/transfer, suddenly began to shoot beer out from from the around the side manway. After getting covered in beer I managed to do a super quick transfer to the CIPed vessel next to it.

    When I looked at the offending tank afterwards I could see that the seal had removed it self from the door, save for literally an inch where it still clung on. I am still baffled as to why? The tank did not leak as it was filling up, indicating the seal was not on right or the door was not sealed tight enough. The transfer seemed fine, I went to the office, discussed sales, heard screams and saw the beer coming out.

    Can anybody shed light on what might have happened? Maybe the seal is too old and not tight enough but how could it go from seemingly normal to super dramatic in seconds?

    Incidentally, the beer I salvaged tasted amazing. Such dry hop character from such a short amount of time! This could make for a unique and alternative dry hopping technique.

  • #2
    In my and my assistants personal experience, there are three reasons:

    1. You did something wrong. Hey, it happens sometimes.

    2. The manway gasket is bad.

    3. Chemical residue, such as PAA or alcohol can make the gaskets a little more slippery than they should be. We have had no problems since we started rinsing the gaskets with hot water before putting them on.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by grnis View Post
      In my and my assistants personal experience, there are three reasons:

      1. You did something wrong. Hey, it happens sometimes.

      2. The manway gasket is bad.

      3. Chemical residue, such as PAA or alcohol can make the gaskets a little more slippery than they should be. We have had no problems since we started rinsing the gaskets with hot water before putting them on.
      Interesting

      I could see how 2 and 3 might be related.

      Not so sure how number 1 might come to pass. Obviously as you said, it happens sometimes, but what particular mistakes would lead to such a spectacular failure?

      Comment


      • #4
        not enough information to say for sure, but:

        if you complete warm fermentation and close the tank up and replace blowoff tube with an end cap and then put on cooling, it may create a slight vaccuum in the tank that pulls the manway gasket out of position. then you open the top and drop in dry hops and close up again. dry hops create nucleation sites and make tank foam up. capping tank causes the pressure to blow out the compromised manway gasket???

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        • #5
          Manway Gasket

          If you could provide me with some more information: style of the door, gasket material, age of the gasket, and some pictures I might be able to some failure analysis. Ultimately I would need to put my hands on the failing gasket for proper failure analysis if the failure is due to the seal. I would not recommend this as a standard practice no matter how good the result!

          Cheers!
          Dwight
          brewerygaskets.com
          Jet Gasket & Seal Co
          Jet Gasket & Seal Co
          Brewerygaskets.com
          (702) 448-6787

          Comment


          • #6
            Beerme has a point. With the way a manway door mounts from the inside, under positive pressure this would seem almost impossible, but if you don't have a good, functioning, and tested vacuum relief valve, I can see a negative pressure situation sucking the manway gasket into the vessel. If you don't have a vacuum relief valve, get one and be sure it works--the next step is a collapsed vessel. Review your procedures and eliminate whatever might be leading to a negative pressure situation, as the vacuum relief should only operate under emergency conditions--it will draw in ambient air if it actuates, which isn't a good thing.
            Timm Turrentine

            Brewerywright,
            Terminal Gravity Brewing,
            Enterprise. Oregon.

            Comment


            • #7
              There is a vacuum relief valve in place but the pressure was about a bar and a bit.

              I too was wondering about nucleation. Hops were smeared all over the tank after I opened it but there seemed nothing unusual abut this compared to other runs.

              The gasket material I am not certain of but I assume EPDM. They are a few years old and have probably taken their fair share of abuse from previous brewers. It might have felt a little loose, but of course after seeing something like that, I would think that.

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