Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

How Long Does Your Carbonation Process take in the Brite?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • How Long Does Your Carbonation Process take in the Brite?

    We are fairly new and waiting for our Zahme to arrive but in the meantime are wondering how similar size operations manage their carbonation process? We have a 15 BBL Brite with a 700lb CO2 tank connected. With full batches in the tank and shooting for 2.5 Vols of CO2 how long should it take for full saturation of CO2 if we maintain 34 degrees F and set the pressure at 20 PSI?

    Thanks all!
    Cheers!

  • #2
    Originally posted by Brewfist View Post
    We are fairly new and waiting for our Zahme to arrive but in the meantime are wondering how similar size operations manage their carbonation process? We have a 15 BBL Brite with a 700lb CO2 tank connected. With full batches in the tank and shooting for 2.5 Vols of CO2 how long should it take for full saturation of CO2 if we maintain 34 degrees F and set the pressure at 20 PSI?

    Thanks all!
    Cheers!
    Without a carbonation stone it will likely take you at least a week and a half or maybe even a few weeks. Should be towards a week or maybe even less if you spund your beers and are adding head pressure to bring you to a proper saturation. If your beer is at 34*F you should see an equilibrium of 9psi. When your beer holds 9 psi for several days without dropping, you are likely saturated to 2.5 volumes.

    If you push the co2 through a carb stone, then it can take as little as a few hours. You can use a pressure regulator and rotameter if you are good, and then you can calculate a volume of gas that you have added over a specific period of time. The slower you add the gas, the more will dissolve and not just bubble to the top as head pressure.

    There are good posts on here about carbonating, and even a "master of carbonation" lol. Search function is highly recommended.

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks for the input.

      We have a 10" cab stone mounted via TC that's attached to our Brite wall. We purge the O2 from the Brite, fill with beer then turning on the carb stone / CO2 feed at 20psi. We set our relief valve to just hold the head pressure created by the CO'2 pushing into the tank and wait. Without the Zahme we've been taste testing in 24 hours but we suspect we are waiting too long and could begin kegging much sooner.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Brewfist View Post
        Thanks for the input.

        We have a 10" cab stone mounted via TC that's attached to our Brite wall. We purge the O2 from the Brite, fill with beer then turning on the carb stone / CO2 feed at 20psi. We set our relief valve to just hold the head pressure created by the CO'2 pushing into the tank and wait. Without the Zahme we've been taste testing in 24 hours but we suspect we are waiting too long and could begin kegging much sooner.
        If you only have sensory to judge from, its best to have a few people in on the tasting, and a comparison sample. There is no need to wait for packaging after reaching your desired level, but your head pressure and temp chart can be misleading if you have not sat for a day or more. If you are saturated, you will not see a drop in pressure over 24hrs. If you do not have that long to wait, then you are literally guessing based on your tasting panel. That is fine in general, but can lead to much inconsistency from batch to batch. The Zahm will help you quantify your results.

        Comment


        • #5
          I wouldn't package without a way to measure the dissolved gas. Sensory testing is at best questionable because you can never get a good pour directly from a tank. The last thing you want to do is send out beer that is either over or under carbonated and get the reputation of being "that guy"

          That being said, if you can do it slow it isn't too hard to get close. Put the gas on the stone and listen to the regulator, you should hear gas moving through. You want it set to the lowest possible point for gas to flow. As gas begins to dissolve in the beer, the pressure required will rise, so you will have to periodically turn the gas up bit by bit. In my case, that means starting at about 10psi and slowly moving up to about 15 psi over time. Different stones will behave differently, so your wetting pressure could be higher or lower. Using this method, once the head pressure in the tank has reached the desired level, you should be close. Remember, though, close isn't perfect and it would still be wisest to check it before proceeding to packaging.

          Comment


          • #6
            I usually have a couple of days or more before I can package, so I have plenty of time to wait for equilibrium. After reading many of the excellent carb threads here, this is what I do.
            With the beer at desired temp, bring the head pressure up to desired value and stop the gas flow.
            Begin pushing co2 through your stone until you barely get a trickle, I use a sight glass, but you can hear when the regulator opens and begins flowing. Turn the regulator down a hair because of hysteresis in the reg. and check valve. Gas should still be flowing but at a very low rate. Let it sit like this overnight.
            As the headspace co2 dissolves into your beer (pressure drops), the stone regulator will allow more flow to try to keep up with the changing conditions. By sometime the next morning, you should see your headspace pressure return to your set pressure and the stone's gas flow will have returned to a trickle or stopped altogether. I usually let it continue to trickle for another little while, depends on your situation. This has worked consistently well for me, but i'm not as worried about an exact volume. I also have made something similar to GWKent's INLINE MICRO-OXYGENATION SYSTEM and pump my soda through this constantly to keep the batch well homogenized.

            mtn

            Comment

            Working...
            X