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Carbonating with stone and flow meter

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  • Carbonating with stone and flow meter

    I'm trying to carb my 2bbl bright tank for the first time, and I think I built up a similar setup as others on here have, but I think I am still doing something wrong. I basically go from the co2 tank to a 2 way manifold with check valves, 1 goes to a line that I can use to feed the head pressure. the other goes to the flow meter that gitchegumee suggested from Mcmaster. After the flow meter I have another check valve (to protect the flow meter), then to the 6 inch Glacier tanks carb stone. There is another valve right on at the carbstone. The wetting pressure of the stone seems to be close to 10 psi, but will stay bubbling down until about 5 psi when tested without the flow meter in a bucket of water. I connected the stone to my flow meter and manifold and was able to control the flow while in the bucket. I Installed everything, filled the bright tank with beer. At the temp I was going to have the tank at, I figured that I needed about 13 psi to get the carb level I wanted, so I set the co2 tank head space to about 13 psi, then set the pressure to the stone at 23 psi. I slowly turned the knob on the flow meter, the ball started to rise up in the meter, then would almost instantly drop down, no matter much I turn the knob. The only way to get the flow meter ball to stay floating is to set the co2 pressure up to 30 psi.
    When I was trying this the beer was still at about 58 degrees f.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks

  • #2
    Originally posted by Onebadsc View Post
    [...]
    The wetting pressure of the stone seems to be close to 10 psi, but will stay bubbling down until about 5 psi when tested without the flow meter in a bucket of water.
    [...]
    At the temp I was going to have the tank at, I figured that I needed about 13 psi to get the carb level I wanted, so I set the co2 tank head space to about 13 psi, then set the pressure to the stone at 23 psi. I slowly turned the knob on the flow meter, the ball started to rise up in the meter, then would almost instantly drop down, no matter much I turn the knob. The only way to get the flow meter ball to stay floating is to set the co2 pressure up to 30 psi.
    When I was trying this the beer was still at about 58 degrees f.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks
    I think what's happening is your beer is far too warm for this. The CO2 isn't going into solution, it's passing through and raising your head pressure, which stops your flow. 13 psi isn't going to give you much carbonation at 58F. Get the beer temp down as cold as possible, then calculate the pressure based on the volumes of CO2 you want at that temperature.

    Also, is your bright actually rated for 30psi? You do have a PRV on it, right?

    Regards,
    Mike Sharp

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by rdcpro View Post
      I think what's happening is your beer is far too warm for this. The CO2 isn't going into solution, it's passing through and raising your head pressure, which stops your flow. 13 psi isn't going to give you much carbonation at 58F. Get the beer temp down as cold as possible, then calculate the pressure based on the volumes of CO2 you want at that temperature.

      Also, is your bright actually rated for 30psi? You do have a PRV on it, right?

      Regards,
      Mike Sharp
      Thanks for the reply.
      It was still chilling it last night, but I was just trying to see if I could get it working. Because of my current chilling setup, I can only get the tank down to 43 deg. I was just over there and the tank is at 43 and the head pressure dropped a few psi from what I'm assuming is because of the decrease in beer temp. My co2 tank is still set at 22 and I dropped the head pressure down to 10 to see if would start flowing then, but according to the flow meter it starts then stops like before, the ball floats up and bit, then back to the bottom, but the head space pressure still remained at 10.

      And no, my bright tank is only rated to 15 psi, and have a 14.7 prv on it.

      From my reading on here, I was expecting the head pressure to be my co2 reg pressure minus the pressure drop from my stone. So basically 23-10 = 13 when fully carbed?

      Comment


      • #4
        I have had a similar issue. Mine was, I believe due to the knob on the flow meter not opened up completely. Not enough flow/volume to keep the check valve cracked open.

        It's like the pressure opens the checkvalve fills the stone and as CO2 escaped through the stone not enough flow to keep the check valve open.

        Anyway, open that small valve completely and try again see if that's what's happening.


        Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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