Carbonation questions

[MadHatter]

I'm still new to this, but recently got a new 12" carb stone for our 5hL bright tank.

The stone works very well, but it didn't come with instructions.

I read "carbonation demystified" for advice on learning the wetting pressure for my stone, and what PSI to set my regulator to, and can hit 12 PSI in my headspace in about 5 hours by starting at wetting pressure and slowly bumping it up.

However, when I'm ready to take a sample and/or package, I have the following troubles. If taking a sample of trying to fill bottles with 12 PSI in the headspace, I get mostly foam out of the valve, and flat beer underneath the head. I usually release the pressure in the headspace and drop it to 6 PSI or so which balances minimal foam and maximum flow. However, today my purge valve started foaming out and I immediately pictured opening a bottle of soda, and how that sudden pressure drop causes the soda in the bottle to foam up. I imagine the same thing is happening inside the bright tank when I purge the headspace. I took a sample at 6 PSI and sure enough I get a nice creamy head, but no effervescent activity in the beer underneath the head. The beer has reasonable lacing and mouthfeel, but I really want some activity in the glass. I've tested growlers after they are packaged, and often get no effervescence and weak head. Lots of foaming in the keg and bottle as well.

What am I doing wrong? Should I be counterpressure filling my growlers and not purging the headspace in the tank before packaging? Should I slow down the carbonation process? Is my stone oversized? I'm quite puzzled but my real end goal is quick packaging and beautiful activity in the glass.

Cheers

[organicbrewer]

Are you checking the dissolved co2 using some sort of co2 tester like a zahm?

[jebzter]

Why are you purging the pressure on your head space? If you dispense the beer at a lower pressure than is required to keep the desired volumes of CO2 then you will get lots of foaming. For our keg filling, we raise the head pressure in the brite to about 5psi over carbonation pressure so that we can have a reasonable pressure differential at the filling head without going below the pressure to hold co2 in. This works great, nearly no foaming at all when filling, 10bbl in 1.5 hours or so, so we dont see much if any increase in dissolved co2 at the end of the tank. As for growlers, we fill off the taps with hoses from the faucet, never had any issues coming off a properly balanced draft system.

Carbonation time is somewhat variable depending on how carbonated it was prior to racking, but typically we get to our pressures in several hours by stepping up slowly, I like to let it sit overnight to let everything settle down.

[BemidjiBrewing]

If you are looking to only pull a sample you need to add resistance after the sample valve with either a proper length of draft tubing and a picnic faucet or a pigtail fitting. Imagine that sample valve is attached directly to the top of a keg...you are opening the valve and receiving the full 12psi of flow rocketing out into the sample vessel. Just like a draft system you need to slow down that flow to get a proper sample, ultimately the same way you would go about balancing a draft system to end up with approximately 1psi of flow at the faucet.

You are correct in assuming that a 6psi instant drop in head pressure (when you bleed off to get a slow sample flow) is causing a ton of foam. Foam and carbonation are very different things and are not indicators that one or the other is present. If you are assessing dissolved CO2 levels (carbonation) with only visual and sensory cues you will need to be able to pull a relatively foam-free sample as if you were pulling it from a keg as well as place trust with a pressure/temperature chart. Your best bet, especially if you are packaging your beer and sending it to outside accounts, is get a reliable dissolved CO2 device (a Zahm or similar/cheaper option).

Also, it sounds like you are trying to fill growlers directly off the BBT as well? Again, make sure you are treating it like a large keg and balance your product line to offer the correct resistance to prevent foaming and CO2 breakout.

[rawbrewing]

tube length

This is close to the topic, looking for alittle help its making me crazy. i brew kombucha 5.0 volumes of co2 in sanke kegs at my brewery i sell on tap. my regulalator is set to 28psi and i have 30 feet of 5/16 tubing and my pours are perfect.

when i setup a small kegerator for a location everything i pour is flat no matter what i do. is all about the temp? ive tried more feet less feet different pressures too hope you can shead some light thanks!