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Hello.
We've been struggling to develop a consistent and rapid batch carbonation process for keg beers. When I started with the brewery we were filling kegs and leaving them with a constant top pressure for a measured amount of time per product via a distribution manifold. While we had cellar space to do quite a few at once, it doesn't scale very well and are only really able to produce enough for our own consumption. We've a 1,000L horizontal conditioning tank which we've been experimenting with to be able to batch carbonate with the aim of being able to fill keg directly and hopefully get some canning done. Way I see it we've a few potential methods. This is in order of what we wanted to do and what we've tried.
- Put co2 into the beer using the stone at the bottom.
Sufficient co2 doesn't really flow through the beer unless we allow it to bleed pressure at the top. We can carbonate the beer within a day or so by bleeding the pressure in large amounts every few minutes to allow the co2 to flow at a steady clip, but we are pushing aromatics out of the beer and it relies on a steady measured hand and constant attention. Otherwise the tank eventually becomes pressurised to the point where the regulator cannot push more co2 into the beer and if it is, it does it so slowly it in effect becomes similar to forced carbonation under top pressure.
We built a relief for the top and thought we'd cracked it. We can set a pressure to hold at the top, the idea being we can leave it alone and it'll be a consistent method once dialled in it'll still allow a steady flow of co2 through the beer while holding 2bar or so on the beer at the top. In practice it takes absolutely ages as it quickly reaches equilibrium and the flow stops (comparable even to doing individual kegs!) and we have constant problems with the stone clogging up. I guess a larger/different micron stone might help, but they are quite expensive?
- Put co2 into the beer using a port opened only slightly.
Ok, this works, but we scrub aromatics from the beer and we produce lots of fob. It also relies on constant attention and a steady hand and seems hit or miss as a result. We set the top relief, blow in co2 until the tank is pressurised and let it sit and absorb a little, then blow in some more and repeat. It takes a long time and seems inferior to the stone in every method except it is actually salvageable if the stone blocks up. While we've encountered others in the industry using this method I worry about the aromatics and knocking carbonation out of the beer with those big bloops of co2 going in as we primarily want to keg the heavily hopped aromatic beers.
- Inject in line.
We've a stone/injector in a inline fitting which we can rig up to circulate the beer. We've yet to try this, but will be the next method. Our pumps are pressure rated so we'll just circulate it on a loop and hope the tank doesn't just fill up with fob. Primary concerns are basically repeatability, fobbing and sanitation I guess. We haven't tried it and it could all go wrong.
Does anybody have an insights? We are generally making it up as we go along and it'd be very interesting to know what method others settled on.
We've been struggling to develop a consistent and rapid batch carbonation process for keg beers. When I started with the brewery we were filling kegs and leaving them with a constant top pressure for a measured amount of time per product via a distribution manifold. While we had cellar space to do quite a few at once, it doesn't scale very well and are only really able to produce enough for our own consumption. We've a 1,000L horizontal conditioning tank which we've been experimenting with to be able to batch carbonate with the aim of being able to fill keg directly and hopefully get some canning done. Way I see it we've a few potential methods. This is in order of what we wanted to do and what we've tried.
- Put co2 into the beer using the stone at the bottom.
Sufficient co2 doesn't really flow through the beer unless we allow it to bleed pressure at the top. We can carbonate the beer within a day or so by bleeding the pressure in large amounts every few minutes to allow the co2 to flow at a steady clip, but we are pushing aromatics out of the beer and it relies on a steady measured hand and constant attention. Otherwise the tank eventually becomes pressurised to the point where the regulator cannot push more co2 into the beer and if it is, it does it so slowly it in effect becomes similar to forced carbonation under top pressure.
We built a relief for the top and thought we'd cracked it. We can set a pressure to hold at the top, the idea being we can leave it alone and it'll be a consistent method once dialled in it'll still allow a steady flow of co2 through the beer while holding 2bar or so on the beer at the top. In practice it takes absolutely ages as it quickly reaches equilibrium and the flow stops (comparable even to doing individual kegs!) and we have constant problems with the stone clogging up. I guess a larger/different micron stone might help, but they are quite expensive?
- Put co2 into the beer using a port opened only slightly.
Ok, this works, but we scrub aromatics from the beer and we produce lots of fob. It also relies on constant attention and a steady hand and seems hit or miss as a result. We set the top relief, blow in co2 until the tank is pressurised and let it sit and absorb a little, then blow in some more and repeat. It takes a long time and seems inferior to the stone in every method except it is actually salvageable if the stone blocks up. While we've encountered others in the industry using this method I worry about the aromatics and knocking carbonation out of the beer with those big bloops of co2 going in as we primarily want to keg the heavily hopped aromatic beers.
- Inject in line.
We've a stone/injector in a inline fitting which we can rig up to circulate the beer. We've yet to try this, but will be the next method. Our pumps are pressure rated so we'll just circulate it on a loop and hope the tank doesn't just fill up with fob. Primary concerns are basically repeatability, fobbing and sanitation I guess. We haven't tried it and it could all go wrong.
Does anybody have an insights? We are generally making it up as we go along and it'd be very interesting to know what method others settled on.
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