Carbinating and kegging in a conical

[Josh@HiddenSpgs]

Hello all,

So I am going to just come out and say that we are a new brewery in Tampa FL. We (my business partner and I) are both homebrewers moving to the professional scale. We have gone with a 5 BBL System with (3) 10 BBL and a 20 BBL fermenter. We have bought fermenters designed to be used as a Unitank so we can carb and keg straight from the fermenter. My question is this. As a homebrewer moving to professional equipment I would like to have a starting point on processes that are completely new to me. Kegging and carbonating in the conical is one of those areas. I was hoping that some one that has a similar setup or process wouldn't mind giving me a good starting point to build this process from. We have purchased a Zahm to test carbonation and plan on putting that to use every time that we carbonate. So what I am looking for is a general range of pressure to set the tanks to and a time frame if possible. I am not asking for trade secrets but more of a good starting point. Maybe some things to look out for or best practices if you care to share. Thank you in advance!

Josh

[PCQC]

Hey!

With a unitank you can actually just have the yeast carb for you. Usually it's just for lager temperatures, so you'd still have to force carbonate ales. With lagers you can just cap it with 1-1.5 degree Plato above your final gravity. With the use of a bunging valve set at the right pressure, you can carbonate naturally

Doug Hasker at Gordon Biersch San Diego does the following:

Caps at 1-1.5 degree Plato
Holds for 2 days to complete primary fermentation
Drops temp to 3.5 C to let yeast settle (usually 24 hrs)
Harvest yeast when dropped out
Cuts off glycol and has it naturally rise again to 6 degrees C and holds at 6 for 4-6 days.
Then he drops the temp to 4 degrees for 10 days of lagering
Drop 1 degree per day until 0 degrees
Hold at 0 degrees for 2 weeks

It's about 30-35 days brew to filter
-----

Hope this helps a little!

[jawsfree]

This may help

http://www.meheen.com/wp-content/upl...emystified.pdf

[callmetim]

I ferment, dry hop, carb, crash and keg from a 4 bbl uni-tank. Turn around every 2 weeks.

[soia1138]

http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?24886-CO2-use-for-carbonating-10bbl-to-2-volumes&highlight=carbonating+volumes

[Josh@HiddenSpgs]

thanks all for the help. that slide show presentation was helpful. Would you have any info like that on nitro beers as well? is it the same process with different gas or is it completely different. We have a nitro setup being put in next week and I want to find some info on that as I have zero experience with nitro from a manufacturing stand point.

Thanks,

Josh