Force Carb vs. Brite Tanks...

[BSBCGB]

Hey everyone-

We are a small micro that has been force carbonating our beer in 1/2 BBL's since we began brewing until recently when one of our business partners posed the question- should we be using brite tanks?

My questions are: what are the advantages to brite tanks if any vs. force carbonation

AND

Is it realistic to find brite tanks suitable to carbonating 1 BBL batches at a time?

Thanks in adavnce for any help!

Andrew

[a10t2]

What kind of performance are you getting in the kegs? I'd think it would take days or weeks to carbonate without a carb stone. If the kegs do have carb stone, then they are your brights, essentially.

I'm assuming that you're planning on "force carbonating" either way. If you want to carbonate with priming sugar then a bright would definitely be the way to go, unless you don't care about sediment in the kegs.

[BSBCGB]

So far we are getting a below average carbonation in my opinion and when we do get good carbonation it takes a solid week maybe more.

Would it be as easy as tweaking a few of our kegs by rigging them with a stone and making them brites in such a manner, then transferring to the keg afterwards?

[AnthonyB]

If you really want to rig something, I suppose you could find a welder who can do sanitary stainless steel and have him install a 1.5" TC ferrule somewhere on the bottom 1/3rd of the keg. Then you would be able to insert a normal carbonation stone through that port, being careful to choose a stone that isn't so long it hits the keg's spear. But honestly, I can't imagine all the horsing around and transferring from keg to keg.

Bright tanks are one of the cheapest tanks in a brewery. The advantages are numerous: carbonating in a matter of hours, clearer beer ends up in the kegs since yeast/haze/whatever settles in the bottom of the tank, can serve directly from them, can dose beers in them (spices, fruit, extracts, etc.).

[BSBCGB]

Thanks to all for the input- greatly appreciated!

Andrew

[chapusin]

For 1 bbl you don't need a brite tank. Too much work. Just fill your 2 kegs to the top, then purge out 2 pints from each one so you have the same headspace. Then proceed to force carb at 30 psi for 3 days. You will get consistent carbonation, not sure how many volumes but it should be around 2.5

[North Gate]

Are you using unitanks? If so, do you have an extra port you could put a small stone into and carb in there?

[Junkyard]

If you know the temp of the beer in the kegs you can carbonate very reliably by rocking the kegs under pressure. Turn your regulator up to 45 psi, rock the keg for ~3 min, then turn the regulator down several turns and rock again while watching the gauge- the needle will slowly decrease in pressure until it stabilizes at the equilibrium pressure. For example-If your beer is 60 degrees and you want 2.8 volumes of Co2 then your equilibrium pressure should be 29 psi. Keep rocking and checking the regulator until you reach that pressure. You can get a keg carbed in minutes this way.

[Jimmer]

Rockin' The Brew

I second the opinion— rock the carbonation in.

Until we prove our stuff through bigger sales and can splurge on a brite, we carbonate in kegs. I saw someone's photo and built a small rocker— it holds two kegs, with room for a 5# co2 riding on top. Rock it for 10-15 minutes vigorously (if you forgot to plan ahead) and it's good to go. I tried to count but lost track— I'm guessing it took 300-400 shakes.

Do it on a rug or door mat so you don't scuff the floor or rock it into oblivion.

[TimG]

The purge valves on my couplers start to bleed out C02 around 40 psi so i fill the keg, drain a pint off, and then set it to 35 psi and cap the beer side of the coupler and in about three days I have it perfectly carbed.