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My carb stone seems to be plugged. Can't get any co2 to move through it. 7 bbl uni tank is full of stout. Prob 25% headspace. I cranked the regulator to 30psi and nothing. Any suggestions on how to carb this tank? I was thinking of cranking the headspace to 15 psi and hopefully it doesn't take weeks to carbonate. Thanks for any advice.
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It will take more than weeks to carb a 7bbl with 15psi.. put 8,9,10psi head pressure and crank up your stone till it starts flowing (could be 40psi).. Sometimes the stone check valve just needs a kick to get flowing. DO NOT however walk away from your tank with the stone at that pressure. If you can't stick around around and monitor it turn it off when you have to leave. It will flow something at the higher pressure, and will get your beer carbonated.
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A non-optimal suggestion
So, if all else fails - you could stick an extension on one of the valved fittings on your tank with another carb stone in it, open the valve and carb into that stone. Very much not ideal given that it is out of the liquid column but it will be faster than head space pressure alone.
You might need to blow CO2 from your CIP arm while doing this because the small bubbles from this stone will likely coalesce and pass through the liquid column as bubbles much larger than you want.
Just throwing this out there.
Finally, do you have another brite you can transfer to? Sounds like you don't, but just asking.Chief Fermentation Officer
Oregon Mead & Cider Co.Comment
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A brewer I work with has had luck just blowing co2 through a butterfly valve that is just the slightest bit open. He said it took about 2x as a stone but worked.Comment
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I have a 7 bbl bright that does this exact same thing. My co-brewer and I crank the stone up to around 35 or 40psi and usually the stone "pops" open after a while, but yes, make sure to keep it supervised. Those kind of messes are not fun to clean when you have to move all the kegs out of your cold room.Justin Crawford
Head Brewer
Valholl Brewing Co. LLC
Poulsbo, WashingtonComment
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If you have an extra stone, set up a loop with a pump and recirc the beer through the carb stone. Very quick and dirty, basically you are inline carbing but on a loop. Just be aware you will need to sample it every 20 min or so to avoid over carbing. Example: hose from bottom of tank to inlet of pump, carb stone on Tee setup on outlet of pump followed by a good length of brewers hose returning back into your sample port if it has a butterfly, or worst case through your CIP arm which will work but isn't ideal.Comment
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Disagree. We're slowly starting to put stones in each of our uni-tanks, but for our lagers we sometimes still carb w/ head pressure during the 1-2 weeks of cold-conditioning. If we're really on top of cranking the pressure every time it drops < 13-14 PSI, we're able to get up to 2.4-2.5 in 7-10 days and that's 40 BBL. I know that's not practical in most cases, but it can be done.It will take more than weeks to carb a 7bbl with 15psiComment
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