Meheen tank manager. Worth it?

[dinobrew]

I was looking at the meheen tank manager and was wondering if there were any users of this machine in probrewer land who would be willing to share their experiences positive or negative with this device. Also, is there an upper limit to the size of the tank that can be serviced with it?

[Mike Elliott]

We don't use it, Todd, but it is very straightforward. Just sends CO2 to the headspace based on your input of carbonation level and liquid psi at the fill head. Come by and check it out sometime.

[GlennL]

We've been using one for about 6 months on 2 40 bbl brite tanks. So far very happy with it. I'm not sure if there's any upper limit on tank size, but they say tanks larger than 50bbls may take longer to carbonate. Connections are basic, it plugs into a standard wall outlet, C02 source, and some lines and temp signal wire running to and from the tanks. There are a few things the guys (I installed it, i'm not a brewer) wish they could see, like temperature monitoring during CIP (the provided RTD's don't have a high enough temp range, but this is fixable i think with different RTD's).

The auto carbonation is super intuitive, easy, and accurate (we verify with a zahm and we're always within very tight tolerances, to the point where we often trust the tank manager more than the zahm). Racking mode is great for kegging, and especially bottling as it automatically maintains proper dispensing pressures (which are adjustable if you feel you need more or less). This helps greatly with larger bottling runs so you're not gradually overcarbonating the beer by the end of the run.

We use Georg Fischer glycol valves and the electrical setup is not as intuitive as a simple redhat type solenoid - but this was only a problem for me, an amateur electrician at best, our regular professional electrician got them wired up and running no problem.

The setup and calibration of the carb stone using a needle valve has also really improved the quality of our carbonation, this of course doesn't require the tank manager to do, but the overall performance has been excellent. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Kane Brewing Co
Ocean, NJ