Remote read pressure gauge

[fatback]

Being the only brewer & cellar person at my brewery means not being able to constantly monitor my CO2 levels while carbonating. I carbonate without venting and do not want to get into the merits of venting or not. Basically I need to know when the pressure in the brite exceeds a set-point. I am looking for different suppliers that people have used for remote read CO2 pressure meters via the web. I tried one brand and it worked for a few months and now its useless. Seems to be a problem with their IT. Any brands or makes anyone can suggest? Approx price for the system?

[TGTimm]

Contact American Brew Equipment and ask about their CO2 Watchdog. It can be configured to do exactly what you want. We use one constantly and have been doing so for over a year.

It seems very spendy, so I decided to look into making my own--it's also very simple. After pricing the parts, it turns out to be very reasonably priced.

[soia1138]

I'm guessing if you are the only brewer and cellar person then you can't afford anything fancy, which is fine because you don't need it. There are many threads on here dealing with the topic of carbonating but in short, all my carbonation is done while I sleep. Pressure and temperature is a very constant thing. Get yourself a very simple flowmeter for air such as this https://www.mcmaster.com/5079k64. In fact you can do it without, I did for quite a bit. Here is how it works. Say you want to carbonate to 2.48 volumes and your beer is at 32F, your target is then 8PSI. Run your head pressure to 7PSI. Now put pressure on your stone until that flowmeter is at 2.5 (it's a 0 to 5, so half way). You're done. When you reach saturation in the beer it will balance with the pressure being applied to the stone and stop the flow at the stone. Your regulator, if it reads correctly, would read your 8psi target plus stone wetting pressure and head height above the stone. Carbonating beer gently and slowly is just about the easiest thing in the brewery to do and requires no fancy equipment.

[fatback]

Thanks for the responses.

Timm, I have a message into A.B.E. for more information about their Watchdog system.

Soia1138, this is very close to how I've been carbonating all along. However, the flowmeter never really works for me. No pressure is indicated on it unless the regulator is sent to something like a 50 psi. Alternatively, if I set the head pressure to a number and set my stone pressure to wetting pressure + desired carbonating pressure I always seem to over-carbonate. This got me thinking about my secondary regulator. It is a cheap taprite regulator. I think I could probably dial this in better with a quality regulator. I'm going to try this out before I spend another large amount on a system I may not need.

[soia1138]

Thanks for the responses.
No pressure is indicated on it unless the regulator is sent to something like a 50 psi. Alternatively, if I set the head pressure to a number and set my stone pressure to wetting pressure + desired carbonating pressure I always seem to over-carbonate. This got me thinking about my secondary regulator. It is a cheap taprite regulator. I think I could probably dial this in better with a quality regulator. I'm going to try this out before I spend another large amount on a system I may not need.

I'm guessing if you are having this problem then your stone has blockage. Do you test them regularly for correct and even flow? Also what flowmeter are ou using? You should never have to put 50 psi on a stone to get flow. I would start with our stones. Buy new ones if you must but a good soak in isopropyl sometimes does the trick unless they are physically damaged. You will always over carbonate if you have to exceed your target saturation pressure just to get flow through a junk stone. I wouldn't waster money on the regulator until you have a stone which is flowing properly. Like I said, even with a half decent regulator, a dial indicator that is working properly, and a stone which is in good working condition, then you can do this reliably even without a flow meter. If you can't then something in the system needs to be fixed. Target your problem areas and don't waste money on needless items (they're "nice to haves" not "need to haves").