Perplexing Carbonation Issue

[Sgaura79]

Hello All,

So I would really like to have my carbonation as a set and forget overnight procedure using the typical physics of wetting pressure + hydrostatic pressure + tank pressure at the given temp but I cannot seem to get my stones to flow properly regardless of the stone I use. We have a pretty thorough cleaning method with both acid and caustic as need and we test the wetting pressure of the stone pre and post cleaning. I use a Brooks MR3A15SVVT 1-10 flowmeter and set it 4scfh but in order to get it flowing I need to set my CO2 regulator to a minimum of 20psi. This in turn means that I have to babysit the tanks I'm carbonating and I also view this as a safety hazard if for some reason I forget to turn it off and have a senior moment. My bulk CO2 tank is going directly into this micromatic 3 way regulator. https://www.micromatic.com/premium/3...um-series-1163. Any insite would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Sean

[gitchegumee]

So what's the problem?

20psi is fairly typical for a regulator set pressure. Wetting + internal pressure + hydrostatic. Assuming your tank internal pressure is about 13psi, a typical 10bbl BBT height is maybe 6 feet above the stone, so 6 x 0.43psi/foot = 2.58psi, which leaves a fairly low wetting pressure of about 4.5psi. Your regulator will not explode your tank if set to 20psi. You'd have to overcome both wetting and hydrostatic to increase the internal pressure. Which 20psi cannot. To be absolutely certain you MUST have a PRV on your tank at a typical 15psi. NO MORE. 10bbl = 50SCF with 20% freeboard. So you can get a full 1.0 volume addition to your "still" beer over about 12 hours' time using 4SCFH. For best results you'd spund your green beer with ~ 1P to go. And you'd only need to "touch up" your carbonation after crash & dropping tank bottoms. So for sure it is easily done overnight. Even much less if you spund properly. Remember that you need to keep your beer very cold. And I insist on a CO2 check valve immediately before the stone--keeps beer from backing into the CO2 lines. So it sounds to me that you've got your carbonation effort to a very good start.

[Sgaura79]

My Brain Was the Problem ha!

Thank you for the detailed explanation. For some reason I was not adding the tank pressure plus the wetting pressure together account for the regulator pressure. Makes complete and obvious sense. I would love to start spunding at some point. I see that Stout tank and SS Brewtech have valves, one with a pressure gauge and one with a closed container for sani. Do you have a particular one you would recommend?

[Ted Briggs]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. For some reason I was not adding the tank pressure plus the wetting pressure together account for the regulator pressure. Makes complete and obvious sense. I would love to start spunding at some point. I see that Stout tank and SS Brewtech have valves, one with a pressure gauge and one with a closed container for sani. Do you have a particular one you would recommend?

there's a couple at Gwkent you can look at.

[vinaykumar27]

Inline carbonation systems with automated shut offs are a great way to work in the "set and forget" procedure. QuantiPerm's systems all have the automation built in and you can set the level of carbonation desired and let it recirculate in the tank overnight, or just several minutes depending on your batch volumes. Once the carbonation level is reached, it'll shut off. So no baby-sitting the machine required, although you can monitor the system remotely if you want. More information here;

https://quantiperm.com/quantiperm-products/carbonation-frementation-brewing/