Carbing Cider in Bright Tank

Couple of Questions:

I have a 600L bright tank I am about to use fitted with 0.5 carb contact stone.

I usually chill cider to one degree and send to bright tank which has no cooling jacket and start curbing as soon as possible.

Given my temperature and volumes required 2.5 vol I am targeting the 15 psi range . First time I tried this cider was quite foamy 12 hours later. Do I need to bubble in co2 slowly has anyone have experience with this style of force carb. How many days does it usually take to carb in this manner ?

Also any advice on carbing in keg without shaking. I am guessing this will occur faster as less head space than a bright tank (100l)

Hope someone can help here.

The cider will carb faster if you can keep your bright tank cold. I carb in cornies at ~0F and 25psi. In 24 hours it gets a decent carb, full carb at 48 hours. You dont need to shake it or anything. After that, I usually keep it at 15psi, which does pour fairly foamy. Usually, I just deal with the foam and pour pint glasses which settle out to a nicely carbed half pint fairly quickly, but for parties I'll drop the pressure to 5psi for better consistent pours.

I know a few commercial cider makers and my understanding is that the cider will carb faster in a bright tank if you bring the pressure up slowly, rather than starting at the final pressure. I'm not sure why this is - it seems counter intuitive to me, but if you are wanting to carb a lot of cider quickly, that seems to be the way to do it. The amount of heads space doesnt make any difference. What is important is the ratio of surface area on top of cider (contact point) to volume of cider

Thanks for your help. great info.When you mention surface area i guess the greater the area the faster the diffusion or the point where cider will take on co2 readily . i know its tricky as cider doesnt contain as nuch protein as wine or beer which seems to hold carb better. Thanks for your insight.

do you shut off co2 in cornies once bubbling has stopped or keep connected at set pressure. I guess if i adjust pressure by 5psi a day in bright tank could work fine.i have d type kegs so not easy for presure relief do you just lose the first couple pints till your in serving spec

I'm carbing ~450 gallons of cider right now in a 500 gallon bright tank. Dropping past 37F right now, target temp closer to 34F, with a foot long diffusion stone connected to the CO2 tank. Since this is a relatively small tank (bigger batches can be 1,200 gallons) it'll carb up in about 30ish hrs (probably less, never really measured the time) over the period of a few days with the regulator set to 15psi. Once the correct pressure is achieved, we'll disconnect the CO2 entirely. This tank has a custom added lower jacket in addition to the regular expansion jacket above the manhole and extra lower thermowell for better temp control while bottling, which will take about 4-5hrs and change tomorrow.

For kegs, we carb in the bright tank and transfer under pressure.

just what i am setting out to do. i can put about 150 gal of cider in this tank i have a prv on top and pressure guage i am guessing this guage should read the same as the equal pressure applied 15 psi on the regulator. I have a normal cinta at the very base in the middle of my tank i hope this is good the cinta has gas connection but is not a footlong. do i need a bigger cinta. should i gas to my target pressure of 15 psi going up in increments of 5 psi at a time i dont want to froth or over carb to much. this is my first semi commercial batch and i wanna nail it.

Personally, I set it at 15 and don't change it. Once the PRV hits the target PSI you're there, at that point there should be equilibrium between dissolved CO2 in the cider and the head pressure.

The PRV is a 40 pound one and so i don't think i will get near this range . Is it better just to set the reg on my co2 to 15psi forget about it for 30 hours or so .. Come back have a sample and check it out. Thankyou so much you have been such a great help.

You like you have a great cider label great design i hope to try some. Cheers

Richy_23 said:

The PRV is a 40 pound one and so i don't think i will get near this range . Is it better just to set the reg on my co2 to 15psi forget about it for 30 hours or so .. Come back have a sample and check it out. Thankyou so much you have been such a great help.

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Ah, I misunderstood, thought you had a pressure gauge attached to the PRV. I have one on the downspout of the CIP tube which measures the head pressure. In that case I think your method is sound. Good luck with your first pro batch!

I have a guage independent at the top of my tank in the headspace. so I am correct in thinking that this will match the 15 psi reading on the co2 cylinder on the guage on the brite tank as this will indicate the pressure maintained in this volume.Cheers sorry for all the questions . Just on a short time frame to release . Cheers

Yes

Oh Christ, this whole brite tank pressurization business looks like it's a whole new area to learn. I'm about to carb my first batch in a brite. Anxiety rising.

Any good reading materials you can recommend?