solo103
Well-Known Member
Does anybody in here have pro experince on carbonating bright tanks with carb stone
Jaun what does the check valve look like. Does it attach to the valve that the stone is attached to or the co2 line coming off the tank?
You don't need a check valve. I have seen many stones in commercial breweries without them, a simple ball valve that can be turned on and off is sufficient so that beer doesn't back flow out of the tank when you have the gas off. It doesn't matter if beer goes into the stone, it happens whether you want it to or not. You do, however need to clean your stone properly! It needs to soak in a cleaning solution, wether it be PBW, BRU R EZE, Caustic, Chlorinated Alkali, etc. Soak it, hook the gas to it and run rinse water over the stone. When the rinse water runs clear, the stone is clean. If you haven't been doing this, your stone is probably pretty gummed up and may take a good day or two soak to get the material sufficiently broken down. Once it is sufficiently clean, soak it in sanitizer, such as iodophor or PAA, then hook the gas to it again and give it a blast to drive most of the liquid out.
For stones that go in larger tanks, stones that are too big to soak in a 5 gal bucket, you can make a soaking tube with a PVC pipe and an end cap.
There are all sorts of styles of check valves. Often the shut off valves are combination ball/check valves.
You sure there wasn't at least one at the regulator? Often the ball valve at the stone you mentioned is a combination ball/check valve. Either way I think it's a good idea, especially since it only costs a couple bucks. The instructions that came with the stones I helped install at a micro suggested either using a ball/check valve or putting an inline check valve right near the carb stone, even if there were other check valves further upstream. They also urged preventing beer from getting in the stone, and suggested several measures to help prevent it. On the pro-brewer forums having a working check valve for each carb stone and coupler is listed under "Stupid stuff all brewers should know but often don't".
Enter your email address to join: