Pressure kegs

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oxford brewer

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Hi all.
I have a Hambleton Bard 40 pint keg, and it has a pressure valve(brass plug with thich plastic wrapped around) that is rated at 10psi.Is there anyway to modify the barrel so i can possibly force carbonate(would like to put a pressure gauge and relief valve in its place,that way after carbonation i can reduce to serving pressure:D ).

Any help on this matter would be welcomed

Colin

Kegged...Best Bitter

Fermenting...19th century IPA
 
I'm not familiar w/ that keg design. Do you have any pictures of it? Do you know of any where that there are pics on the net?
 
I'd guess the pressure relief valve is screwed in, and can come out. Then screw in a T fitting, put the relief valve back on, and put the CO2 in the other port. The relief presure is probably that low for a reason, but even naturally carbonating might make 35 psi....I think... anybody got reference for max psi by yeast?

Check with the sellers/makers though. I have seen oxygen bottles that were made of fiberglass/resin, sooo???
 
If you've got lots of money you can invest in a widget system, which can be bought with an integral pressure gauge, but it is very expensive. Otherwise - assuming that you have a wide 4" dia capped keg - Leyland Homebrew offer a fitted pressure gauge to a new keg for £7.95 (code 0812b) - If you ask them nicely perhaps they will supply one that you can fit yourself, assuming you can drill a hole in the cap?. They can also supply an injector valve for use with the standard S30 cylinder if your keg does not have one fitted. If you look at the picture of the pressure gauge on their website you will see that it is actually fitted to a Hambleton Bard cap with injector and relief valves also fitted.

http://www.leylandhomebrew.com/cat46_1.htm

As to how you are to release pressure, I can only suggest you carefully and gently insert a thin piece of plastic (a toothpick for example) between the plastic sleeve and body of your pressure relief valve near the outlet hole, thus relieving the pressure over the hole allowing gas to escape - a far from ideal solution I know but the only one I can think of.

If your keg has the narrow 2" dia cap, I don't know of any way you could fit a gauge and injector/relief valve, there just isn't room. Unless you invest in the expensive widget system all you could do is replace the fitted relief valve with a combined injection and relief valve to enable forced carbonation.

Finally and perhaps most importantly I would like to reiterate the point made by David 42 above - Do not remove the currently fitted 10 psi pressure relief valve unless you replace it with a similar one (ie combined injection & relief valve). Kegs are fitted with pressure relief valves with good reason - a split keg and 40 pints of your finest all over the floor is not a good start to your brewing hobby!.

Good luck & happy brewing - Buster, Northampton, England.
 
Why would you want more than 10 psi? Most ales want to be poured at about 5-6 psi to avoid over carbonation.
 
Buster wrote" Is that Oxford, England - A fellow Limey? "

Sure is Buster....my fellow Shire dweller (rose of the shires my a**e:rolleyes: )

And i have just crawled through the Towcester roadworks twice to go and collect 2xfermenting bins,2xwine fermenting bins,2x beerspheres and another hambleton bard S20 Co2 gas cartridge from a guy in Northampton(£27.55 on e-bay:D ),need a bit of a clean up but....hey.
I work in a hydraulics company so i can get fittings and gauges easily.I read that for force carbonation you need to get to about 35psi,which if it is rated to 10psi,it will take at least double that:eek: .Could do with a gauge to try to get serving pressure good though(lost to much of last keg to foam ).

We camp a bit and go to Billing Aquadrome every year for an American car show weekend(need to bottle lots for that show),so come along and share a few brews and BBQ:drunk:

Colin

PS thanks for the replies!
 
Towcester huh, you have my sympathy, always try to avoid the place like the plague. If they had done the by-pass properly and linked it up to the A5 they could have solved most of the problems of that festering wart of traffic misery.:mad:

Aaahhh, Billing Aquadrome, the jewel in the crown of Northampton. Where the smell of thousands of sausages sizzling on barbecues is complemented by the heady aroma of raw sewage from the nearby sewage treatment plant:drunk: .........

Rose of the Shires?................A**e of the Shires more like!:eek:

Sounds like you got a reasonable deal off of ebay, all that kit for less that £30 seems like a good buy, assuming it's all usable. The wine fermenters can make excellent secondary fermenters as the beer is kept sterile by the airlock.

I'd still be very wary of putting much more than 10 psi into a plastic keg though.....
 
Buster quoted " Aaahhh, Billing Aquadrome, the jewel in the crown of Northampton. Where the smell of thousands of sausages sizzling on barbecues is complemented by the heady aroma of raw sewage from the nearby sewage treatment plant"
I am only there for a few days....i take it your not a camping fan!!!!!!!!!!!!
There gear has cleaned up ok i think(bleach and water),hopefully i will be hearing the sounds of bubbling by sunday????

Still gonna play with the keg a bit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We may speak again or i could try pressure testing my keg in "safe environment"..
Through work i can put it on a test rig and check for leaks?????????????
 
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