CO2 Refills in Philly / SE Jersey

I'm looking for a place that does CO2 refills or exchanges in the greater Philadelphia area. I live in Roxborough, but I work in Jersey, so anywhere from Cherry Hill to City Line Ave wouldn't be too far out of my way. I'm specifically looking for a place that does food-grade gas, not a welding shop. Any suggestions?

Not sure if you're still looking for a place for CO2 refills, but if you are Barry's Homebrew Shop in Fishtown/Northern Liberties started filling tanks a few months ago. There's plenty of parking available, the selection of supplies is great, and the guys that run the place are awesome. I've been using them as my LHBS since I started brewing.

erickl said:

Not sure if you're still looking for a place for CO2 refills, but if you are Barry's Homebrew Shop in Fishtown/Northern Liberties started filling tanks a few months ago. There's plenty of parking available, the selection of supplies is great, and the guys that run the place are awesome. I've been using them as my LHBS since I started brewing.

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Awesome, thanks for the tip. I hadn't found a place yet. I'm still on my first tank, but I'll need to fill it eventually. That's not too far out of my way.

I use CTS in chonshy, or head up to Blue Bell and hit Posens on 73. Never had an issue with non food grade CO2. To be honest, I didn't know there was a difference, I thought a chemical compound was a chemical compound. Then again I never did all that well in chemistry class...

dfess1 said:

I use CTS in chonshy, or head up to Blue Bell and hit Posens on 73. Never had an issue with non food grade CO2. To be honest, I didn't know there was a difference, I thought a chemical compound was a chemical compound. Then again I never did all that well in chemistry class...

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You are correct that a chemical compound is a chemical compound. The issue is that you can't buy 100% pure CO2 (or most anything else), there are always impurities. The question is what level of impurities are there in what you are buying, and is that considered safe for what you are using it for. For example, tap water has all kinds of scary sounding things in it. The report from my local water utility says that they measured 40 ug / L of barium in my tap water. The federal government claims that anything less than 2000 ug / L is safe, so it's probably safe to drink water straight from the faucet.

There seems to be a lot of confusing information about whether or not the stuff you would find at a welding supply store contains more, less, or the same levels of impurities than food grade CO2. I can't figure it out, so I just figured that since I live in a big city, and don't mind spending a few extra bucks, I might as well go with something suited for the specific purpose I'm using it for. If I lived in a remote area I'd probably make do with welding CO2.

fair enough. All I'm saying is I've used either CTS or Posen for 10 years now with no issues.