I have been home brewing for over 20 years and occasionally make a 12- 16% brew by freezing some of the water out of the wort. I have used a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mix in the keg to make an interesting drink. I have had a request to bottle the strong brew. Of course it is not possible to brew CO2 into the 16% wort so I saw the discussions about dry ice and remembered that the widgets in the commercial cans contain a patented N/Co2 mix. Before I start to experiment with CO2 widgets I wondered if anyone has had success in adding dry ice to bottled wort to put the fizz in.
Very strong beer problem
- Thread starter Roduni
- Start date
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'Wort' is before the fermentation takes place. It is 'beer' as soon as the yeast start doing work.
If I understand properly, you are partially freezing the finished beer and removing some of the water to condense the emaing liquid. This is very similar to making a German style Eisbock and is something I do myself at home with similar results.
Since you are familiar with kegging,why don't you force carbonate the beer and bottle it with a counter pressure bottle filler? Works well for me.
If I understand properly, you are partially freezing the finished beer and removing some of the water to condense the emaing liquid. This is very similar to making a German style Eisbock and is something I do myself at home with similar results.
Since you are familiar with kegging,why don't you force carbonate the beer and bottle it with a counter pressure bottle filler? Works well for me.
God Emporer BillyBrew
Well-Known Member
Roduni said:
We talked about this a few months ago and it seems the consensus was that it would be almost impossible to figure out the right amount to use.
MattD
Well-Known Member
I was considering bottle carbing with dry ice just a few weeks ago. I decided not to, as it occurs to me that the dry ice would likely sublimate far more quickly than the beer could absorb the gas (unless it was REALLY cold), and therefore all the CO2 would rush to the headspace and blow the bottle into itty bitty pieces of glass shrapnel which would lodge directly into my cornea. If you try it, do so behind a lexan shield 
If you want to put CO2 into a 16% beer, use distiller's yeast and carb-drops. Most brands are good for 22% and some can handle 24%. Since the yeast would be fermenting a very small amount of sugar, there would be no impact on flavor.
G. Cretin said:
Dry ice shouldnt be screwed with. This topic was brought up several months ago.
Lets say you do try it but lets say MAYBE you put it into a 2 liter diet coke bottle . . . .
Then lets say MAYBE you put it under a bed. . .
Maybe in the dorm of a Firehouse . . .
MAYBE right after lunch when everyone likes to take a nap . . .
MAYBE the bed could have been the bed of that REAL cool Captain ya really like . . .
Of course I wouldnt have video of a hypothetical situation like that but use your imagination
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1772133202647363902&q=dry+ice%2C+bottle
If ya take the lable off it's quieter prior to bursting and if ya dont use water and just use more dry ice it takes longer so the captain MAY have been in a real deep sleep. Even MONTHS later he isnt amused . . . but the rest of us are still laughing like mudderfuggers.
Cornies will crack if they get too cold & dry ice is way below the critical temperature.
About 20 years ago at a Halloween party, the host put a block of dry ice in the bottom of the punch bowl. I think he used too much, as the punch froze solid and then the bowl shattered, and then everything got sticky.
About 20 years ago at a Halloween party, the host put a block of dry ice in the bottom of the punch bowl. I think he used too much, as the punch froze solid and then the bowl shattered, and then everything got sticky.
david_42 said:
Huh? You're saying a stainless steel preesure vessel (like a corny) will 'crack' if it gets too cold? This doesn't make sense.
It might crack if the beer was allowed to freeze, but that isn't the goal here. There would have to be enough dry ice to cool 5 gallons of beer below the freezing point.
Thanks - for all your advice - Is there a term for a brewed wort? I have always in ignorance referred to the mixture as wort until it is gassed. I must have had bad yeast because 12% has been when the yeast has stopped fermenting.
All metals have a critical temperature & pressure curve below which they get really brittle. Brittle fracture failures in stainless steel are one of the big concerns in reactor pressure vessels. Granted cornies don't run at those pressures, but they are much thinner and dry ice is 700-800 degrees cooler than an operating reactor.
There's a classic example where a WW2 ship (SS Schenectady) was sitting at a pier in freezing weather and it just snapped in half.
12% is very good for an ale yeast, Roduni. Most of them can't go over 8%.
There's a classic example where a WW2 ship (SS Schenectady) was sitting at a pier in freezing weather and it just snapped in half.
12% is very good for an ale yeast, Roduni. Most of them can't go over 8%.
Just force carbonate, dude. Dry ice, while entertaining and potentially hazardous, isn't going to solve your problem.
And yes, steel will become brittle and susceptible to cracking if you get it too cold. Especially if you get it too cold in one spot as is likely to happen with dry ice experimentation under pressure.
And yes, steel will become brittle and susceptible to cracking if you get it too cold. Especially if you get it too cold in one spot as is likely to happen with dry ice experimentation under pressure.
As I recall from firguring it out about a year ago, about 4oz of dry ice will make 2 1/2 volumes on CO2 in a cornie. Or use 8 of the 11 gram cartridges of CO2? The corny has a pressure relief valve set at about 100 psi. I doubt if 4 oz woud crack a corny full of beer, the beer would soak up lots of the cold, especially if you shook it in the meantime. No way I would try it in bottles without a very good scale. I haven't tried it in a corny yet either, I'm still bottling. The usefulness as I see it would be to know EXACTLY how much carb you are putting in. YMMV.
Yuri_Rage said:
You guys must have gone to the 'the sky is falling' school of physics and engineering.
Let's get back to reality.A chunk of dry ice dropped into a corny full of beer is not going to freeze one spot of the corny. First the chunk of dry ice would have to be small enough to fit through the opening. This means that a big enough piece to freeze things solid won't fit.
Second, it will be immersed in a bath of 5 gallons of relatively warm liquid (the beer) which will cause the ice to sublimate at an accelerated rate- this reaction will cause enough rolling and agetation of the liquid that the chilling effect will be spread throughout the body of liquid fairly equally.
Even if the ice were to 'stick' against the side of the corny somehow, the 5 gallons of beer would make a pretty effective heat sink.
The chances of a whole cornie or even one little spot getting cold enough for the steel to become brittle- I don't really think so.
If you guys want to have a discussion about risk assessment of progressive hydrogen embrittlement on high pressure turbine support housings due to inappropriate non destructive test methods as it applies to modern commercial aircraft engines, let me know.
