What pressure in a pressure barrel?

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ozymandias

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I'm testing out an old pressure barrrel - what pressure should the safety release valve sustain within the barrel? I have a pressure guage connected, and after CO2 injection it raises to about 2.5 PSI, but then falls off to just above zero. Now this could be because I'm using a guage designed for auto turbo's! I don' t know what pressure I should expect. 1PSI is about 70cm of water - I'd kind of expect a bottle of beer or coke to exert at LEAST this amount - so probably a pressure barrel too.
Anyone got a barrel with a guage? What pressures are to be expected?

Cheers,

Oz.
 
Er... I'm from the UK and I'm not quite sure what a Cornelius Keg is... The pressure barrel I'm describing is what you put the beer into instead of bottles for conditioning and dispensing. It's high density plastic with a plastic tap at the bottom (no float system - it is pretty old!) and a CO2 injector system in the cap, featuring a safety valve. In fact the safety valve is just a wide rubber band covering a hole in the side of the injector which communicates with the interior.
Do I gamble putting a batch of beer into a barrel that might be leaking?? If I can find out what pressures are normal for conditioning beer-inna-barrel I can work out if it's faulty or not!

Oz.
 
If it can't hold 10 psi, you will have "real" ale. Real ales are conditioned without pressure, not a bad thing. I like low fizz ales myself. So long as nothing enters the cask, your ale will be safe.

FYI - A cornie/Cornelius keg is a 5 gallon (US) stainless steel can orignally used for soda/soft drinks. Their relief valves pop at around 135 PSI.
 
ozymandias said:
Do I gamble putting a batch of beer into a barrel that might be leaking?? If I can find out what pressures are normal for conditioning beer-inna-barrel I can work out if it's faulty or not!

Oz.

It sounds like your barrel has a leak and/or the safety release valve is set too low.

You will need to be able to maintain around 12 psi for beer with 'regular' levels of fizziness, if that's what you like.
 
The pressure relief valve will start blowing at about 10psi.I tried fitting a gauge to one of my lids,but i couldnt get a good seal and the co2 slowly leaked out.If you want to know if the barrel is leaking then seal the lid on(use vaseline on the rubber o ring in the lid)put a little co2 in the barrel and then submerge in water and check for leaks.You will be able to get a good carbonation level in your beer with a max of 10psi.
 
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