Can I do it? Measure carbonation level in a keg that is using yeast to carbonate.

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cannman

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I want to place beer in a keg, use yeast to carbonate it, and have a gauge to tell the psi that has built up inside the keg so I can calculate apx what carbonation level the beer is at. I want to do this so that when the perfect carbonation level is hit, I can pull the contents off the yeast and bottle the sucker up.

WHY NOT JUST USE CO2?

I want the flavors imparted by carbonating with champagne yeast :ban:

How do I measure this PSI??
 
You can use a spunding valve to see the carbonation level- but you'd have to sterile filter (with a .5 micron filter I think) to remove yeast since it's microscopic. Also, the filtering of a carbonated beer into bottles may mean loss of carbonation, at least slightly, so you'd probably want to carb it a bit more. Which might defeat the purpose of a spunding valve.

Of course, if you use a prescribed amount of sugar the carb level won't increase anyway once you have hit FG so you wouldn't have to remove the yeast and you could just bottle. Champagne yeast is great for simple sugars, and it would carb up pretty fast. It's also very neutral, that's why it's used so frequently for high ABV wines so it won't provide anything for flavor- the flavor of the beer will come from the original ingredients including the original yeast strain. Unless it's a super high ABV beer, the champagne yeast is unnecessary since most ale and lager strains will carb up just fine anyway.
 
You can use a spunding valve to see the carbonation level- but you'd have to sterile filter (with a .5 micron filter I think) to remove yeast since it's microscopic. Also, the filtering of a carbonated beer into bottles may mean loss of carbonation, at least slightly, so you'd probably want to carb it a bit more. Which might defeat the purpose of a spunding valve.

Of course, if you use a prescribed amount of sugar the carb level won't increase anyway once you have hit FG so you wouldn't have to remove the yeast and you could just bottle. Champagne yeast is great for simple sugars, and it would carb up pretty fast. It's also very neutral, that's why it's used so frequently for high ABV wines so it won't provide anything for flavor- the flavor of the beer will come from the original ingredients including the original yeast strain. Unless it's a super high ABV beer, the champagne yeast is unnecessary since most ale and lager strains will carb up just fine anyway.

Thanks for taking the time this morning yooper.

The beer is going to be at about 10% ABV and eventually go into champagne bottles (Kinda a DeuS take on a beer, but not quite? I haven't figured it 100% out yet, but I'm leaning toward an Imperial Czech Cream Ale as the base). (This is why you shouldn't drink coffee at 3am).

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about priming but I REALLY want to fight for clarity with this beer and I'd like to make sure I get champagne levels of carbonation consistent across the bottles thus the desire to go natural keg carb for the sake of the cold crash ease, etc.

Sorry the idea is still kind of mud in my brain...

Need to figure out how to gauge what the champagne yeast is doing in the keg without killing the pressure. What do you think about fitting a ball lock quick disconnect to a fitted co2 psi guage (no regulator)?
 
What flavors are you expecting to pick up from champagne yeast?

The best way to describe it is that it tastes more like a beer.

I've used it to make root beer carb up and everyone is always "Oh wow! It's like a root beer BEER!"

The yeast is cheap, give it a shot :) yum
 
I'm afraid the biggest challenge is going to be bottling a high carbonated beer from a keg. You'll have to bring the keg and bottles into a pressurized chamber to do it.

I thought about this. I was going to use a Blichmann beer gun at 20' of 1/4" tube at below freezing in bottles that were at the same temp... I'm not buying a counter pressure filler this year... daddy needs a Tower of Power.
 
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