CO2 Manifold - use valve to throttle the pressure?

[PKHomeBrew]

Hi all,

I am new-ish to this hobby, in that I have been making beer for about a year. This forum has been amazing. The information collected here is invaluable to a newbie. This forum helped, when I was making beer from a kit, when I went to extract, and then to all grain. It helped me setup my Keezer and helped me when I pitched yeast at the too high a temp (70C instead of 70F, oops), or when my airlock blew off my carboy. I now have my first question that i am unable to find in any previous threads.

I have a Keezer with three taps and three kegs. I have a 5lb co2 tank inside the Keezer that is hooked up to a regulator and then a three outlet co2 manifold.

I love the system, except for when it comes to filling bottles - which I only do when I'm bringing beer somewhere, which isn't too often. I used to have tremendous foam problems filling bottles from the taps, but I discovered a somewhat tedious method that works. What I have been doing is turning the psi down on my regulator to about 3or4psi, purging the gas from the keg, and then filling the growler from the tap. Then I bring the psi back up to serving pressure. It's quite the pain, as my regulator is hard to access, and turning the screw back up to serving pressure is not an exact science.

It just occurred to me that instead of all that nonsense, I could simply shut off the valve on my manifold, purge the co2 from the keg, and open the tap (with a bottle underneath) Then, I could open the manifold CO2 valve a little bit to adjust the co2 pressure so that the bottle fills slowly and the beer doesn't foam. My manifold is much easier to reach, and getting back to serving pressure is simple. Is there any reason I shouldn't do this? Has anyone every done this with success, or failure?

 

[friarsmith]

If you're getting good pours straight from the faucet to a glass when the keg is under CO2 pressure, then there should be more than enough pressure to fill a few bottles if you turn off the valve on the manifold going to that keg beforehand. I'm not sure you'd need to release much, if any pressure. If the pour is a little slow, then yes, slightly open the manifold valve.

Another option would be to have a separate "picnic line" with a cobra faucet for filling bottles. With maybe a 4 to 5 ft line. Then put a 10-12" piece of 3/8 siphon hose on the cobra faucet. That part will be inserted to the bottom of the bottle. You can fill bottles/growlers under CO2 pressure for short-term storage/use with this method with minimal foam waste. It's not a bad idea to have a bucket underneath for any spillage though.

Or you could just put a 10-12" piece of tubing directly onto the tap and fill from there under pressure.

 

[PKHomeBrew]

Thanks! I am thought about many of those other ideas, and may try them in the future.

I never thought of using the head pressure from the keg to fill the bottle. That seems like it would waste the least amount of co2. I'll try that tonight.

 

[thomash]

Just keep in mind that a valve does nothing to regulate pressure. It only regulates how fast the gas can flow. A valve opened slightly will just build pressure slowly until it matches your regulator setting or until the valve is manually closed.

So by toggling the gas valve on and off, you can regulate pressure, just not very accurately.

 

[PKHomeBrew]

That distinction is subtle but certainly worth noting. As long as I'm filling bottles, (i.e. Letting the pressure out) it works out to about the same thing. However if I close the tap, the pressure will rise but at a slower rate. That makes sense. Thanks.

I filled some a growler the other day (to bring to my band practice ) and tried the approach above. It was perfect. Almost no escaping co2 while pouring, and the co2 was perfect when I got to rehearsal.

Thanks