Nitrogen blanketing system?

[nukebrewer]

I was thinking of designing a nitrogen or helium(probably easier to obtain) blanketing system so I could rack from primary to secondary and secondary to bottling bucket without worrying about oxygen absorption. Basically it would consist of a hole drilled in the lid of the bucket for inserting the nitrogen tube and another with a loose flap of a cover to allow the nitrogen to escape as the beer fills the bucket. My question is, would this be practical? I found a disposable helium tank on the Target website for $50 that has 15 cu. ft of helium. A typical 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket is ~1.1 cu. ft. That means I could get 13 full uses out of the bottle before it ran out. That seems pretty reasonable to me. Any thoughts or things I may not have considered? Thanks.

-AJ

 

[lapaglia]

Have you thought about using the CO2 your fermentation creates to do some of this for you? The Better Bottle FAQ has some examples of it under the products/how to/racking/ no oxygen part. from what I have read there and elsewhere you are going to make more than enough CO2 during the fermentation to allow you to rack with no O2 involved. Its a pretty cool process.

Helium will work but helium is a non-renewable resource that you are buying and CO2 is renewable and since your beer is making it its a lot cheaper (free).

 

[Bigsnake]

If there is a grocery store that sells dry ice around you, then you can throw some dry ice into your primary or secondary before transfer and let it sublimate. That'll fill the container with CO2. Won't need any additional hardware for this option.

If you want to use a tank, then consider CO2 because it'll be cheaper to get tanks refilled. A lot of places will be able to fill it up cheaply. Academy sports does it for the people who have it for paintball guns.

 

[Ecnerwal]

Not thinking clearly, I'm afraid.

Helium - used for balloons - because it's lighter than air. The only way to fill a bucket with it is to turn the bucket upside down. Kinda hard to put liquid in at that point, and if you turn it over to put liquid in, all the helium leaves. It's also a VERY expensive gas, actually.

Nitrogen - unless you have a tank sitting around somewhere, not a lot of point. given that air is 79% nitrogen, it's not inclined to go much of anywhere - but it is slightly lighter than the oxygen in air...

Carbon dioxide - heavier than air, you can fill a bucket with it, and still be able to fill the bucket with liquid. You can either use the carbon-dioxide generator that looks like a fermenter, or get a tank of it. Cheap and easy to get - any gas supplier or fire-extinguisher company has it, or you can pay way too much for those little cartridges.

<Edit>RE: above - dry ice tends to cost more than a tank, and DON'T put dry ice in a glass carboy.

 

[nukebrewer]

Cool, thanks for the much better suggestion of using CO2, especially the CO2 from the fermentation. I think I will hook up a rig to do that when I get back home. Thanks again.

-AJ

 

[fratermus]

I've used a plastic bottle with a bit of water and dry ice chips in it. Put a blowoff on it and it becomes a CO2 pump: