I was told when you get to within 5 points of your FG, crank it up, set it according to the carbonation chart elsewhere in this thread. I set mine at 5 PSI from the beginning and checked the gravity after 3 days.
Closed-system pressurized fermentation technique!
- Thread starter WortMonger
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I was told when you get to within 5 points of your FG, crank it up, set it according to the carbonation chart elsewhere in this thread. I set mine at 5 PSI from the beginning and checked the gravity after 3 days.
Anyone know where I can get some sanke ring removal knives?
Morebeer adds to the cart, but comes up with $0 price. St. Pats brewing has them, for $35 for a 3 pack. Can't seem to find them anywhere else for reasonable price. Is homebrewing.com the same as morebeer?
cheers.
Morebeer adds to the cart, but comes up with $0 price. St. Pats brewing has them, for $35 for a 3 pack. Can't seem to find them anywhere else for reasonable price. Is homebrewing.com the same as morebeer?
cheers.
OP
OP
I have had better luck with those small flat-headed screwdrivers companies give away as advertisement. They are free... just sayin'.
cmuench
Well-Known Member
I agree with Wort. I bought some of those knives from chicompany.net I think. I've never used them. They seem flimsy to me but maybe I don't know how to use them.
The cheap little screwdriver works great.
The cheap little screwdriver works great.
Holy cow, what a thread. I don't know what I've been reading for the past 3 hours, but I'm glad I did, lol. I have a simple question that was probably answered a million times, in the early stages of fermenting you have a blowoff tube prior to putting on a spunding valve.
So my question, how is this done without contaminating the process? The CO2 is being released quickly so no danger there, but I'm still confused exactly as to functionally this process is done.
Thanks.
John
So my question, how is this done without contaminating the process? The CO2 is being released quickly so no danger there, but I'm still confused exactly as to functionally this process is done.
Thanks.
John
cmuench
Well-Known Member
cosmatics said:
This is how I pressure ferment. I connect a blow off tube to my setup without the spunding valve for the first 48 hours. Just a tube into a bucket of Sanitizer just like you're fermenting in a carboy. Then remove the tube attach the spunding valve and gradually ramp up the pressure.
It works great for me.
The reason I do it this way is I ferment 15 gallons in a Sankey. When I've tried the spunding earlier in the process it gets plugged with hop particulate from the krausen and the pressure skyrockets. It's a pain to keep removing the valve and cleaning it. So I've gone to this hybrid technique and it seems to work well.
Let us know how you do.
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Others use a water-filter housing to act as a water trap. I start my fermentations at 5psi and stay there until the very end.
Well for starters some use a blow off others don't (I'm in the latter camp). That being said; I have done it with an airlock in the past. I have my pressure gauge attached with a quick disconnect. If I want; I simply attach an airlock to the disconnect with a short length of hose for a few days them swap it out for the pressure gauge. The co2 is heavier than air so it acts as a buffers and won't let contaminated in via air.
I generally ferment 11-12 gallons in a sanke. With this much head space I've never really had the need for a blow off. I set mine to 7psi and let her roll. The pressure also keeps krausen down.
I just finished a 15 gallon ferment in a sanke and I went the airlock route for the first three days then installed my pressure rig. It was a pilsner in budvar yeast and it was a violent fermentation. Finished product came out great and is currently in the kegerator.
Lennie
Well-Known Member
What temp did you ferment at? I don't have much temp control on my unit so I'm sticking to ales right now. I put a box fan blowing on the Brewhemoth conical in the basement and I can keep the ferm at 66-68F at the peak of activity, I doubt this is good enough for a lager and I hate to gamble with 15gal of beer.
I fermented at 52 degrees then layered down to 32 for three weeks. This would have been a great beer to be able to dump trub from.
Need a little help getting a spear out of a miller Keg. I actually bought the drop in sanke removal tool that is supposed to compress the spear It compresses my other Miller keg's spear enough to remove the ring easily. This one, not so much. It released the pressure, but does not compress the spear enough to make o ring removal feasible. In the past, I just brute force got the ring out. I'm hoping to use finesse on this one.
I'm thinking I may have one of those screw in type miller spears. Or maybe I just needs some advice on how to proceed.
Can anyone lend a hand? My feeling is it might be a screw in type spear
I'm thinking I may have one of those screw in type miller spears. Or maybe I just needs some advice on how to proceed.
Can anyone lend a hand? My feeling is it might be a screw in type spear
Nevermind, as Wort and a few others mentioned, get the mini screwdriver involved. I'm amazed at how easily I got that spiral ring out, back in and out again. The drop in sanke removal tool is actually pretty handy. Anyway, I'm back in business. I had moved to a Derrin's setup for a while because the snap rings popped off a few times and drained my CO2 tank. With the drop in valve removal tool, I can easily get the snap rings all the way in. I pressure tested to 25psi with no problems. Even better, that spiral ring is easy to get in and out with the tool and a mini screwdriver.
I'm psyched to be back to using the modified sanke coupler. I know many like their Derrin's setup. Wasn't for me, however. Too many pieces sticking out. Always felt like I needed a third hand when trying to get it locked on. Always a small leak if I tried to force carb during a cold crash.
Anyway, very psyched to return to fermenting in a sanke and with the modified coupler.
Cheers.
cmuench
Well-Known Member
Dgonza9 said:Nevermind, as Wort and a few others mentioned, get the mini screwdriver involved. I'm amazed at how easily I got that spiral ring out, back in and out again. The drop in sanke removal tool is actually pretty handy. Anyway, I'm back in business. I had moved to a Derrin's setup for a while because the snap rings popped off a few times and drained my CO2 tank. With the drop in valve removal tool, I can easily get the snap rings all the way in. I pressure tested to 25psi with no problems. Even better, that spiral ring is easy to get in and out with the tool and a mini screwdriver.
I'm psyched to be back to using the modified sanke coupler. I know many like their Derrin's setup. Wasn't for me, however. Too many pieces sticking out. Always felt like I needed a third hand when trying to get it locked on. Always a small leak if I tried to force carb during a cold crash.
Anyway, very psyched to return to fermenting in a sanke and with the modified coupler.
Cheers.
I bought the tool as well. Pretty tough to swallow the price when guys tell you they have no problem putting the ring back on. Some of the time I didn't have any trouble either, but when I did I was livid. Now I have no problem all of the time and life is good. I use the little screwdriver as well and it works great for me.
O. M. G. What an epic thread!
I just got done reading this entire thread and I have a question that isn't answered here..
I'm an Ale brewer only. I keg my beers, but serve out of 3 gal kegs. I normally ferment in an Ale Pail, but I have a functioning 10 gallon Corny. I don't have the ability to crash cool my entire batch - 10 gal corny won't fit in my beverage fridge..
So, I ask - is there any value for a brewer like me in Closed System Pressurized Fermenting with a Spunding Valve if I can't crash cool the entire batch before transferring to serving kegs?
I was thinking the value for me would be not having to mess with the swamp cooler/ice bottle situation (ester control) and also using the Spunding valve to add a little sparkle (ie free carbonation) to my beer at the end of fermenting.
Anybody else in my situation but employing this technique?
I just got done reading this entire thread and I have a question that isn't answered here..
I'm an Ale brewer only. I keg my beers, but serve out of 3 gal kegs. I normally ferment in an Ale Pail, but I have a functioning 10 gallon Corny. I don't have the ability to crash cool my entire batch - 10 gal corny won't fit in my beverage fridge..
So, I ask - is there any value for a brewer like me in Closed System Pressurized Fermenting with a Spunding Valve if I can't crash cool the entire batch before transferring to serving kegs?
I was thinking the value for me would be not having to mess with the swamp cooler/ice bottle situation (ester control) and also using the Spunding valve to add a little sparkle (ie free carbonation) to my beer at the end of fermenting.
Anybody else in my situation but employing this technique?
Hey guys,
So for reasons unbeknownst to me, my relief valve (mcmaster 99045K46) has started leaking.
Does anyone have alternative valve recommendations? $37 is pricey for a piece of equipment that has been lightly handled, sustained no trauma and hasn't lasted 2 years....
Cheers!
So for reasons unbeknownst to me, my relief valve (mcmaster 99045K46) has started leaking.
Does anyone have alternative valve recommendations? $37 is pricey for a piece of equipment that has been lightly handled, sustained no trauma and hasn't lasted 2 years....
Cheers!
I don't know that crash cooling is any more or any less necessary with pressurized fermentation than it is with non-pressurized fermentation. A cold crash will get your yeast cake nice and compact, so you might need to consider cutting your diptube a bit if you plan on skipping the crash. That may or may not be necessary, so I'd give it a few trial batches before doing anything permanent. Otherwise, I see no problem. One of the advantages of pressurized fermentation is shorter turn-around time. You'd be undercutting that a bit without a cold crash, but that's only a problem if you're in a hurry.
That said, temperature control is still very important, even though you can stand to be a few degrees warmer. If you get a cold swing towards the end of fermentation, you'll still be vulnerable to underattenuation.
Lennie
Well-Known Member
Theres a brass one that goes to 100psi at Grainger, a little cheaper and definitely more robust. I agree though that all you need to do is loosen the spring up all the way and clean it out. You know theres going to be a little bit of something in the seal area.
Cold crashing in this case really helps transferring for me.
Other than the benefits of a compact yeast cake and a clear beer transfer; it drops the pressure in the keg significantly. It will take 25psi down to about 7psi; so I can counter pressure transfer with less CO2 and at lower pressure.
Other than the benefits of a compact yeast cake and a clear beer transfer; it drops the pressure in the keg significantly. It will take 25psi down to about 7psi; so I can counter pressure transfer with less CO2 and at lower pressure.
My biggest complaint of this process is the junk I get in my glass. It wasn't terrible, just that it took a lot of not so perfect pours before it cleared up. Last time I brewed, hops plugged my keg dip tube, so I got some cool filter screens for transferring wort to the fermenter to get as much junk out as possible. Cutting the dip tube of the fermenter keg about 1/2" is next on my list.
Just remember that you can always transfer the chilled 5 gal keg to another at any time. So technically transferring warm from the 10 gal keg and then adding gelatin and chilling for a week with the line connected to even up the pressure and then transferring to a clean keg would give you good results.
I'll take it apart tonight -- thanks for the insight.
Cheers!
Cheers!
CoalCracker
Well-Known Member
This thread is so large so I'm not sure if it was asked. Can you use the pressure from the keg to push the beer through a filter on the way to the keg? Or would I still need another source of Co2?
I guess if you took a cold pressurized keg and ran it through a filter and into an empty keg with a relief valve set to a little below the pressure of the full keg, it would probably do the job. Then you could adjust the relief valve a little as you go to make up for the pressure drops of the co2 coming out of suspension. The problem though is that the receiving keg would fill with beer that is being flattened as the co2 is coming out of suspension and would foam up some. Worth a try to experiment though.
Lennie
Well-Known Member
I think you'll find you would run out of pressure. There isn't a lot of head space in a corny fermentor so the amount of extra pressure is minimal. You'd need a CO2 tank to push it.
I think it would be possible to do this without a CO2 source but I have never tried it. Lets say your final pressure is around 35psi at 70degrees in the primary keg. Cap your empty serving keg and connect your two liquid terminals. You will get a lot of foam in your empty keg at first but eventually the pressure in both will equalize. Wait a while for the foam to drop and then slowly vent the serving keg until all liquid transfers. I would suspect that your final pressure will be under 15psi at 70degrees. Your beer will end up a little flat due to this process so you should probably add a little priming sugar before you start and wait for it to do its magic. Or only do this to lightly carbonated brews.
Good luck!
cmuench
Well-Known Member
CoalCracker said:
I've accidentally done this when I thought my CO2 tank was on and it wasn't. The beer filtered just fine and filled the serving keg fine but then ran out of steam. Then I noticed my valve was closed.
Depending on how much volume of beer you're talking it may work but obviously at the expense of beer carbonation.
You could overshoot your expected volume of CO2 at your fermentation temp, cold crash then let the beer push itself through the filter and hope your final CO2 volume is correct. But you may squeeze the yeast too much and not fully attenuate.
I think you're better off having a tank...
Lennie
Well-Known Member
If you had 2.5gal of beer in a 5gal corny, you'd drop the pressure in the head space by half in the process of moving that beer out. If you had enough pressure that there was still enough to overcome the filter resistance at the end, the beer would move. Of course as your pressure is dropping, the resistance of the filter is increasing due to stuff accumulating on the filter media. The problem is worse when you have 4gal in a 5gal vessel. At that point moving the beer out will lower the pressure by a factor of 5, so you'd need to start with 5x the pressure required to push the beer through the filter. I'm guessing you need 10psi to push the last of the beer through a filter. After all, you need 4psi just to run beer through a hose into your glass at a decent rate. So to have 10psi at the end of transfer you'd need 50psi in the corny. Thats a little much for a corny and certainly too much to be getting through spunding. I've read that at 40+PSI all yeast activity stops.
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