I like this time at night on HBT

Why oh why..
Do I drink so much?
The night before..
I have to bottle a bunch? :cross:

 

Hey all. I'm thinking about bulk buying Apollo hops (pellet) was wondering if any of you would be interested should have about 8-9 lbs available at $14.00 a lbs. I will vacuum pack down to 4oz packs, shipping I figure flat rate would be the cheapest but will ship any way you wish 2012 lot.

 

Hey friends!

I found this this morning. I started a thread about it cause I thought it was sorta cool (some of you guys will think so too). I feel obligated to do something with it. I was thinking light fixtures. Any Ideas?

 

Mailbox

 

Interesting find. I got my co2 bottle swapped today. It actually was certified, I just didn't know how to read it. I'm assembling everything and will be testing for leaks tonight. I was hoping to have my keezer up and running for my birthday, and it looks like I will.

 

Stellar idea! It would be the mailbox that is passed down through generations.

 

Is that your mailbox?

 

I brought in a tank (in perfect condition) 10 years past certification when I started kegging. Guy swapped it for a crappy full one no questions asked. Except for having a full tank of CO2, I think I got ripped off.

If your kegger isn't operational by your birthday, I will be very dissapointed with you.

Do you think 11-64 is a date code on that pony?

 

Hmm, could be.

My keezer is functional now. All the connections passed the soapy water test, no leaks. Now I need to make something to put in one of the kegs so I can try it.

I was thinking of bottle bombers creme soda recipe, but I don't have any lactose. Hmm...

 

Unfortunately no, something I saw for sale a while back.

 

The leaks will come and frustrate you to no end.

http://www.onlythebreast.com/

 

Ding ding ding. We have a winner.

 

Job then house then job then job. I like where I live so I ain't moving. I love bein in the sticks.

 

Here's a couple of pictures of my keezer. I wasn't able to use the neat 5 way manifold beaks sent me. One of the connector pieces on it is stripped. After looking at it for a moment though, it won't make much of a difference with the present setup. I used the 2 way piece instead. With 3 kegs I can actually run each one at either of the two psi's I can set with the dual regulator with only two connections per pressure. I would just have to adjust the regulator if I wanted all of them at the same psi.

In any case, I've got the high pressure side hooked to the 3 way manifold with the individual valves. That works better because it's connected to the high pressure regulator with a hose. Trying to hook up a manifold directly to the high pressure regulator was going to be a PITA because of how close it is to the tank.

I had started moving my hard liquor into the keezer too. I will have teenage nephews visiting in January, and the keezer lid locks. I doubt it would be a problem anyway, but best to remove the temptation.

What's in the one keg is 12 packets of great value early rise orange sugar free drink mix, and 5 gallons of water. I wanted to test things out with something I would actually drink, but that didn't have any sugar in it. That way, if it made a mess it at least wouldn't be a sticky mess. Good thing too. I didn't realize I needed to tighten the tops on the dispensing spigots. It leaked a bit before I realized what was going on.

Since there is no sugar in this, I'm hoping it will be noticeably carbed by tomorrow.

 

I never had you figured for a virgin kegger. I do have you figured for a smart dude. You will make it work and be happy. I carved koolaid once. It was good. I'm not sure why we never did it again.

 

Why isn't there wine in that keezer?

 

Haha, I might do something like that with my nephews!

The only finished wine I've got is already bottled. I have cider and black cherry wine that will probably end up in there, but they are still fermenting.

I decided to hold off on the creme soda because I don't have any lactose, and I want to give my vanilla extract a little more time to mature.

 

I just had an odd thought. Would it be possible to partially refill your co2 bottle by putting an active fermentation in a keg? I'm thinking no. The amount of pressure you'd need to liquefy the co2 probably makes it impossible. Even if it doesn't, the check valves would.

It's still an interesting thought. Maybe carbonate one batch with the co2 produced by another... I'm kinda tired tonight, and my mind is wandering.

 

Yeast starts doing funky things when you increase the pressure. Not a big deal if you are bottle or keg carbing with minimal yeast, but you probably wouldn't make a great tasting product with a primary under pressure.

 

It takes some serious pressure and/or extremely low temperatures to liquify CO2. Try setting your keezer to MAX.

Anyone seen any nice boobs lately?

 

Yes, and yes.

 

Me too. I had a great Saturday. Off to watch Looney tunes with the boys and sleep. Have a good night all.

 

LG don't go too cold and freeze everything up.
I've done that before. by setting the rator cold to help carb I've frozen cleaner/sanitizer in the line. without the alcohol in the mix the liquid will freeze easily. With alcohol in the liquid it can take colder temps without freezing and blocking the lines. something to keep in mind.

 

I've got my set point at 37f. I think it will be ok.

 

Gas tank for a dune buggy, which means you have to build a dune buggy!

 

No, not me but like where you're going

 

no bobbies seen here either and thats a problem.

 

I'm not embedding this since it has a lot of explicit language, but wow is it funny.

Code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd2z_ZLTcZQ

 

Hmm, so I'm up for the day now. Since it's still dark, I think that it still counts as night.

 

Here's a fairly long thread discussing capture of co2. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-about-co2-capture-system-48208/index3.html

 

Interesting. I'm still reading tangential threads from that.

So, it breaks down to this. Yes you can do it. In order for it to be useful you would need to be able to liquefy the co2 though. That means 6-800 psi.

Page 9 has a diagram for a system that would probably work, and wouldn't be ruinously expensive. The problem would be that it would require a lot of work to run.

An alternate design using an electric pump is to expensive to be practical. Pumps that you could reasonable use for this and can produce pressures high enough to liquefy co2 are 8k and up.

Both of those setups have the problem of requiring a very large diaphragm type storage vessel.

Well, that's one hare I'll probably not pursue further. To many problems, and to high of a space requirement.

 

So, while looking at the idea of compressing co2 from fermentation I thought of two things.

1. Why can't I naturally carb in the keg?

I did some more research and found that there isn't really any reason you can't. There are a couple of disadvantages. First that you end up with some trub in the bottle of the keg. So the first few glasses are somewhat yeasty. Second, the sealing rings on a keg don't usually seat perfectly. So corny kegs don't usually seal without pressure. Easy way around this, use a blast of pressure to seat everything. Then let the yeast carb the brew.

I'm not sure how much co2 you would expend doing that vs force carbing, but it seems like an easy way to save on co2.

2. I don't need another regulator to carb soda.

All I have to do is hook one of the 30 psi connectors up to a 2 liter bottle with the ball lock adapter on it. It won't carbonate in minutes like in the cute youtube videos, but in several days it will still carb. I've got space in the keezer for a couple of bottles too. I've just been thinking that rapidly carbing soda was the "correct" way to do it. That's such a stupid oversight on my part.

I'll probably build an adapter to connect to one of the ball lock gas connectors specifically for this later. I could use a little more line so I can use a gap between kegs in the corner of the keezer for this. That, and I'd like to put a check valve between the line for this and the soda bottle. That way I could shake the bottle to speed the process up without getting soda back into the gas line.

 

LG, are you considering priming soda with yeast and sugar?

 

Good morning LG

I've never naturally carbed in a keg but can see a time and place for it. Mainly if the pipeline was so full kegs were sitting around waiting to be carbed, then natural would be a great alternative. I don't think the CO2 used to seal the lid would be significant. Even when force carbing my kegs require a shot of pressure to purge the tank and seal the o-rings. But alas, who am I kidding? I haven't forced carbed a keg or brewed for that matter since early spring. I sold off four of my six cornies for the move.

 

I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess I could if I was making a sugar free soda with splenda or something. If I'm going to do that though, I wouldn't need the gas system at all. I'd just fill 2L bottles and cap them.

It hadn't occured to me, because I don't really like sugar free soda. I certainly could do that with the drink mixes I'm testing the keezer with though...

Mostly, I'm a cheapskate. That, and doing the bottle exchange was kind of a PITA. So I'm looking to conserve co2 a bit.

 

Well, I thought I'd do a little experiment. I've got 2l of sugar free mango drink mix in a bottle with 1 tbs of sugar and 1/4 of a tsp of bakers yeast. I'll give it a week and see what it does.

 

Huh, I just calculated what should be the ABV of this little experiment. It came out higher then I expected at 0.4%.

 

If you naturally carbonate in the keg, wouldn't you still need to maintain pressure using a CO2 bottle, at least as the keg emptied? Otherwise your carbonation level would decrease as the headspace volume increased and residual CO2 came out of solution.

 

Absolutely. The natural carbonation would be lost and the beer would not flow. Serving pressure will always need applied. Even a commercial keg that is fully carbonated will stop flowing if additional pressure is not added. I wonder if that is why old style beers in England are lowly carbonated. Natural carbonation in the barrel, first few pours are foamy and then an equilibrium exists and since the tap is near the bottom of the keg beer flows, but not much carbonation. After time, that is the norm. After much time that is what makes the beer good. To style Now a days with force carbonation you'd have to carbonate to a low PSI to duplicate.

That's what I think anyway.