How do commercial brite tanks work?

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guinsu

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I've been reading a lot of threads here since I was having problems with my kegged beer being very under-carbonated even after a month carbonating with the "set and forget" method. There have been lots of suggestions on how to fix that, some of which worked for me.

I was wondering how the brite tanks in a commercial brewery work. From what I understand they carbonate a batch in days if not hours, I can't see a brew pub waiting a month or more to serve a beer as it carbs up.
 
Some will produce some or all of the carbonation naturally, by sealing the tank when the beer is above terminal gravity. Some will use sintered stones.
 
Some places use Carb stones.........similar to an O2 stone you might use to oxygenate your beer before fermenting. This allows alot of beer to be carbed in a short time.

The brewery I part time at closes off the blow off valve in the fermenter about a day before transfer, some pressure builds up. Once transfered, we put it in the brite tanks, with 15psi of CO2 and it usually carbs in about 12-14 days. Its a smaller brewery so once there is 6 or 7 styles at 7.5 bbl each.....we have the luxury of being able to wait a that time for it to condition.
 
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