Necessity of a pressure breaker?

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fuzzybee

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I just got a BrewBuilt 7 gallon conical. I'd like to do pressure fermentation, but their pressure kit is on back order. The kit consists of a spunding valve setup and a 15 psi fixed PRV/pressure breaker. The lid already has a 15psi PRV built in. If I'm not going to be refrigerating the conical, do I absolutely have to have the breaker installed? I'd like to brew a kveik kolsch next weekend under pressure in my garage - I'm trying to picture where I would risk the internal pressure dropping to a vacuum.
 
I don’t know that the pressure breaker is going to work under a vacuum, they only work with pressure. They have a spring inside that when the pressure is higher than the spring pressure it releases the pressure so I don’t know that it would work under vacuum.

Is there a way to hook up CO2 for cold crashing?
 
If the lid already has a PRV in it, I don't see any reason to get a second PRV.

I have Spike conicals with their gas manifolds fitted. Those are composed of a gauge, 15psi PRV and gas ball lock fitting. It allows you to add pressure, monitor pressure, and be sure the fermenter doesn't exceed it's listed working pressure level.

I also have the SS Brew Tech spunding valves fitted on the fermenters. I typically keep them under 12psi maximum while fermenting. I have a batch still fermenting that's at about 10.5 psi (according to the gauge on the manifold).

I DO cold crash and carbonate in fermenter with these. At most, I see less than two PSI drop from when I'm at 70F to 35-38F. Pressure when carbonating hasn't exceeded 12psi so far, due to the temperature I'm going to.

IMO, if you have an open/available 1.5" TC port on the lid, I'd get the SS Brew Tech spunding valve. Yes, they're not cheap, but they do a excellent job of things. They're also one way valves, so you will NOT get anything sucked back into the fermenter due to temperature changes. I do make it a point to have the Starsan in the cup above the holes in the spunding valve (where the CO2 escapes). That's easy to do with a small bottle of Starsan solution right in the area where these sit.

BTW, the spunding valve type they show for that setup is one that I've had zero luck with. I had much better luck with the Blowtie setups when using kegmenters. At least with the ones I'm using now, I can actually set the pressure level before fermentation even starts, with little, or no, pressure in the fermenter. IMO/IME, that's a better solution than hoping you have the screw set correctly. Otherwise, you'll need to charge the fermenter with CO2/pressure, and then set the valve and hope you have it correct.
 
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