Saving CO2 while "sheltering in place" give me some tips on pressurized fermentation

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

All,

Not out of prepping, just how things fortunately fell I've got about 8-12 month of brewing ingredients on hand and a newly finished brew room. I'm expecting a 'shelter in place' order in Colorado any day now and thinking long term i'm wondering how best to make my CO2 tanks last. I have two serving setups and three 5 pound tanks which were recently filled, so thats good, but I was thinking about using as much benefit of natural carbonation as I can get to really make my CO2 tanks last a long time (i'd like to plan for the worst while still being optimistic about this pandemic crap)

So i just got a spike flex+ and have a lager going in there I brewed Wednesday. it's at 50F and chugging along well. My basic question is the general tips for pressurized fermentation. My standard practice for lagers is to hold around 50F for a week then ramp to 65F over 3-5 days, then hold for a few days to a week. I'm thinking after 4 or 5 days i'll pull the CO2 quick connection I'm using for a blow off and just let it pressurize. I know people say you can push the temperatures higher when under pressure but I dont want to alter my process too much.

Also I know I could just ferment like normal and keg condition with sugar addition but i'm not excited about adding two more weeks to the process time I've got empty lines coming down the pipeline soon!

Thanks for some general tips on pressurized fermentation.

Cheers and stay healthy everyone, it's a great time to be a homebrewer!

 

[Robert65]

Look into spunding. You don't ferment under pressure, but transfer to keg with a few gravity points left to go, and you're fully carbonated when you hit FG. Lots of info on the forums. Also a low oxygen technique which will help all your beers, especially hoppy ones, stay fresh until the zombie apocalypse is over.

 

[ba-brewer]

Timing is tricky trying to find the last few points for me, it also seems like the keg keeps building pressure for a longer period of time than if I allowed the beer to just finish.

I also have issues with foaming in the keg and cant seem to get as full of a fill as when I wait. I use a closed loop gravity fill, might work better under pressure.

I have done priming in the keg with better results. Use the half as much sugar as when you bottle works for me. Better to shoot a little low on volumes than to have a over carbed keg. A spunding valve helps with this approach too for insurance.

edit- priming in the keg seems to get up to pressure in about a week for me.

 

[Robert65]

Spunding does require doing an FFT so you'll know exactly what FG will be, and using a spunding valve for extra insurance because you often can't transfer at exactly the right time. But it saves a lot of time over other methods of conditioning or carbonating in the keg (takes 0 days, actually,) and the transfer is simpler that kegging fully carbonated beer from a unitank. When I started spunding I realized it had not only given me superior beer, but had also vastly simplified and sped up my process. But there are of course other ways to save CO2. I'm also looking to save all I can elsewhere in the process in the current situation. Might be time to look into fermentation purging my kegs.