Spunding for Carbonation

[Pehlman17]

Can anyone direct me to a good spunding guide (if such a thing exists)?

I currently ferment in corny kegs and have always wanted to try spunding as a means of either partially or fully carbonating my beer. I own a spunding valve but haven't put it to good use yet. I don't plan on fermenting under pressure initially, but instead using a blowoff through high krausen at least. I do typically use a Tilt hydrometer, so I'm thinking I'd either cap the keg or attach a spunding valve at the tail end of primary to capture CO2. FWIW, I do typically cold crash in primary and transfer off trub into a clean serving keg. I suppose my main questions are when to cap or apply the spunding valve? (I've heard 1-2 plato range). If using a spunding valve, do I just set it based on the finishing temperature and my desired volumes of CO2? And the last question would be what's the best way to move the now-carbonated beer into the serving keg with a pressure differential without foaming issues? Im guessing something like pressurizing the serving keg with the spunding valve set on the gas out?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Cheers!

 

[Dland]

My practice is to rack from conical fermentor into C kegs when gravity is about .006-008 above where I expect finish gravity to end up. If cold fermented lager, I do ramp up, D rest, ect at same time. With ales, I just rack them when fermentation is slowing but still going...it is important to transfer to spund before yeast is completely done..

I put together some spunding valves, but rarely use them now, as I have transfer timing down pretty well. So I just check with gauge, typically once a day, but really could be done more infrequently...

I like to see about 30 PSI at 60F, or correspondingly lower or higher w temp, going by the carb charts.... also like to see PSI stop rising, tells me yeast is doen w clean up, before I ramp down and cold crash. When fermentation, spunding, D rest is done, I cold crash at around 30F for at least 3 weeks, longer is better..

Hopefully is partial answer to question. There are several past threads on the subject too.

 

[Pehlman17]

Much appreciated. I mostly do ales so I assume I'd need at least 2 bars of pressure at 68F in order to get some halfway decent carbonation.

 

[Bassman2003]

A Tilt is very useful to get a ballpark number of when to transfer. If you miss the window you can always put some sugar in there to restart some fermentation. I start with the spunding valve totally closed and let the pressure build to my desired PSI then open the valve to slightly hearing escaping gas. It takes a little time to build up to pressure as you are late in fermentation and the yeast are slowing down.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

Question about spunding for carbonation

Doesn't setting the spunding gauge at a particular PSI only guarantee the headspace will be at that PSI?

Wouldn't you want to set the spunding valve considerably higher than the level on a carbonation chart if the volume produced during the end of fermentation is expected to fully carbonate/absorb into the beer (and not just pressurize the headspace)

What am I missing?

 

[Bassman2003]

Spunding is a different animal compared to force carbonation. Remember, the yeast are everywhere and they are making the CO2. So the headspace is not the only areas getting gas.