Using 2-liter bottles for bottling and dry ice for carbonation.

[HonestJon]

BBL_Brewer: "Just out of curiosity, are you using food grade dry ice?"

I didn't know there was such a thing. I just use the bricks I get a Kroger and a hatchet to chip off little pieces before weighing. I figured that there really isn't much that's going to survive on the stuff in the first place, being so cold and all. I suppose that fungal spores MIGHT survive, and possibly even bacterial spores, but I have never had any contamination problems. {Crosses fingers.}

 

[HonestJon]

Yesterday evening, My girlfriend and I sucessfully bottled 6 gallons of beautiful, wonderful, dark beer using 2-liter bottles (11 of them) and dry ice. It went off without a hitch. This method works, and works well. Now I'm ready for Memorial Day! Cheers!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Nec nec nec necro post!

Anyone still doing this? Has anyone done sugar priming for 2 liter bottles? I've never done sheath, I'm curious that the percentage of headpace isn't present in the formulas stated earlier.

 

[DaveNH]

http://www.rickety.us/2012/07/extra-fizzy-homemade-carbonated-beverages/

This appears to meld the op's process without having to shake the bottle constantly. It is similar to relying on the release valve for a corny, but with less disastrous potential consequences.

Just add the dry ice, cap with the release valve cap, and replace with a regular cap once carbed.

One would still have to worry, as the op mentioned, about the dry ice making the plastic brittle and fracturing.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Thanks. I came across that when I posted above, while it does seem safer it seems less reliable to get a specific carbonation rate. Soda carbonation is a lot higher than beer carbonation and leaves solution a lot easier, I imagine this would produce a ton of head if attempted with beer.

I'm going to pick some up on my way home tomorrow and give it a shot. I've got about 2 gallons to attempt this with and a few 2L bottles. I'm going to do it in two stages, using half the dry ice in each stage about 2 days apart. This should reduce the change of over cooling the bottles, and reduce the headspace pressure from exploding levels down to somewhat more reasonable levels.

Was really hoping I would be able to find some food grade dry ice pellets, but all the sources in my area are a lot further out of my way so I'm going to get a 1lb block on my way home tomorrow night and crush it up underneath a towel then carefully weighing out some of the chips before using.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Just wanted to let everyone know I survived.

Like I said in the last post, I went with a 2/3 portion at the first go.
Here's what I used for my calculations:
2L volume,
target carb vol of 2.5,
residual c02 from post fermentation ~0.86 vol. I went with an upper end from brewers friend, using 68F even though the beer definitely hit 72.
dry ice needed: g_tot= Liquidvolume*(target_carb_vol - Residual_Carb_vol)*44/22.4 as outlined on post 2/3 (can't remember).
Initial weight added g_1=g*(2/3)
Secondary weight added tomorrow morning: g_2 = g_1/2

This case:
dry ice needed: g_tot= 6.45g.
Initial weight added g_1=4.30 g
Initial pressure achieved: 1.95 vol
Secondary weight added tomorrow morning: g_2 = 2.15 g
secondary pressure achieved, assuming no loss of pressure to environment during transfer (LOL): 2.5 vol

Feedback: I'll probably keep doing this for my pipeline brews to keep the beer flowing, it was super quick, but bottle prime the special brews. Suggestion for next time, look for dry ice pellets if available in your area they're way easier to deal with. If not, take your block, wrap it in a towel, and drop it from about waist level. Take all but a child's fist sized piece, and put it in an insulated bag in the freezer then cover with frozen stuff. Take the fist sized piece, wrap it in the towel and hit it with a hammer. The smaller pieces dissolve/evaporate WAY faster due to higher surface area to volume ratio. Takes about a minute for a marble sized piece to dissolve, the smaller chips were gone almost instantly.

No need to shake profusely, at least for me, I just kept it rolling so the dry ice was never in the same spot for more than a second or two. Pressure on container was actually rather minimal, it was slightly less carbonation than a pop bottle from the store. I was able to squeeze it with one hand and still have a slight amount of give. Not enough to really see, but enough to feel. Maybe a half cm of indentation from the squeeze.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

First followup: Did not add secondary addition of dry ice yet. Poured a pint from a 1L bottle (adjusting math respectively). Very thin amount of head, if I were to guess at the carbonation rate I'd probably guess ~1.9-2.1 vol, so math seems at least somewhat accurate. Yay.

Also: beer is tasty. Drinking a zombie dust riff.

 

[JDXX1971]

Cool as heck man, now I gotta see if I can find some dry ice. I was already planning on bottling up my extras in 2L's (6.5 gal batch) when I keg in the next couple of days. I was researching priming 2L's when I found this. Pretty cool.............. But otherwise I got a carbacap or sugar I guess.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

If you have kegging equipment, a carbacap is WAY better, cheaper, and easier. But the dry ice got me by while i was in another state and didn't have all my stuff.

 

[JDXX1971]

Yeah, I think I was just excited by the idea of the dry ice method. I will probably try sugar priming one (just to try it) and carbacap the rest. Pretty neat you were able to use the dry ice to get it done in a pinch though.