I over primed my pressure barrel by a lot, will it explode?

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HopeItDoesntExplode

HopeItDoesntExplode

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So I messed up big time. First time making cider and I wanted to have it pretty highly carbonated to about 3.5 CO2 volume, about soda levels carbonation.
I have the pressure barrel below with around 22L of dry cider inside it, the calculator said I should put 220g of sugar but I added 320g before I realised my mistake... This is about 4.5 volume of CO2.

What is going to happen? I don't know how much I should trust this pressure release valve... Do I have a 22L keg bomb on my hands? Temperature in the room is 20 degrees if that makes a difference.


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While my account was being approved I ended up moving it back into a resanitised fermentation bucket, better be safe than sorry. Actually I added another kg of sugar since I'm going to be refermenting anyway so might as well raise the ABV from 5% to around 8%... I added some more yeast and some nutrient to make sure it doesn't stall.

Since this thread is already open, what would you say is the absolute max for priming sugar in a pressure barrel? I google around and it seems people use around 85g for some beers, but that seems like it will be way too low of a carbonation for me. Do you reckon I can add 160g? The barrel didn't come with any instructions.
 
Cwrw666 said:
Most of the gas will just vent out of the pressure relief valve. I wouldn't go above the 85g, even then you'll get loads of foam.
Click to expand...
85g it is! Thank you.

That's a bit dissapointing, from what I've been reading on required PSI for 3+ volume of co2 at 20 degrees, I'd need about 2x as much pressure as the 15 psi limit that is printed on my barrel... Oh well, I could always bottle carb but if there's loads of foam then maybe the carbonation won't be as low as I'm assuming it will be. 🤔
 
Clint said:
Some don't have a pressure release valve. If you have one it'll be ok.
Click to expand...
That's complete nonsense @Clint. My PRV is otherwise known as a pint glass.
Drink it down until it seems to be of a reasonable pressure and the same for another couple of days.
Hard, I know, but we live and learn.
:laugh8:
 
HopeItDoesntExplode said:
85g it is! Thank you.

That's a bit dissapointing, from what I've been reading on required PSI for 3+ volume of co2 at 20 degrees, I'd need about 2x as much pressure as the 15 psi limit that is printed on my barrel... Oh well, I could always bottle carb but if there's loads of foam then maybe the carbonation won't be as low as I'm assuming it will be. 🤔
Click to expand...
Usual thing with pressure barrels is that you get loads of foam to begin with then as you work your way down the barrel it settles down until you get about half way down and the pressure will run out. Then you can either add gas from CO2 canisters or as I used to do, open the barrel and chuck in another 85g of sugar, leave it 3 days to pressure up, then it'll be good til the end.
I hate pressure barrels!
 
Cwrw666 said:
Usual thing with pressure barrels is that you get loads of foam to begin with then as you work your way down the barrel it settles down until you get about half way down and the pressure will run out. Then you can either add gas from CO2 canisters or as I used to do, open the barrel and chuck in another 85g of sugar, leave it 3 days to pressure up, then it'll be good til the end.
I hate pressure barrels!
Click to expand...
I replaced the plastic taps on my pressure barrels with plumbing ball valves and a curved section of pipe as the tap. It greatly reduced the amount of foam at the beginning of the barrel to the level of a relatively normal pint.

But they are still a pain so I just bottle everything
 

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