CO2 Woes. There's got to be an easier way!

[sg1009]

As the latest CO2 crisis hit the UK I turn my thoughts back to 'There must be a better way to dispense beverages than rely on bulk CO2 cylinders'.

Getting beer from my cellar to the taps is a simple enough operation pushed by regulated CO2 I normally get from various local suppliers. This week I've had to do an hours round trip to an industrial estate and paid £65 for 5kg. It used to be £20-25 ish.

As CO2 is by-product of the brewing process I was wondering if anyone had managed to successfully use pressured kegs or CO2 capture and compression?

It seems CO2 capture and compression is an expensive bit of kit in commercial brewing but us home brewers are a resourceful bunch. Can the gas be filtered and compressed back into a CO2 cylinder at 500PSI?

Another alternative I thought was to use a spare corny keg to brew, or even just containing water, sugar, yeast and keep the keg under a good PSI (120 max for Corny if I remember). Connect that straight up to the secondary regulators. I somehow think the CO2 volume I get from that will require regular emptying of the keg and waiting for the next ferment to start.

 

[buddsy]

Our work van failed its MOT on rusted sill so needs welding...bear with me!

Can get the welding done as the garage cant get any welding gas!! (CO2)

buddsy

 

[Sadfield]

Bottle.

Save CO2 by priming the corny with sugar. Then you only need a few psi for serving.

 

[sg1009]

Save CO2 by priming the corny with sugar. Then you only need a few psi for serving.

Yeah, that's step 1 and I have been doing this. There is a downside that it causes sediment and the dip tube will drag some of this through. This is what makes me think putting a sugar brew in a separate corny may save on gas without the sediment.

 

[sg1009]

Our work van failed its MOT on rusted sill so needs welding...bear with me!

Can get the welding done as the garage cant get any welding gas!! (CO2)

buddsy

That's really pants you can't get your van sorted. BOC wouldn't even let me open a new account even at their prices. Welders must really be struggling.

 

[cerbera84]

I got a 6.35kg refill today for £27 no issues, is there supposed to be a shortage?

 

[gyurmaember]

Just checked, my stockist still have 6.35kg bottles for £27+vat.
Assuming by the weight of your bottle you have some out of standard dodgy one.

 

[cerbera84]

Assuming by the weight of your bottle you have some out of standard dodgy one.

Genuine beverage gas retailer...

 

[gyurmaember]

Genuine beverage gas retailer...

I meant the OPs 5kg one.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I've had similar thoughts. I think it's non -trivial to get pressures of hundreds of PSI to push it back into a bottle. The best thing I've heard that homebrewers can do is collect it in a big airtight bag and then squeeze that. You won't get a lot of pressure, but it's the best I've heard of

 

[Agentgonzo]

Bottle.

A ha ha ha ha.
Troll

 

[Sadfield]

A ha ha ha ha.
Troll

Weird.

 

[gyurmaember]

I've had similar thoughts. I think it's non -trivial to get pressures of hundreds of PSI to push it back into a bottle. The best thing I've heard that homebrewers can do is collect it in a big airtight bag and then squeeze that. You won't get a lot of pressure, but it's the best I've heard of

Or we can collect our farts in a bag, light it up, and voila there's free CO2. Also we can connect the flue of our gas boilers to a corny keg, and use that to serve beer.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Thread on US site discusses this at length
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/use-a-keg-as-a-co2-vessel.698904/#post-9310477

 

[Rodcx500z]

I have 4, one in the fridge one i use for the all rounders and 2 in the shed doing nothing, i had 2 originally but i bought 2 more in April just in case

 

[Agentgonzo]

I did look into a manual pump where you could collect stuff into a big bag/balloon and then try to manually pump/compress it into a small bottle. But it doesn't really exist, so I'm sure it's practical to do. The best I could see were standard compressors (or even better, scuba compressors), but those just draw in air from the surroundings rather than from an inlet pipe you could attach to a CO2 bag to. The best thing I could imagineer was sticking the compressor inside the CO2 baggie.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

It's complicated as you will see from the US thread. But a pet fermenter and a simple sugar nutrient yeast and inline regulator can run a keg to beer engine situation easily.

 

[Agentgonzo]

It's complicated as you will see from the US thread. But a pet fermenter and a simple sugar nutrient yeast and inline regulator can run a keg to beer engine situation easily.

I wonder whether the sugar ends up being cheaper than co2 from a bottle

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Haven't done the maths, bought 25kg of sugar for equivalent 7 pound fifty the other day. The bag was damaged so they'd put it in a plastic bag.
My last CO2 refill was 50 pounds for a 5 kg cylinder. Plus the drive there and back so a couple of litres of fuel.

 

[Polcho]

I had a hiccup last year, I just use the pressure barrels and Hambelton Bard co2.

I couldn’t gave any refills for ages. So literally, no beer!

This is why I’m looking at bottling now.