Low Force Carbonating

[6Trails]

I'm trying to work out how to force carbonate a beer to around 1.0 to 1.2 volumes of CO2 so I can put it on 70/30 for serving, but every calculator I've tried says I need minus 4.5PSI to achieve this. Is this not possible or am I missing something with the negative result I'm getting back? Thanks.

 

[foxy]

I'm trying to work out how to force carbonate a beer to around 1.0 to 1.2 volumes of CO2 so I can put it on 70/30 for serving, but every calculator I've tried says I need minus 4.5PSI to achieve this. Is this not possible or am I missing something with the negative result I'm getting back? Thanks.

Go to calculators at the top of the forum page scroll down to priming calculator, could be you aren't entering the temperature of the beer 1.00 t0 1.2 volumes is pretty low what beer are you serving?

 

[Agentgonzo]

Did you ferment it cold?

At the end of fermentation there is already a certain level of co2 in the beer. The colder your fermentation, the more co2.

https://byo.com/resource/carbonation-priming-chart/

So it's likely you've already got above 1.0 volumes of co2. In which case just put it on 30/70 to serve

 

[6Trails]

Go to calculators at the top of the forum page scroll down to priming calculator, could be you aren't entering the temperature of the beer 1.00 t0 1.2 volumes is pretty low what beer are you serving?

It's a special bitter I want to serve on my nitro tap.

Did you ferment it cold?

At the end of fermentation there is already a certain level of co2 in the beer. The colder your fermentation, the more co2.

https://byo.com/resource/carbonation-priming-chart/

So it's likely you've already got above 1.0 volumes of co2. In which case just put it on 30/70 to serve

Good to know, thanks, I wasn't thinking of some already being in it. I don't pressure ferment or anything like that but makes sense some would stay in solution (I did cold crash too). I'll put no gas on it so and connect the 70/30 to try a pour a try at the weekend - I've tried the permanent 30psi 70/30 connection for a month before but never could get it working so wanted to try CO2 carbonation first to see.

 

[peebee]

You are using 30/70 mixed gas (the "convention" is to state the CO2 first ... but no-one does!). This is going to get messy! "Partial Pressure", "Absolute pressure", blah, blah, blah. You'd be better off using pure CO2 and the LPG regulators I use (as a secondary regulator - they can't handle cylinder pressure). But you want mixed gas? So:

Forget the carbonation calculators, they can't do this! For 1.2 volumes CO2 you need about 2.5-3PSIG (ambient temperature, "G" for what an ordinary gauge tells you.). Add 15PSI to work with it at absolute pressure ... 18PSI ("absolute", no "G"!). Divide by 3 and multiply be 10 to account for "Partial Pressure" ... 60PSI. Subtract 15 to get it back to 45PSIG. Blimey, that's a lot! That's at ambient temperature remember. If you can get down to single digit temperatures, you should get the pressure down to 30-35PSIG.

Now: Forget it and get 100% CO2.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Now: Forget it and get 100% CO2.

This was my thinking

 

[The Baron]

Or use a hand pull if you have got one

 

[6Trails]

Or use a hand pull if you have got one

They're almost impossible to buy here, or were at the time I had it in my head to get one anyway. I've the nitro there for stouts, couldn't drink them any other way even though they've been largely unsuccessful so far, but I was keen to try it out on a lighter coloured beer. I might end up transferring half of this to a small keg on CO2 and bottling anyway.