Pressurised Fermentation practical use

[foxy]

plastic on plastic for the Allrounder ,Metal on Plastic for the Apollo

It has both, metal-to-metal or plastic-to-metal. When starting to screw anything on whether metal to metal plastic to plastic metal to plastic always start with a turn in an anti-clockwise direction to find the start of the thread and you will never have a crossed thread.

 

[user 4749]

It has both, metal-to-metal or plastic-to-metal. When starting to screw anything on whether metal to metal plastic to plastic metal to plastic always start with a turn in an anti-clockwise direction to find the start of the thread and you will never have a crossed thread.

It may have metal on metal now, not sure as I had one of the first via EU . It was the only thing I didn't like about it at the time. Though now its gone to the Fermenter Graveyard in The Sky due to no fault of its own ,I only have Allrounders so thats what I use when the time comes to replace I will look at all the options available .

 

[Paulus]

I have a pressure fermenter with spunding valve and lots of other stuff I will probably need to bottle from the fermenter.
I started a lager (pseudo really as it is a Muntons Continental kit LMEs with 500g more extra pale DME) using Diamond lager yeast, at 13C. I left the wort until the pressure got to 5psi then let the fermenter warm upto 20C (took a day) regulating the pressure at 14psi.
Once the SG got to 1.020 (FG should be 0.014) I started to cool the fermenter down to 8C (still getting there). The pressure fell back to under 5psi (normal) so I am controlling the fermenter pressure to about 16 psi now (see https://drhansbrewery.com/beercarbonationcalculator/ for reasoning behind this)
Finally the question!
How long does the beer need to absorb the CO2 as I intend to bottle form the fermenter? The fermenter has a wide diameter at the current fill level and I will not be agitating it to help with take up. Is there a calculator for this?
I will be leaving the beer to "cold crash" (can only get it to 8C I think) in the fermenter for about 5 days anyway.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Your temp profile seems odd with you cooling a lager towards the end of fermentation.
Cool then warmup to a diacetyl rest at the end would be more typical, then cold crash.
Regards of pressure low at the start as you started cool anyway. I tend to turn the spunding valve up about half a dozen points from final with a target pressure to match my target vols. This could be 20+ psi. Once ferment and D rest finished then cold crash.
Given this should be a few weeks pressure and vols will stabilise.
The pressure will drop during this as CO2 absorbs.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I assume you have a counter pressure bottle filler, otherwise your efforts will fail at the last hurdle.

 

[Paulus]

I assume you have a counter pressure bottle filler, otherwise your efforts will fail at the last hurdle.

Yep got one.

 

[Davegase]

Yep got one.

Get everything as cold as possible before you try to bottle !

 

[Paulus]

Your temp profile seems odd with you cooling a lager towards the end of fermentation.
Cool then warmup to a diacetyl rest at the end would be more typical, then cold crash.
Regards of pressure low at the start as you started cool anyway. I tend to turn the spunding valve up about half a dozen points from final with a target pressure to match my target vols. This could be 20+ psi. Once ferment and D rest finished then cold crash.
Given this should be a few weeks pressure and vols will stabilise.
The pressure will drop during this as CO2 absorbs.

Being a nube to this I was trying to get the CO2 to keep going without topping up from the cylinder. I imagine the D rest is not too necessary if fermenting at 20C?

 

[Paulus]

Get everything as cold as possible before you try to bottle !

Well I can't cool the bottles much before filling but I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the advice.

 

[clyne]

What I do with my bottles is put some crushed ice in my bottle cleaner device (you know the one you put the bottle over and push it down a few times as the starsan/other sanitiser squirts up). - this seems to reduce the temp in the bottles enough that it reduces foaming. Works for me anyway :-)

 

[Paulus]

What I do with my bottles is put some crushed ice in my bottle cleaner device (you know the one you put the bottle over and push it down a few times as the starsan/other sanitiser squirts up). - this seems to reduce the temp in the bottles enough that it reduces foaming. Works for me anyway :-)

Sound advice, I will try that. Thanks.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I don't bother to chill the bottles with my williamswarn, in fact some beers i've bottled at around 14c and 25 psi and it's been fine.
I don't take any chances with diacetyl for a lager and holding longer at 20c should do it.
Routinely using 0.5ml of ALDC enzyme to also help get rid of any problems.

 

[Paulus]

Hi all, I finally got my pressure fermenter going well and decided to filter the (carbonated) beer before bottling.
After a few beer fountains I managed to get a very pale looking "lager" to sit quietly after removing the counter pressure filler! I felt quite proud though also quite damp after.
I have found though that the amount of carbonation now in the bottles is very low.
I believe my mistake was to filter from the fermenter then fill the bottles? The pressure drop looked to be about 10psi between the fermenter and the filler.
From this little experiment I think I have 2 ways forward.
1. No filtering just fill the bottles
2. Filter from the fermenter (not having carbonated the beer) to a keg. Let it carbonate there and bottle after.

I don't like idea 2 that much as it means having to keep the keg cold while carbonating ( not easy where I am) as well as buying a keg and storing it,but I do like the filtered beer look.
Any advice, much appreciated!