What are you drinking tonight 2020.

[pmh]

Questions are good, it’s how you learn. You can prime with sugar or you can just inject CO2. Priming with sugar is just the same for a keg as it is for bottles, think of the keg as one big bottle. Generally, you will need to occasionally top up with CO2 as you drink the beer and create more head space or the pressure will drop and your beer become less carbonated. In extreme situations you’ll not be able to serve beer without allowing air into the keg - don’t do that, it will oxidise your beer and ruin it. Topping up the CO2 can be done by re-priming or by injecting CO2.

If you prime with sugar and don’t drink very often you may just be lucky and not have to top up the CO2 at all because the yeast does still produce CO2 over time from residual sugars but only very slowly.

If on the other hand you get a taste for the beer and drink three or four pints in succession you may have to inject CO2 more often to fill the head space.

I used to use small 8g CO2 bulbs, many people use the larger soda steam CO2 bottles. I’ve now moved to fitting Schrader valves to my kegs, as shown in the picture, and I inject CO2 from my big CO2 bottle (6Kg) because it’s so much cheaper.

View attachment 36192

Thank you very much this is more information than I could have hoped for, definitely going to invest in one from Wilko lol, how do you know when you've put enough CO2 in and finally is there any risk of a blow out with like you would with a fermenter?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thank you very much this is more information than I could have hoped for, definitely going to invest in one from Wilko lol, how do you know when you've put enough CO2 in and finally is there any risk of a blow out with like you would with a fermenter?

There are guides for the volume of CO2 and calculators for the amount of sugar to add. In part this will depend on beer style and personal preference. In general 5g of sugar for each litre should be in the right ball-park but here’s a link to a calculator.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
There’s little chance of damage from over carbonating with a pressure barrel because the barrel comes with a pressure release valve - if the pressure gets too great gas is vented through the valve to restore a safe pressure and the valve then closes again.

If you’re injecting CO2 you can just inject all of the 8g bulb (you have to, they completely discharge when used), or if you’re using a soda stream bottle a short 1 second burst is usually enough - you can always repeat until you hear gas escaping through the release valve. If you’re injecting like I am you can do similar to the soda stream bottle but actually these CO2 bottles use a regulator so I set the pressure to 9psi and that’s all that goes in.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Something to ease the burden of shopping and worse, putting it all away when you get home

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I think I will be mostly on my New Season Saison! tonight. I’ll be needing the keg space on the shelf on Wednesday.

 

[Pennine]

Drank another Xmas stout, and I think I have a Brett infection like @strange-steve

However I love it, like drinking a chocolate covered cherry absolutely delicious.

 

[strange-steve]

Drank another Xmas stout, and I think I have a Brett infection like @strange-steve

However I love it, like drinking a chocolate covered cherry absolutely delicious.

It can be a persistent little blighter. The two batches following my Orval clone were contaminated, but it took a while to get hold and so only the last few bottles of each were affected. Also as you allude to there's a big difference between brett B and a random wild yeast contamination, so I wasn't too bothered. A good soaking in bleach of all my equipment seemed to do the job of shifting it.

 

[Jim Brewster]

A bit of my Punk clone

 

[strange-steve]

Having this delicious lager while prepping a starter for Wednesday's brew day.

 

[Pennine]

It can be a persistent little blighter. The two batches following my Orval clone were contaminated, but it took a while to get hold and so only the last few bottles of each were affected. Also as you allude to there's a big difference between brett B and a random wild yeast contamination, so I wasn't too bothered. A good soaking in bleach of all my equipment seemed to do the job of shifting it.

Yeah thanks I will give the fermenter a bleach soak at some.point. I have a designated sour fermenter and it only seems to show up when I leave the beers in that one to ferment for more than two weeks. I guess all Brett b needs is a few cells and it spreads slowly but surely.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

A landmark moment (for me anyway), my first filled King Keg since the brew-shed refit. It’s starting to feel like my brewing roller-coaster is cresting the hill and I’m looking forward to the ride!

The beer in my hand is a New Season Saison!

 

[Pennine]

A landmark moment (for me anyway), my first filled King Keg since the brew-shed refit. It’s starting to feel like my brewing roller-coaster is cresting the hill and I’m looking forward to the ride!

The beer is a New Season Saison!

View attachment 36283

Was that brewed last week?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Was that brewed last week?

No, I brewed this one on the 12th. It was the second beer I brewed in the first batch.

Last week I brewed the dry stout (last of the 5 beers in the first batch).

 

[Pennine]

I still can't believe you have a beer that clear and carbonated in 12 days? Looks fabulous.

 

[Clint]

Righ! Stop there! I think you need to give us a run down...

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

My CBA is tasting a lot better still the head vanishes quickly but a lot of fizz

 

[DavidHatton]

Harvieston brewery old engine oil, never tried this before, time for an oil change

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I still can't believe you have a beer that clear and carbonated in 12 days? Looks fabulous.

Ah, I see where you’re coming from. The beer I’m holding is not the beer in the keg. The beer I’m holding is in celebration of the keg. The beer in the keg does look nice but isn’t crystal clear just yet, it will need a few days

The beer in the keg came out the fermenter today and looks like this...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just done something *really* stupid!

For the first time ever (and I hope the last time ever!) I was pouring a pint when the beer fell to the level of the tap and gas escaped at high pressure. I reacted by immediately closing the tap except, and I suspect you’re ahead of me now, I FULLY OPENED the tap and sprayed the brew-shed (and myself) with half a gallon of Saison!

So to my list of jobs tomorrow, I need to remove all the kegs and wash down the kegs, shelves, and floor. FFS!!!

Am I the only one stupid enough to have done this?

PS It also made my saison cloudy!

 

[strange-steve]

I wasn't sure I'd like this but it's actually rather delicious, though I suspect not to everybody's taste. The sweet orange flavour is nicely judged and it's like Terry's chocolate orange in a glass. I don't think I've ever had a bad beer from White Hag actually.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I wasn't sure I'd like this but it's actually rather delicious, though I suspect not to everybody's taste. The sweet orange flavour is nicely judged and it's like Terry's chocolate orange in a glass. I don't think I've ever had a bad beer from White Hag actually.

I like the sound of that SS where did you buy it?