Carbonation Setup
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Michael Thierfelder
Jan 16, 2016, 4:25:58 PM1/16/16
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I am looking for some help with diagraming a workable carbonation setup as this is my first year working at commercial levels.
I picked up one of the flow meters from McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#5079k64/=10plp71) and have a 3.5 bbl Grundy tank as my bright, with a 6” carb stone. Ports on the tank: racking port, drain port, 3” CIP port, 1.5” TC port top, and a 3/8” FPT top/offset.
My thought was to put the carb stone in the drain port, racking arm to racking port, PRV top/offset, cap the CIP. Then using the isobaric carb method, fill tank 90% with cider, chill, add appropriate head pressure ~15psi via FPT port, then pressurize carb stone with flowmeter and wait until the PRV blows.
Main question I have now, is - does this seem like a workable assembly?
Richard Anderson
Jan 17, 2016, 7:33:57 PM1/17/16
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This is what we did, stone on the far end of the tee, the cider on the other. I did not really understand your process. I carbonate as the tank is filled at about 10 psi, chill for 72 hours and bottle. Trying not to exceed a 2 volume limit, it can be a little iffy depending on the internal temperature of the brite tank as well as the psi.
Wes Cherry
Jan 17, 2016, 8:35:52 PM1/17/16
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This is similar to how I do it with a brite tank (though the stone is placed where a racking port would be and I draw out of the drain port. I'm not familiar with Grundys...). Flow meters are really useful to get a nice flow of tiny bubbles out of the stone (vs setting the regulator pressure to the tank headspace pressure+cracking pressure of the stone+water column pressure of the cider in the tank).
Play around with the stone placed in a bucket to determine a good flow rate for fine bubbles. Some flow meters have a restriction needle valve. Leave that wide open and adjust pressure via the regulator to adjust flow.
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Michael Thierfelder
Jan 20, 2016, 2:32:18 PM1/20/16
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Thanks for the replies gentlemen, this helps a lot.
Jahil Maplestone
Jan 20, 2016, 2:52:54 PM1/20/16
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I wouldn't use the PRV as an indicator when it blows. They aren't always exact and you could over carb or worse.
I don't use a flow meter but the rest is similar. I set head pressure to a couple of psi lower than target, chill to temp, then increase flow through the stone accounting for the cracking pressure etc like Wes mentions. I listen to the reg as an indicator of flow. Then it trickles til I reach target psi. Simple once you get the hang of it.
J
Michael Thierfelder
Jan 20, 2016, 3:03:32 PM1/20/16
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Good point, I forgot the PRV's are not meant to be all that accurate. What exactly is meant by "cracking pressure"? I'm assuming you need a certain amount of extra pressure to break the surface tension or something like that. Otherwise makes sense, and I'll give it a go.
Wes Cherry
Jan 20, 2016, 10:35:42 PM1/20/16
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Meheen.com has a presentation on carbonation that's pretty good. It's not loading for me - I found another copy here:
And
There's a couple videos there, including a new hour long video I'm watching now.
Meheen will gladly sell you an expensive machine which will handle all aspects of carbonation control.
It's not clear if this does much more than controlling tank temperature, monitoring headspace pressure and integrating total co2 flow through a rotameter to set carbonation levels.
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