# Beer Gas To Oxy Welding Gas



## Tonz (2/7/10)

Hi everyone, i'm brand spanken new to the wonderful world of brewing and have a couple of questions.
1. Oxy welding gas, can it be used for gassing kegs, is there a big differance to beer gas.
2. Is there a way of gassing kegs over a period of 5 days, as where I will be brewing I am not there during the week only on weekends so I thought there might be a method to pouring my fermented brew into the kegs on a friday night for chilling then start gassing on saturday once the brew has chilled and place the required amount of pressure over the 5 days and then be ready to drink the following saturday. Or is there a method for gassing up to be ready to drink over 2 days.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Tonz


----------



## mxd (2/7/10)

hi Tonz,

beer gas is CO2, 

you can drink beer in 2 hours from kegging.

Do a search for force carbonation.


----------



## alowen474 (2/7/10)

You can use you oxy welding gas for oxy welding, but not so good for beer.
Get a cylinder of CO2 and reg for CO2. 
If you want to leave for a week, set at 10 PSI on saturday and pour yourself a beer the next friday no worries.
If you only want to leave for 2 days, set at 40 PSI, then back it off to 10PSI for serving. Release the keg pressure first though.
Serve at 7PSI-10PSI.


----------



## the_yobbo (2/7/10)

Just to clarify:
Oxy welding/cutting uses two gases. Oxygen (black bottle) and acetylene (red bottle). (assuming I'm thinking the right thing here)
Oxygen isn't good for beer. It's the reason why it's wise to purge your keg with CO2 before filling it with beer. I wouldn't imagine Acetylene would be much good for beer/your health either.

Keg systems use Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas.


----------



## HoppingMad (2/7/10)

Tonz said:


> Hi everyone, i'm brand spanken new to the wonderful world of brewing and have a couple of questions.
> 1. Oxy welding gas, can it be used for gassing kegs, is there a big differance to beer gas.
> 2. Is there a way of gassing kegs over a period of 5 days, as where I will be brewing I am not there during the week only on weekends so I thought there might be a method to pouring my fermented brew into the kegs on a friday night for chilling then start gassing on saturday once the brew has chilled and place the required amount of pressure over the 5 days and then be ready to drink the following saturday. Or is there a method for gassing up to be ready to drink over 2 days.
> 
> ...



Hi Tonz,

Oxy Welding Gas is not food grade so is not recommended for carbing beer. That said some folks here like to live on the edge and use modified fire exinguishers which have CO2 for carbing - I wouldn't have thought that was food grade either. My opinion would be get the proper food grade CO2 stuff and be safe.

If going through a gas retailer like BOC you need a green or coloured bottle, not the grey ones. The greenies are the ones that traditionally hold food grade CO2. But each place is different so check with your supplier and they'll advise.

Gassing a keg over 5 days is possible with force carbonating and there is a section on carbing in the articles section of this site. If you use certain methods (such as a rolling a cornie on the floor which I've never done - directions are in the article I think) you can carb up in as little as 3 days I believe, but I have tended to do it in 7 days myself by laying the beer in over the co2, sealing it up, letting in the gas and giving the keg a bit of a rock. Once you get going with kegging it's pretty straightforward.

All the best with it,

Hopper.


----------



## chappo1970 (2/7/10)

The Muzz said:


> Just to clarify:
> Oxy welding/cutting uses two gases. Oxygen (black bottle) and acetylene (red bottle). (assuming I'm thinking the right thing here)
> Oxygen isn't good for beer. It's the reason why it's wise to purge your keg with CO2 before filling it with beer. I wouldn't imagine Acetylene would be much good for beer/your health either.
> 
> Keg systems use Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas.



+1 

Oxy welding gases are completely of the wrong type for kegging as Muzz has stated. Although you might like your beers tasting of lighter fluid, which of course is totally a personal thing, yeah? :icon_vomit: 

Take Hoppers advice IMO, excluding the fact that acetylene is not food grade let alone human consumption grade and oxygen will destroy your beer entirely.

If you have a MIG with ArgonI would keep away from that one too :lol: .

Oh if you do use oxy gases to gas a keg can I enter you in the Dawin Awards?


----------



## DUANNE (2/7/10)

while the oxy gases are all wrong for kegging ,the oxygen would be great to start a ferment with. as for the food grade thing there would be no difference between welding or medical oxy as nothing can live in it and pressurised oxy and any thing flammable equals bang.


----------



## schooey (2/7/10)

BEERHOG said:


> as for the food grade thing there would be no difference between welding or medical oxy as nothing can live in it



Hmmm... Yes if it was pure enough, nope if it's not... and Industrial Oxygen is not of a high purity. Industrial Oxygen has also been pumped through a non-food grade pump that is lubricated with non-food grade lubricants. The inside of Industrial grade cylinders are not as sterile as food grade cylinders and are not cleaned to the same standard.

Condoning the use of Industrial grade oxygen for anything food wise is not a great idea...


----------



## chappo1970 (2/7/10)

schooey said:


> Hmmm... Yes if it was pure enough, nope if it's not... and Industrial Oxygen is not of a high purity. Industrial Oxygen has also been pumped through a non-food grade pump that is lubricated with non-food grade lubricants. The inside of Industrial grade cylinders are not as sterile as food grade cylinders and are not cleaned to the same standard.
> 
> Condoning the use of Industrial grade oxygen for anything food wise is not a great idea...




Well there's the bite huh schooey? Totally agree but hey? What do we know?

As I said earlier Darwin Awards....


----------



## peas_and_corn (2/7/10)

...is this a joke?


----------



## chappo1970 (2/7/10)

peas_and_corn said:


> ...is this a joke?




Well I haven't saved this thread for nuthin' I hope?

Been following this for years http://www.darwinawards.com/ 

In a sad sadistic way it would make the whole thing sweeter if he smoked, no?


----------



## chappo1970 (2/7/10)




----------



## paulwolf350 (2/7/10)

Chappo said:


> In a sad sadistic way it would make the whole thing sweeter if he smoked, no?




harsh chappo, harsh


----------



## chappo1970 (2/7/10)

paulwolf350 said:


> harsh chappo, harsh




Harsh?

Barely?  

The dude either wants to turn his beer into cardboard soup or create a bomb that the Taliban would be proud of... Perhaps he should read the gazzillion posts on "Kegging Beer"?


----------



## paulwolf350 (2/7/10)

Chappo said:


> Harsh?
> 
> Barely?
> 
> The dude either wants to turn his beer into cardboard soup or create a bomb that the Taliban would be proud of... Perhaps he should read the gazzillion posts on "Kegging Beer"?



Mate, I hear you on the posts. The 8.99 farmland beer brigade will stoop to any lows to save a buck, but blowing themselves up..............clearly he is seriously misunderstood, or has made some seriously bad assumptions, or has NFI. Either way I would like to see the results (Yes, I love the Darwin Awards, would be great to see an aussie win) seriously bad idea by the way, if the 20 previuos posts didnt cover it


Paul


----------



## DUANNE (3/7/10)

schooey said:


> Hmmm... Yes if it was pure enough, nope if it's not... and Industrial Oxygen is not of a high purity. Industrial Oxygen has also been pumped through a non-food grade pump that is lubricated with non-food grade lubricants. The inside of Industrial grade cylinders are not as sterile as food grade cylinders and are not cleaned to the same standard.
> 
> Condoning the use of Industrial grade oxygen for anything food wise is not a great idea...




if youre real worried just use a sterile filter. and if its such a bad idea why are there so many supliers of regs to be used on bernzomatic cylinders overseas. its what im using to aerate my wort now so ill let you know when it kills me eh?


----------



## DUANNE (3/7/10)

brew strong episode here were it is discussed at the 48 min mark,http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/589, if its good enough for john palmer and jamil i feel safe in recomending it myself.


----------



## crozdog (3/7/10)

Using oxy accetylene to carb your beer would be a great way to liven up a party - imagine being able to light your burps as well as your farts! h34r: :icon_drunk: 

just kidding it is a bad idea, stick to CO2 either from a fire extinguisher (my choice) or pay more for a "proper" cylinder.


----------



## rock (3/7/10)

I use a co2 fire extinguisher connected via a micromatic reg,But you must make sure the dip tube is removed otherwise it will draw liquid and stuff the reg up..I have never had a problem with the co2 liquid and then gas to carb up my kegs, There are heaps of places to purchase them outright for a slab of that crap we sometimes buy,Just make sure there in test date..And I use Ross's force carb method
Rod


----------



## Brewme (12/7/10)

Some time ago I made a few enquiries about CO2 gas for beer in this forum.

One person wrote in and said he used to work at BOC gases.

Went on to say that CO2 is CO2. It all comes from the one big tank. One price for fire extinguisher, another price for the home brewer.


----------



## HoppingMad (12/7/10)

Brewme said:


> Some time ago I made a few enquiries about CO2 gas for beer in this forum.
> 
> One person wrote in and said he used to work at BOC gases.
> 
> Went on to say that CO2 is CO2. It all comes from the one big tank. One price for fire extinguisher, another price for the home brewer.



That's weird.

Having gone down to BOC South Melbourne myself to enquire about bottle rental, the guy took me around the back and said 'NEVER' use a charcoal grey bottle for kegging as these are for welding. He pointed to all the green ones in the back of a truck and said they were the only ones safe for kegging. Didn't go into a thorough explanation of why though. Can't remember if they had a different label on them also. From memory the prices were pretty much the same I thought. That said we didn't discuss CO2 for fire extinguishing use - and am aware that there are some handy engineering types on this site that have used those successfully for kegging.

You probably need someone who is experienced in both kegging & welding like Domosura (Beerbelly Retailer) who would weld on his premises and (keg beer) to set the record straight on why one doesn't go into the other.

Personally, I prefer not to dance with death in the pale moonlight. h34r: I want to be around long enough to enjoy the next beer.

Hopper.


----------



## RdeVjun (12/7/10)

FWIW, and not wanting to stir shit but just share what was related to me by someone in the biz, according to them the only difference between medical and industrial O2 (nb. not CO2) was the cylinder prep. Medical was cleaned (inside & out) before filling, industrial wasn't. Or so the story goes, whether true or not I have no way of verifying and it could be bullshit... :unsure: 

OT: My work owns hundreds of G size (~50L) CO2 cylinders and regs, soon phasing out the existing CO2 systems (gas bubblers for water level recorders) in favour of Ott bubblers or wet pressure transducers, keep your eyes open for bulk cheap 2nd hand cylinders with regs! B)

Edit: Clarity- Ott: German hydrographic kit.


----------



## JestersDarts (13/7/10)

HoppingMad said:


> That's weird.
> 
> Having gone down to BOC South Melbourne myself to enquire about bottle rental, the guy took me around the back and said 'NEVER' use a charcoal grey bottle for kegging as these are for welding. He pointed to all the green ones in the back of a truck and said they were the only ones safe for kegging. Didn't go into a thorough explanation of why though. Can't remember if they had a different label on them also. From memory the prices were pretty much the same I thought. That said we didn't discuss CO2 for fire extinguishing use - and am aware that there are some handy engineering types on this site that have used those successfully for kegging.



I was told this too! It's the colour of the bottle that makes the C02 safe. It is the same gas that goes into both, but the colour changes its safety levels to upwards of 5. 
Dont know why though. Cant remember.


----------



## Wisey (21/7/10)

Well the BOC man here in Gunnedah sold me a charcoal gray cylinder.... The same cylinder is also supllied to the pubs / clubs in this area


----------



## andytork (21/7/10)

Wisey said:


> Well the BOC man here in Gunnedah sold me a charcoal gray cylinder.... The same cylinder is also supllied to the pubs / clubs in this area




Just paint it then and make it a food grade one 

I suppose it depends on the shade of charcoal, are they not all some form of grey?


----------



## yuqiqiu (10/9/10)

here's my thoughts, logically thinking, I think the difference is in safety standards, as consumption requires them to do more strict testing to make sure there aren't any bad stuff inside the cylinder, where as for industrial use, the product specification is less strict, so there's no certainty on whether it's good enough for consumption.


----------



## mckenry (10/9/10)

RdeVjun said:


> FWIW, and not wanting to stir shit but just share what was related to me by someone in the biz, according to them the only difference between medical and industrial O2 (nb. not CO2) was the cylinder prep. Medical was cleaned (inside & out) before filling, industrial wasn't. Or so the story goes, whether true or not I have no way of verifying and it could be bullshit... :unsure:
> 
> OT: My work owns hundreds of G size (~50L) CO2 cylinders and regs, soon phasing out the existing CO2 systems (gas bubblers for water level recorders) in favour of Ott bubblers or wet pressure transducers, keep your eyes open for bulk cheap 2nd hand cylinders with regs! B)
> 
> Edit: Clarity- Ott: German hydrographic kit.



I knew you were a hydrographer when i read the bit re gas bubblers for water level recorders. Who u work for? Going to AHA in perth this year - note - AHA = Australian Hydrographers Association in this case, not the hoteliers association.


----------



## bigben (18/10/11)

Hi if it helps

Charcoal grey cylinder with a secondary colour on the shoulder cylinder = a cellarmix gas which is good for pouring beers.
All pubs and clubs have this gas

Cream colour cylinder (one colour)= Co2 gas which is good for charging kegs and post mix machines in pubs an clubs

Only use food grade gas B)


----------

