Carbonation Cap

[Fingerlickin_B]

I please to aim :chug:

PZ.

 

[Plastic Man]

Its been done many time before but I thought Id post my recent attempt at carbonation caps in case it helps anyone keen to give it a try.

I recently made a garden sprayer party keg. During this build I discovered we used Schrader valves at work. These had a nice flat base so also looked perfect for carbonation caps so I made a few up as well.

valves:


Start with a PET bottle cap. Ive found that the ones without the plastic seal on the inside seem to work best but any will do.



Use a drill to make a hole. An 8mm bit worked OK. The first one I did I used an electric drill, put the cap on a bottle, (gives you something to hold onto), and drilled the hole. The next few I did I just held the cap and the drill bit in my hand and hand drilled the cap. Then just wack the valve in and your done.




top on bottle:




The steps to use it are:

- Sanitise a PET bottle and the carbonator cap.
- when you keg or bottle, fill the PET bottle with un-primed beer. Leave an inch or two of head space.
- Squeeze the bottle to expel all air in the head space and put on carbonator cap.
- Put in fridge to chill down.
- When cold, give the bottle a shot of CO2 until its hard.
- Shake the bottle and you can feel it go soft, (the CO2 is dissolving into the beer.
- Do this about 4 5 times and you have nicely carbonated beer. Its easy to experiment to get it right.







Id heard a few stories of valves popping out of caps under pressure. These valves have a decent round flat base which take up almost the whole surface area on the inside bottom of the Pet caps so they lock nice and secure.

If you bottle or naturally condition your kegs these come in handy as you can also bottle a couple of PET bottles and basically be sampling the latest batch an hour or two after kegging or bottling. Ive filled and carbonated a few 2 litre PET bottles and taken them to restaurants. They are basically a 6 pack in a bottle and get a great response when pulled out especially if I take the Co2 injector thingy as well and give them a shot or two of gas

We get the valves as part of an assembly that we put on the end of cables. Im trying to track down where the actual valves come from as they are perfect for these and the party keg projects. Ill post if I get a contact.

I got the CO2 charger sort of via Ebay. Links attached. If you are doing a bulk buy best to email him and do a deal. We landed 5 for US$16 each. Paid Paypal. Ordered Tues arrived the following Monday.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Innovations-Ultrafl...1QQcmdZViewItem

We did a bulk buy of 5 with him and landed them for US$16 each, a tad under $20 each.

His email address is [email protected].

filled bottle, (next to party keg)

:icon_cheers:

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Plasticman - be careful using the unregulated gas into the carbonator caps... blew myself up a bit with exactly that set-up.

Had a coopers bottle that had got a bit fragile with use, bit too much of a squirt and kaboom.

Read about it here

Thirsty

 

[gap]

Hello,

Can you attach gas lines using post mix disconnects to these Schrader valves ? If not what do you use?
Sorry if the question seems dumb .

Regards

Graeme

 

[mark_m]

I'll second Thirsty's note of caution re exploding Coopers bottles.
I managed to pop 2 while bottling for the June case swap.
In my case I was lucky, only messy (amazing what coverage you can get over a 2m radius from one little PET of beer).

[topic="0"]exploding bottles[/topic]


I still use carb caps regularly both for force carbing leftovers from kegging & for takeaways from the tap.
Used with due caution, has been very successful.

If you talk nicely to your local tyre shop bloke & maybe promise a couple of bottles of HB, chrome mag wheel valves work well.
My local guy only charges me $1 each (plus the occasional HB).

Cheers
Mark

 

[Plastic Man]

Thirsty, Mark

Thanks for warning.

I read some horror stories a few years ago so am pretty careful when using them. I basically just give the charger trigger a quick squeeze while holding the bottle in my hand and squeezing the sides of the bottle to judge the "dose". Then shake to dissolve the CO2 into the beer. I don't let the bottle get rock hard and don't rely on leaving CO2 under "high" pressure in the head space to carbonate the beer. That's probably the best method to avoid any mishaps. CO2 at relatively low pressures and shake to get it dissolved. I've also only used it for Ales and the carbonation has been relatively low - maybe around 1.7 volumes at a rough guess. After reading Thirsty's post I'll up the level of caution though. Pretty scary stuff.

At the end of the day we're playing with compressed gas and closed vessels with home made bits so use with care.

 

[KHB]

well today i tested my set up out. I have got a coke bottle with a rubber tyre valve in the lid. I filled it @ 7am this morning from the tap gassed it up. I found an airlock grommet worked well as i used my gas dissconnect. Opened it at 4;30pm and it poured great had a nice head on it. Was stoked

 

[crundle]

I have followed a mixture of the instructions here, but was wondering what pressure you should use to charge up a 2 litre PET bottle. I want a quick charge, I have tried it on 1.2 bar and it seems to work ok, but I lose a fair bit of gas when disconnecting the chuck from the valve. The type of chuck I am using may be the problem, as it is like the ones from a bike pump, with a thumb lever to grip around the valve, it is when this is undone that pressure is lost, as I cant pull it away quickly enough.

Can anyone post a picture of the system running a gas disconnect with a grommet, as this sounds very simple and might be what I am looking for.

Ta.

 

[crundle]

I have set up a system now with a quick disconnect to be able to change between charging PET bottles and my kegs, and it works a treat. I have found that if I use a pressure of 3 bar and shake a chilled PET 2 litre bottle for 1 minute upside down to allow the gas to be absorbed quicker, that my bottled beers end up perfectly gassed after 1 week in the fridge.

This idea works very well for portable beer (BBQ's, fishing trips, etc) and now lets me gas up the leftover beer from the fermenter that wont fit into the keg.

Many thanks for all the information, top idea!

Crundle

 

[fraser_john]

Reviving a necro thread as it is in the right area (Gear and Equipment) but it pertains to this style cap.

Anyway, found that a small silicone bung fits over the silicone hose & barb fitting and then can perfectly be used to transfer beer into a tidy swing top bottle, actually works better than transferring into PET as the glass seems to reduce the foaming after pressure is released to swing the lid on!