Constant Co2 Blanket

[Wax]

Ive got hold of a CO2 fire extinguisher. I was thinking about ensuring against infection by giving the fermenter a blat of CO2 before I drop my wort into it and again in the secondary before I rack. Is this a good or bad idea, or simply a waste of time.

 

[Asher]

In the primary - I wouldn't worry as your wort itself will hopefully have heaps of oxygen in it for a good start to fermentation... concentrate on sterilising all surfaces in contact with the wort first.

In the secondary - If your syphon tube is right to the bottom of the secon fermentor, some CO2 will come out of solution from the beer out of the primary as you disturb it thus blanketing itsel quite quickly anyway. but if you have any splashing at the start I can't see it hurting...

Asher for now...

 

[Justin]

As for the infection side of things, do you mean giving it a blast to freeze the surface and hopefully any nasties? CO2 alone wont kill many beasties (anaerobic ones don't need O2) so for infection protection I would just keep using iodophor or an equivalent good sterilizer.

Instead use your CO2 fire extinguisher to power your kegs

 

[Wax]

Cheers Asher...

I'll stop worrying so much about the CO2

 

[Wax]

Sorry Justin, I was meant to say prevent against oxidisation.


Power your kegs with the extinguisher .... :blink: .... Can that be done? I can get hold of these things a lot cheep than the CO2 tanks from the HBS. Not quite as legally though. h34r:

 

[Asher]

Apparently so... A certain fireman I know runs his kegging system with this gas... He says food grade CO2 is the biggest scam BOC has....
nearly as good as their bottle rental!!!! bastards... ;-)

Asher for now...

 

[big d]

gotta agree with you there asher.local gas agent says they are the one and same.
like those cheap brand cans of food.all come outa the same factory just have different labels put on the same product.and bam up goes the price depending on the label.

 

[GMK]

Wax

Talk to Linz....

I think he is doing the fire extinguisher thingy....

 

[Batz]

I worked for then CIG , food grade , hospital grade , industrial grade

all come from the same tanks , all is high grade , some just have a higher price tag

 

[Justin]

Wax, there were a couple of threads on it a while back, will try and find them. I'm going down this route and have already organised an extinguisher conversion with a fire extinguisher reconditioning place. Best to find one with a 7/8" UNF thread and the reg will screw right on (aparently, yet to try though) but also if you know a fitter and your bottles don't have this fitting I'm sure they could turn up an adapter for you. Extinguisher gas is dearer than BOC so you have to factor in bottle rental vs. how much you think you will fill it, for me the fire extinguisher seems like the way to go. It will cost me $40 for the converted bottle, with the pressure test then I own it and just need to fill it. I may try "pursuasing" the bloke on the price of refills with promise of homebrew

Cheers, JD