Fermenting Under Pressure

[wide eyed and legless]

Infection would be the most unlikely thing, the only person to blame for that is oneself, oxygen is the brewers biggest threat, doubtful we would be able to keep it out completely but keeping it to a minimal level should be our aim. Its the positive, not negative outlook that achieves results.

 

[rossbaker]

I'm going to get a tab welded onto the underside of my kegmenter lids, something like the tabs the newer KK 19ltr kegs have for hop socks etc...then do a pressure ferment with a bunch of hops inside in a stocking. Then transfer to another serving keg that's purged and has another hop sock in it, if it's needed..to mix up the dry-hops in each 19ltr keg a bit

Any tips on the style of tab/attachment to put on?

I thought I read on here that hops were toxic to yeast - how are people finding the yeast performing with hops added at the start like this?

cheers

Not necessary IMO if the lid has a pressure relief valve. You should be able to get a hose clamp on there easily enough and tie the bag to that. I've even had luck using a plastic cable tie.

 

[fdsaasdf]

I thought I read on here that hops were toxic to yeast - how are people finding the yeast performing with hops added at the start like this?

I add my dry hops at the start of primary fermentation when making hop-forward beers. Has been very successful and I've not noticed any fermentation stalling, or staling of aroma since I started doing this.

 

[droid]

Not necessary IMO if the lid has a pressure relief valve. You should be able to get a hose clamp on there easily enough and tie the bag to that. I've even had luck using a plastic cable tie.

beautiful - thanks, I'll hose clamp it

 

[droid]

I add my dry hops at the start of primary fermentation when making hop-forward beers. Has been very successful and I've not noticed any fermentation stalling, or staling of aroma since I started doing this.

it's a bit of a game-changer doing pressure ferments, can't wait till the weekend to try your technique, cheers

 

[Mardoo]

Do you use the pure screens for both ferment and DH? oh and do I just slip that over the dip tube, for my kegmenters I need a way of holding the screen in place, was thinking of crimping them with pliers unless there are other suggestions?

They fit snugly on racetrack dip tubes, and need crimping on corny diptubes. The crimping makes me nervous as far as places for stuff to accumulate. However I haven’t worked out a better way yet. BTW I only have one on a corny, which I use for 10 L batches.

I do have the screens on both ferment and dry hop. I figure on ferment it’ll keep any globs of yeast from clogging the post. However, I haven’t had that happen yet, so it may just be precautionary, aka paranoid

 

[Mardoo]

my only issue is if the brew your spunding ends up infected then so are/is the keg/s purged this way.

I had a recent wild yeast infection in one if pressurised fermenters and dry hop keg. I am not looking forward to stripping them down and boiling everything in addition to chemical cleaning and sanitising.

 

[malt junkie]

They fit snugly on racetrack dip tubes, and need crimping on corny diptubes. The crimping makes me nervous as far as places for stuff to accumulate. However I haven’t worked out a better way yet. BTW I only have one on a corny, which I use for 10 L batches.

I do have the screens on both ferment and dry hop. I figure on ferment it’ll keep any globs of yeast from clogging the post. However, I haven’t had that happen yet, so it may just be precautionary, aka paranoid

Have an IPA in cold crash, been that way for 10 days, arm in a cast so can't lift the bugger out! I'm get yeast blocks on it if I leave it for a day. Not too much of a concern .... it tastes so darn good, it may never get transfered(except to glass).

 

[Dan Pratt]

I add my dry hops at the start of primary fermentation when making hop-forward beers. Has been very successful and I've not noticed any fermentation stalling, or staling of aroma since I started doing this.

are you doing this while under pressure ?

 

[fdsaasdf]

are you doing this while under pressure ?

Oops, lost track of which thread I was in there - generally no this is in my brewbucket, not under pressure. I have done this once in a 23L keg with a spunding valve set to 10psi and the beer turned out fine but I have no idea how long it took to ferment as I was out of town for a couple of weeks.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I now have eight fermenters redundant since doing closed fermentation using cubes, was going to go down to Plastic Man to buy the heavy duty 30 litre plastic drum with the metal clamp lid.
Decided to pressure test one of the plastic fermenters I already have, filled with water and surprisingly took it up to 40 psi with no adverse effects. As I doubt very much I would be going higher than 10 to 15 psi have made the decision to use these as my fermenting vessels. The cubes I have filled with CO2 I am thinking of making a venturi to use on filling my bottles, searched the web and can't find anything where this has been trialed so fingers crossed this may work.

 

[Zorco]

interesting test WEAL.

 

[f00b4r]

Has Kee or any of the other fermentasaurus people expanded on why they chose such a narrow range spunding valve?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Has Kee or any of the other fermentasaurus people expanded on why they chose such a narrow range spunding valve?

Because it is the cheapest option, its worth paying the extra and getting away from the poppet type I need another one and I am going to get this one, it is expensive but being a diaphragm a lot more sensitive to the change in pressure.
https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/pneumatic-pressure-relief-valve-function-fittings/3989114/

 

[wynnum1]

I now have eight fermenters redundant since doing closed fermentation using cubes, was going to go down to Plastic Man to buy the heavy duty 30 litre plastic drum with the metal clamp lid.
Decided to pressure test one of the plastic fermenters I already have, filled with water and surprisingly took it up to 40 psi with no adverse effects. As I doubt very much I would be going higher than 10 to 15 psi have made the decision to use these as my fermenting vessels. The cubes I have filled with CO2 I am thinking of making a venturi to use on filling my bottles, searched the web and can't find anything where this has been trialed so fingers crossed this may work.
View attachment 111167
View attachment 111168

Plastic does deteriorate .

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Plastic does deteriorate .

So it does, but easily replaceable, and easily cleaned. 6 of the 8 I have I have had for 7 or 8 years, the only time they see any daylight is when they come out of the fermenting room for a scrub.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Hey wide eyed, i read somewhere that if you carbonate with co2 stores from fermentation it can cause off flavours. Not sure where i read it i will try get the link. I questioned it becuase the beer can be carbonated naturally by capping the vessel but apparently when its stored something changes and it needs to be cleaned or something.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

There is a discussion on Pro Brewer about the difference in the taste when carbonating naturally and tank CO2 it does give a better taste and mouth feel, its no different to carbonating in a bottle.
http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?31626-Best-Process-for-Naturally-Carbonated-Beer

 

[Dan Pratt]

There is a discussion on Pro Brewer about the difference in the taste when carbonating naturally and tank CO2 it does give a better taste and mouth feel, its no different to carbonating in a bottle.
http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?31626-Best-Process-for-Naturally-Carbonated-Beer

turns out it was a AHB thread. https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/capturing-co2-from-fermentation.15629/

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Well there you go, I had read that before but the thing is it is so obvious, there is another article I read from around 1898 where they were discussing the same thing, the pressure was applied by submerging the blow off tube under mercury and getting about 7 psi pressure. The discussion covered recovering the alcohol which had been vented in the CO2 and also capturing the gas, both were considered to be savings and money makers for the brewery.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1898.tb00042.x/pdf