roger mellie said:
From the reading I have done - the amount of CO2 produced during a normal ferment is 10+ times the amount needed for carbonation.
Thats a high volume of gas to get rid of. I know I could easily exceed 3 Bar in my fermenter - that has a 3 bar PRV as a safety.
I work in an industry where putting eggs in one basket is considered a no no. Most pressured tanks have 3 safety devices - 2 PRV's and a bursting disk. I would consider putting all faith in a spunding valve - that could pretty easily get clogged with krausen (if the vessel wasn't big enough for instance) is risky
Thats all
RM
Hey RM,
From the reading I've been doing, the yeast will cease to make CO2 beyond a certain point. From memory, the figure is around the 35psi mark.
My personal experience is that it's not that hard to get 35 psi (2.4bar) at room temp. Beyond that, I'd imagine you'd have to tweak the temperature and other variables.
Of course, none of this takes into account all the horrible things that commonly go wrong while making accidental bottle bombs. The usual infections from wild yeasts and bacteria could easily occur in a pressure rated fermenter, and I couldn't agree more with you about the back up PRV.
With an infection I'd imagine >4bar is very possible.
My fermenter has a corny lid fitted for easy access and the back up PVR. Add to that the valve on the keg coupler and you've got tripel redundancy.
While on the subject of spunding valve blockages, I thought I'd finally post a shot of my garden tap valve. Easily the cheapest and least likely to block valve.
She's done three brews now with minor problems along the way, but the valve itself is pretty sound. The main adjustments I've tried are the spring and washer types.
The best combination I've found is the spring out of a regular trigger sprayer (windex, spray and wipe, whatever is going at the time) and the Fixatap Leaklock valves.
http://www.fixatap.com.au/cat/tap-valves#prettyPhoto[pp_gal24]/0/
The rest of the assembly is still in development at the moment, but it's got the usual pressure gauge and disconnects. The main add on I use is an airlock that lets me see how much gas is being released.
I find the airlock allows you to make very small adjustments while the pressure is ramping up. It also lets you see the low pressure release that doesn't show up on your gauge.
I hope someone finds this option useful. It has to be the easiest valve to dismantle and clean.
Cheers.
Edit:
The white washer that sits between the tap head and the body is just a silicone jobby from Craftbrewer. Using one means you don't need a spanner to undo the rig.
h34r:
