SHould I buy a 100L Pilot Brewery From China?

[Doogs]

Love your honest write ups mate. Brewing is always an adventure, and a rollercoaster of lessons and achievements. Some would ague that the best school is the one of hard knocks so keep up the hard work and it will pay off.

Re pressure fermentation, are you using an adjustable spunding valve? I have done a few batches pressure fermented now and they have come out cracking. I'd recommend not going over 1BAR (15PSI). So far my favorite yeasts for pressure fermenting ales are Nottingham and WLP090.

Cheers Lionman, yeah I've got a spunding valve, but had it set quite a bit higher. So are you fermenting at 1bar the entire time? Or just at the tail end?

 

[Lionman]

Cheers Lionman, yeah I've got a spunding valve, but had it set quite a bit higher. So are you fermenting at 1bar the entire time? Or just at the tail end?

I let it free rise to 1bar and hold it there. If I want the beer fully carbonated at terminal gravity I'll adjust it with a few points to go to about 1.5bar and let it finish there. You can then chill and package and its ready to serve. Anything over 2bar and you are risking damaging the yeast.

 

[Doogs]

I let it free rise to 1bar and hold it there. If I want the beer fully carbonated at terminal gravity I'll adjust it with a few points to go to about 1.5bar and let it finish there. You can then chill and package and its ready to serve. Anything over 2bar and you are risking damaging the yeast.

Cheers for that info. I've done quite a bit of reading and speaking to other brewers, but nobody seems to ferment under pressure.

I would have thought it would speed up the process since the beer could be racked off straight from the fermenter instead of having to spend an extra day in the bright tank carbonating.

Do you know why?

 

[pirateagenda]

Cheers for that info. I've done quite a bit of reading and speaking to other brewers, but nobody seems to ferment under pressure.

I would have thought it would speed up the process since the beer could be racked off straight from the fermenter instead of having to spend an extra day in the bright tank carbonating.

Do you know why?

I find it slows the yeast a little bit, so the day the brite you save, you lose elsewhere. it also make dry hopping difficult because of foaming beer.

 

[Lionman]

Cant speak for other brewers, but there are some challenges in pressure fermenting which may turn some people away.

If the yeast is slow then up the temp. The higher pressure means you can use a higher temp without the increase in ester production.

I have been trialling adding dry hops when I pitch the yeast which does seem to work quite well, haven't decided yet if its feasible going forward.

The real benefit in pressure fermenting is in lager production You can produce a clean lager ferment at ale temps with less need for lengthy lagering times. If you're only producing ales then there is less benefit.

This video is an interesting chat on the subject