Ask The Brewmasters

Hello Community,

Through our experience with our non-counter pressure can filler I find that maintaining 12psi on the tank works well for our packaging conditions and drifting too far from that number (high or low) can cause fill issues. This isn't generally a problem if the regulator is set where it needs to be and we don't have much downtime. However, to maintain 12psi our regulator does need to be set a little higher and if we have to stop filling for an extended period of time it may creep up too high and cause issues when we restart. I'm wondering if anyone has a solution to this. I'm imagining something to monitor head pressure in the tank and stop flow of CO2 if it reaches the target pressure. Has anyone built something to do this? 

Thanks,

Corey

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Corey Zschoche
Head Brewer
Callsign Brewing
North Kansas City, MO
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We built a very simple controller for this exact problem.  THis thing has saved so much time and money.  We run our CO2 at 20psi.   The controller monitors the pressure in the tank and then a solenoid opens and closes the flow of CO2 as needed.  

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Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ
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Would you mind sharing how you built your controller?

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David Delcourt
Denali Brewing Co
Talkeetna AK
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-01-2023 10:34
From: Landon Swanson
Subject: Maintaining Head Pressure During Packaging

We built a very simple controller for this exact problem.  THis thing has saved so much time and money.  We run our CO2 at 20psi.   The controller monitors the pressure in the tank and then a solenoid opens and closes the flow of CO2 as needed.  

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Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ
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Get yourself one of these.  https://www.ifm.com/ca/en/product/PI2796

And a 24v solenoid.

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Nathan Kary
Pile O' Bones Brewing
Regina SK
(306) 559-6444
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We've had great luck using the ABE Watchdog both for carbonating and maintaining head pressure in the BT while canning. 

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Darrel Harris
Spectrum Ale Works
Lethbridge AB
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Agreed with Darrel. ABE's Watchdog works quite well. It probably would be cheaper to make your own version of it, but it is an easy solution that you can purchase.

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Andrew Bell
Director of Brewing
Radiant Beer
Anaheim CA
(714) 661-5790x701
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-01-2023 14:18
From: Darrel Harris
Subject: Maintaining Head Pressure During Packaging

We've had great luck using the ABE Watchdog both for carbonating and maintaining head pressure in the BT while canning. 

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Darrel Harris
Spectrum Ale Works
Lethbridge AB
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If your can filling is very sensitive to head pressure, I think a device like ABE Watchdog is the best for it since it also considers hydrostatic pressure while a single pressure controller doesn't. 

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Asher Sun
Brewer
Drake's Brewing
Sunnyvale CA
(805) 680-9711
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Another off the shelf solution is the Bubble Butler from Wild Goose.  You can put it in packaging mode and control head pressure

https://wildgoosefilling.com/accessories/bubble-butler-carbonation-management-system/

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Mario Guerra
Wild Goose Canning
Torrance CA
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