Ask The Brewmasters

Hello! 

After much staring, head scratching and various attempts to figure this out. I thought I should ask here.

The Issue- I am 99.9% sure that the gasket between the carb stone and it's housing on the brite tank has failed, causing the CO2 to leak before it goes through the stone resulting in bubbles too large to go in to solution. I am 99.9% certain that this is the problem, as I can hear the bubbles through the wall, and the head pressure goes right up whilst the beer stays uncarbonated.

I have tried putting my O2 stone in a site glass at the input/output port of the brite, head pressure at 9psi, and set the incoming pressure to just where I can see bubble coming through the glass. Unfortunately this just causes the beer in the site glass to foam up and pushes all the beer out, causing large bubble of CO2 to go up through the tank's fill level site glass. Which... is just adding top pressure to the tank, not carbonating the beer.

My FV's are all full...otherwise I would just transfer over and fix the stone in the brite.

Details- 9.5bbls of beer at 31 degrees F. I have the carb stone in the tank, a sample port and the access from the bottom of the dish, currently a 1.5" globe valve on there.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

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Jared Smith
Head Brewer
Gyppo Ale Mill
Whitethorn CA
(707) 986-7700
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Do you have access to a full-size port on the side of brite at all? If so, you could run a loop from the bottom of the tank to the side port with a pump and a carb stone inline. Slowly recirculate the beer with gas on the stone until you hit your target CO2 volumes in the tank.

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Tyrell Elliott
Head Brewer
Ghost Note Brewing
Dripping Springs TX
(406) 599-2071
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Hi Tyrell, Thanks for the reply.

I don't... But I think I am going to run a line from the zwickle to do this very thing. 


I've been running though all kinds of options. One is to fabricate a 2' cap that I could run co2 through, dangle a stone in the tank via a long piece of tubing form the top by removing the PRV.... as a last resort.

let's hope it doesn't come to that. I'll keep you posted!

 

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Jared Smith
Head Brewer
Gyppo Ale Mill
Whitethorn CA
(707) 986-7700
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2022 17:48
From: Tyrell Elliott
Subject: What to do when your carb stone fails...?

Do you have access to a full-size port on the side of brite at all? If so, you could run a loop from the bottom of the tank to the side port with a pump and a carb stone inline. Slowly recirculate the beer with gas on the stone until you hit your target CO2 volumes in the tank.

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Tyrell Elliott
Head Brewer
Ghost Note Brewing
Dripping Springs TX
(406) 599-2071
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For future batches I would recommend purchasing a sonic cleaning bath. If it is heated even better.  We had a similar issue and with the hard water and Build up our gaskets were failing because the gas needed somewhere to escape and found that the old gaskets were the perfect place to escape.  We have now replaced all of the gaskets and now break down the carb stones to be placed in a hot sonic bath with just the stone and magaic!  with a little acid and then a caustic round for 30-60 minutes the stones are good as new.  THis will help with headaches in the future.  Good luck

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Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ
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Hi Landon, thanks for that. I Pull them apart after each use, run a back flow cycle through them of just warm water and Sulphuric/Nitric. Then put it back together and run a PAA cycle through before next use. It's odd, because I check the flow when doing the PAA cycle always, and it was working great. Something between then and the fill happened...

I'll look in to one of these sonic baths! Cheers

j

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Jared Smith
Head Brewer
Gyppo Ale Mill
Whitethorn CA
(707) 986-7700
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-25-2022 11:22
From: Landon Swanson
Subject: What to do when your carb stone fails...?

For future batches I would recommend purchasing a sonic cleaning bath. If it is heated even better.  We had a similar issue and with the hard water and Build up our gaskets were failing because the gas needed somewhere to escape and found that the old gaskets were the perfect place to escape.  We have now replaced all of the gaskets and now break down the carb stones to be placed in a hot sonic bath with just the stone and magaic!  with a little acid and then a caustic round for 30-60 minutes the stones are good as new.  THis will help with headaches in the future.  Good luck

------------------------------
Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ
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I'm not sure how long you have before you need the beer, but you could add some sugar and a little fresh yeast and naturally carbonate it. Or if you can tie up your brite for a few days and it can take more than a bar of pressure you could carbonate with head pressure. If your tanks are only rated to a bar you may need about a week or so with the head pressure.

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Calum Hill
Sonnen Hill Brewing
Caledon Village ON
(519) 940-0200
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-25-2022 12:11
From: Jared Smith
Subject: What to do when your carb stone fails...?

Hi Landon, thanks for that. I Pull them apart after each use, run a back flow cycle through them of just warm water and Sulphuric/Nitric. Then put it back together and run a PAA cycle through before next use. It's odd, because I check the flow when doing the PAA cycle always, and it was working great. Something between then and the fill happened...

I'll look in to one of these sonic baths! Cheers

j

------------------------------
Jared Smith
Head Brewer
Gyppo Ale Mill
Whitethorn CA
(707) 986-7700
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 08-25-2022 11:22
From: Landon Swanson
Subject: What to do when your carb stone fails...?

For future batches I would recommend purchasing a sonic cleaning bath. If it is heated even better.  We had a similar issue and with the hard water and Build up our gaskets were failing because the gas needed somewhere to escape and found that the old gaskets were the perfect place to escape.  We have now replaced all of the gaskets and now break down the carb stones to be placed in a hot sonic bath with just the stone and magaic!  with a little acid and then a caustic round for 30-60 minutes the stones are good as new.  THis will help with headaches in the future.  Good luck

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Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ

Sorry, I know this a late reply and this beer is long gone but I figured I would chime in just incase it happens again in the future. First thing I would have done is tried to increase your head pressure. Not sure what your tanks are rated for, but 9psi seems pretty like pretty low head pressure for carbing up a beer. We typically have our brite tank head pressure between 14-18psi, when carbing, and once its carbed up, we set the pressure based on ABV. McDantim EasyBlend app is really good for determining head pressure vs ABV. If we drop below 8psi, it will actually scrub out co2 from solution.

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Garrison Thompson
Brewing Operations Manager
Oskar Blues Brewery
Brevard NC
(828) 883-2337
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