Guess it's time for a 20lb tank

[NitrogenWidget]

Just came back from my regular CO2 guy (the only guy in my area) they were charging walk ins 5$ cash for a 5lb tank as a favor to home brewers.
The owner caught them soooo not anymore.
Brought 2 5lb tanks in to get filled not knowing things changed.
$25.

except, he only charged me for one tank.

then he told me a 20lb tank was $32 to refill.
seems like a no-brainer to me.

Think i'm going to be naturally carbing kegs from now on to save some CO2.

 

[Vale71]

Think i'm going to be naturally carbing kegs from now on to save some CO2.

That's going to save you surprisingly little CO2. The 20lb tank on the other hand is a no-brainer.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

that's interesting because from what I've read on the micromatic and other commercial keging sites you get far more mileage out of a co2 tank when just serving and maintaining carbonation as opposed to force carbing and serving.

 

[day_trippr]

Typically, carbonating a 5 gallon keg to say 2.5 volumes requires roughly 1.7 times as much CO2 vs just pushing 5 gallons of carbonated beer out of the keg...

Cheers!

 

[MikeCo]

A 20 lb tank is a much better value than a 5 lb tank. I use a 20 for my kegerator and keep a 5 as backup and for utility reasons like keg purging. It would probably make more sense for me to have a 20 for backup as well. A 5 is a bit more portable, however.

 

[Vale71]

Typically, carbonating a 5 gallon keg to say 2.5 volumes requires roughly 1.7 times as much CO2 vs just pushing 5 gallons of carbonated beer out of the keg...

Cheers!

If you're pushing beer at 1 bar overpressure then you're actually using 2 volumes of CO2 per volume of beer served which is actually 1.17 times what you need to carbonate beer from 0.8 vols to 2.5 vols. For that you'll have the added hassle of adding priming sugar, waiting for it to ferment and risk having gone to all the trouble for nothing if the keg leaks the additional CO2 out as is often the case with cornys due to the lid design. The point is saving 0.1 to 0.15 lbs. of CO2 per 5.5 gallon keg is not really going to make the 25$ refill for a 5 lbs. tank cheap. Switching to a 20 lbs. tank on the other hand is going to save you a lot more money, taking also into account that you'll have to drive to the refill place 4 times less often.

 

[day_trippr]

If the above is claiming it takes more CO2 to dispense than to carbonate a volume of beer, I'm calling shenanigans.
And then calling @doug293cz for a ruling

Cheers!

 

[Vale71]

You may call the Ghostbusters if you like but it's not going to change the fact that at 1 bar overpressure you're actually pushing CO2 at 2 bar absolute pressure into the keg which means that for every volume of beer you push you use up 2 volumes of CO2 (at STP). As a matter of fact you're using even more since your keg will be at serving temperature, which is lower than standard temperature, meaning that the gas will have a higher density than at STP. On the other hand beer will take the same amount of CO2 to force carb as carbonation level always refers to STP.
This is even worse if you're force carbing a lager which will require even less CO2 to force carbonate, depending on how cold fermentation was, but will still require the same amount of CO2 to serve.

 

[Pkrd]

Factor into the financial calculations that a 5lb tank will only leak at most 5lb.

Also you can save a whopping 100% of your priming sugar costs by investing in a pressurised fermenter. Make sure you use all the sugar in the house the day before your SO wants to bake to get her fully on board with your sugar cost savings.

 

[gnef]

I use five 20# tanks and two 50# tanks at this point for the cost savings in refill, as well as time savings so that I don't have to refill nearly as often - I usually wait till 2-3 tanks are empty before swapping them, which means years.

For those of you planning for leaks, I think you need to disconnect your CO2 when you aren't using it. This is what I do, and you will never lose a tank due to a leak if you work this way.

I think the 20# tanks are portable enough, and I even have a mix of steel and aluminum. I think portable is relative though. My portable setups are three jockey boxes, a 2-, 5-, and 6- pass setup, so I set it up on a table, I'm not on wheels or anything.

Now, those 50# tanks are definitely a bear to swap though, and definitely not portable!

 

[crazyjake19]

Always go big. Assuming you never move your CO2 tank except for refills, the 20lb makes way more sense. I do keep one 5lb tank around just for parties and what not. I pay $17 for the 5lb refill and $33 for the 20lb