- Joined
- Jul 30, 2021
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Sorry to bother the group, but I have a question about counter pressure bottling... so far, I have bottled three batches, one hard cider, one sparkling wine (in beer bottles) and a wheat beer. All three foamed a bit more than I would have thought, I was able to control the cider and the wine by SERIOUSLY throttling back the relief valve, but the beer was nearly uncontrollable. I am thinking the beer was so difficult in part because there was so much protein, but in part I THINK because of HOW I am doing it. I am force carbonating in kegs at about 30psi in the fridge at about 50 degrees (the darned refrigerator won't get colder... when I go to bottle, I use a bottling pressure of about 8-10 psi... but I see a LOT of bubbles comming out of solution in the feed line from the keg, and the pressure isn't keeping it suppressed...
I THINK this is telling me that because I force carbed so high, the counter pressure isn't sufficient to keep the dissolved CO2 from coming out of solution in the short time from the keg to the bottle?
I was thinking about using the higher pressure to speed the carb-bing... but then after a couple days at 30, drop the pressure to about 15 using a spunding valve... and letting it rest to come to a 15psi equilibrium for a couple of days... This should give me a CO2 level of about 2.3 volumes, and keep the pressure differential from the keg pressure to the bottling pressure from being quite to high...
Any thoughts or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
I THINK this is telling me that because I force carbed so high, the counter pressure isn't sufficient to keep the dissolved CO2 from coming out of solution in the short time from the keg to the bottle?
I was thinking about using the higher pressure to speed the carb-bing... but then after a couple days at 30, drop the pressure to about 15 using a spunding valve... and letting it rest to come to a 15psi equilibrium for a couple of days... This should give me a CO2 level of about 2.3 volumes, and keep the pressure differential from the keg pressure to the bottling pressure from being quite to high...
Any thoughts or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!