What adjustable PRV did you use for your Spunding Valve?

[CanAm]

Hi,

I'm looking to make a Spunding valve but can't seem to find a good adjustable pressure relief valve. All the ones I've come across have bad reviews (either they leak or don't reset to the correct pressure)

What have you used successfully?

Thanks!

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I use this one. It doesn't line up with the marks but it works. I can vent pressure and set it to pressure I want to keep my fermenter at. It works pretty well with a little playing around. And the price is right.

 

[Firewalker11]

Thats the same PRV I use, I have three of them working right now, even with krausen spitting out of one (dont ask ) they work very well.

The numbers are pure crap, they don't align with real pressures, use a gauge to measure that.

 

[CanAm]

Thanks for the quick replies! I can't tell what kind of valve it is though. Where did you get it or do you have a part number?

 

[CanAm]

Look like it's on Amazon.

So now a usage question. Say you're fermenting at 60 degrees, and you have about 5 gravity points to go when you put on the Spunding valve. If you have the pressure relief set for 22 psi it would work out to 2.5 volumes.

How long would you let it sit at that pressure until the CO2 is absorbed into the beer?

If you then cold crash the beer would it maintain the 2.5 volumes of carbonation?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

How long does it take to carb in a keg? Same thing here just different vessel.

So what fermenter do you have? Most can't take that kind of pressure.

 

[day_trippr]

Look like it's on Amazon.

So now a usage question. Say you're fermenting at 60 degrees, and you have about 5 gravity points to go when you put on the Spunding valve. If you have the pressure relief set for 22 psi it would work out to 2.5 volumes.

How long would you let it sit at that pressure until the CO2 is absorbed into the beer?[...]

Two weeks plus 4 days.

If you then cold crash the beer would it maintain the 2.5 volumes of carbonation?

Of course (obviously, the valve would be removed prior). And if you heat it up, it'll still be 2.5 volumes...

Cheers!

 

[CanAm]

The fermenter is a sanke keg. Thanks for clarifying the co2 volumes. I thought it would be the same but wasn't sure.

 

[agrazela]

I'm putting together a couple Spunding valves using these PRV's (yellow spring, 25-50psi adjustable), about 1/2 the price of the ones with the nice big knob:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GDXT3O/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Don't know yet how they're going to work out, but since the idea is to use them to natural carb typical ales at ~room temp in corny kegs most of the way (let the keezer finish them), I figure I'll just set them to around 30-35psi and be done with it. If I could have found a PRV at a fixed 30psi I might have tried that.

 

[crane]

Look like it's on Amazon.

So now a usage question. Say you're fermenting at 60 degrees, and you have about 5 gravity points to go when you put on the Spunding valve. If you have the pressure relief set for 22 psi it would work out to 2.5 volumes.

How long would you let it sit at that pressure until the CO2 is absorbed into the beer?

If you then cold crash the beer would it maintain the 2.5 volumes of carbonation?

I will argue that you do not have to let the beer sit at all at your final max pressure to absorb CO2 to become carbonated. The reason behind this is that the source of the CO2 is the yeast in the beer not a CO2 tank. Therefore during fermentation the CO2 is going in the opposite direction compared to force carbonating.

The yeast produce CO2. That CO2 goes into solution. For a given head pressure excess CO2 will be pushed out of solution raising the head pressure. The PRV will let out any excess CO2 to maintain a constant head pressure.

From my experience sampling force carbonated beer 1 day after hooking it up to CO2, the beer is still flat. I regularly take samples a day or 2 after reaching my max pressure once fermentation seems to be done and it is fully carbonated. Granted these are comparing 2 different pressure/temperature combos, but they are the same volumes of CO2. Additionally I collect my sample in a Mason jar and use my food saver vacuum sealer to remove all the CO2 from the beer so I can take a gravity reading. It's pretty cool to see all the CO2 form bubbles in the beer and grow in size as they rise to the top as the food saver sucks air out and creates a vacuum.

As for the PRV. I use the black plastic one that McMaster Carr sells. It works great for the most part, but it can get clogged if you let beer/wort/blowoff pass through it.

 

[doug293cz]

Look like it's on Amazon.

So now a usage question. Say you're fermenting at 60 degrees, and you have about 5 gravity points to go when you put on the Spunding valve. If you have the pressure relief set for 22 psi it would work out to 2.5 volumes.

How long would you let it sit at that pressure until the CO2 is absorbed into the beer?

If you then cold crash the beer would it maintain the 2.5 volumes of carbonation?

How long does it take to carb in a keg? Same thing here just different vessel.

...

Actually, the beer will get carbed as fermentation progresses. The CO2 gets formed in the beer, and only that in excess of the equilibrium carb level for the pressure and temp will escape the beer. So beer will be carbed even before fermentation finishes (assuming you had enough gravity points to create the CO2.)

Edit: Didn't read far enough. @crane beat me to it.

Brew on

 

[Firewalker11]

I'm putting together a couple Spunding valves using these PRV's (yellow spring, 25-50psi adjustable), about 1/2 the price of the ones with the nice big knob:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GDXT3O/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Don't know yet how they're going to work out, but since the idea is to use them to natural carb typical ales at ~room temp in corny kegs most of the way (let the keezer finish them), I figure I'll just set them to around 30-35psi and be done with it. If I could have found a PRV at a fixed 30psi I might have tried that.

I use my spunding valves 80% of the time at 7 PSIG or under. I take them off once the yeast have gotten the carbonation to about 14 PSIG.

 

[agrazela]

I use my spunding valves 80% of the time at 7 PSIG or under. I take them off once the yeast have gotten the carbonation to about 14 PSIG.

Is that at room temperature? Because that'd only be like 1.5 or so volumes, right?

 

[Firewalker11]

Is that at room temperature? Because that'd only be like 1.5 or so volumes, right?

Yes, yeast are tolerant of 7 PSIG but not much more. I will let it build to about 14 PSIG then I crash to 33°F when building CO2 the rest of the way but I do cheat by hooking up the tank to my desired end vols. .

 

[gifty74]

I'm putting together a couple Spunding valves using these PRV's (yellow spring, 25-50psi adjustable), about 1/2 the price of the ones with the nice big knob:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GDXT3O/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Don't know yet how they're going to work out, but since the idea is to use them to natural carb typical ales at ~room temp in corny kegs most of the way (let the keezer finish them), I figure I'll just set them to around 30-35psi and be done with it. If I could have found a PRV at a fixed 30psi I might have tried that.

How are these valves working for you? Looking to build my sounding valve but the ones with the large black knob on the end get pretty poor reviews.

 

[day_trippr]

They get poor reviews mostly because actual pressure settings usually don't correlate to the stick-on label.
But as long as you include a pressure gauge they're actually quite useful...

Cheers!

 

[gifty74]

Awesome! I've read more than one review that say once it pops to release the pressure, the seal isn't made again until all, or almost all of the pressure is released (down to 0). That isn't good. Have you experienced this? I just ordered the SS "T", gauge and this valve from amazon...

 

[day_trippr]

That would certainly be a show stopper, but I haven't had that happen...yet...

Cheers!

 

[dunnry]

Awesome! I've read more than one review that say once it pops to release the pressure, the seal isn't made again until all, or almost all of the pressure is released (down to 0). That isn't good. Have you experienced this? I just ordered the SS "T", gauge and this valve from amazon...

I have this Amazon valve and mine doesn't work at all... it holds 0 pressure. I didn't test it for 3 weeks after I built it, so I didn't want to try to return it at that point. Was really disappointed though.

 

[BBBF]

Spend a few bucks more and get the SS one from morebeer

https://www.morebeer.com/products/stainless-gas-pressure-relief.html

 

[day_trippr]

The 55psi fixed pressure valve?

 

[DasBierBaron]

I bought two spunding valves from adventures in homebrewing. I don't think they cost any more than putting one together yourself and they seem to do the job just fine. The only downside is the gauge goes to 60 PSI and I wish it had been a 30 PSI gauge.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I bought two spunding valves from adventures in homebrewing. I don't think they cost any more than putting one together yourself and they seem to do the job just fine. The only downside is the gauge goes to 60 PSI and I wish it had been a 30 PSI gauge.

Item number or link?

 

[day_trippr]

http://www.homebrewing.org/Adjustable-Pressure-Relief-Valve-w-Gauge_p_1813.html

fwiw, these things are pretty simple devices, consisting of a spring-loaded slug with an o-ring at the business end.


The slug fits pretty tight in the bore so it's easy to imagine if some beer coughed its way up into the valve the slug could stick "open" and vent the keg.

I doubt the hb.org version is significantly different.

Cheers!

 

[BBBF]

The 55psi fixed pressure valve?

That's the maximum pressure. I have it and can confirm it is adjustable.

 

[agrazela]

Awesome! I've read more than one review that say once it pops to release the pressure, the seal isn't made again until all, or almost all of the pressure is released (down to 0). That isn't good. Have you experienced this? I just ordered the SS "T", gauge and this valve from amazon...

Sorry, haven't logged in awhile...

Yes, that's exactly what happened with mine with the cheapo amazon brass PRV's, so I haven't really used them all that much.

 

[gifty74]

Well, before reading all of the posts here I had to order a setup and went with the $13.38 valve from amazon shown in a bunch of the above posts, stainless T (only $1.70), and nice Winters gauge. Very impressed with the gauge quality, and the fact that it was calibrated from their factory. All for under $20. I have a brass barbed nipple laying around so used that and it was done deal. Put it on the keg Sun night and dialed it pretty well into 25-27 psi. Seems pretty accurate and consistent, so far. Just a thought, maybe some (prob not all) of those experiencing issues, could it be that your gauge isn't reading consistently? Might be worth a shot. Seems though that these valves and the quality is a little hit or miss, whether or not you get a 'good' one.