Am I over priming my pressure barrels?

[Bazz]

I'm using pressure barrels for storing and serving my beer from at the moment until i can afford a corny set up and one of mine has just split on the seam at the bottom, and i was wondering am i over priming the barrels? I use 80-90g of table sugar for each 5 gallon batch and the pressure in the barrel is always quite high, i always get a glass of froth that settles quite quickly when pouring from the tap, i had always put this down to the fact that the taps were pretty basic, but now one has split i'm wondering if i'm over doing it and causing to much pressure. I know these are supposed to have a pressure release valve as well but i'm always a little dubious to how effective these are.

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

[HisDudeness]

I used to prime with a similar amount and found that I would end up with leaks around the tap seal every time, I have since dropped to around 50-65g per batch which seems to work well and no leaks. Only downside is I now need to top up gas about halfway down whereas before I could almost make it through the whole barrel and still have pressure.

[injac]

Do you mean the seam on the tap itself? Had this issue myself a few times though I have a feeling it is the weak construction of the tap itself with the gradual wear and tear if turning the tap causing it.

[Bazz]

Do you mean the seam on the tap itself?

No mate, the barrel looks as though it is constructed from two pieces that come out of a mould that are then joined together, that seam! it's the actual barrel that has split rather than anything to do with the tap.

[Bazz]

HisDudeness, do you find you can pour a better pint by reducing the amount of priming sugar you use?

Thanks btw.

[Tony1951]

I think the barrels come with a label on them suggesting a maximum of 85grammes of sugar so you should not be far off with what you say was used. I've had two of these barrels fail. The most recent one cracked on the top - like yours on a seam. There is no way there was any injury to that one - it just failed after two fills - a sort of stress fracture. Muntons sent me a new one and a new kit. I had bought it from Wilkcos and they contacted their supplier who organised the replacement and they sent cooper's kit because I had mentioned that the beer in it was probably wasted which made the loss even more annoying. The first one of mine to develop a crack failed at the base of the barrel - again, on a seam. There is a possibility that that one had been knocked, but it wasn't knocked hard - I just put it down a bit firmly with a full load of beer in it. I don't think these are very good barrels really. I've had tons of problems with leaking lid seals.

[Mattpc]

Why not just prime with 50g? You can always add gas. 85g sounds like a lot unless you are deliberately wanting to create lots of gas. Plastic pressure barrels really can't take very much pressure.. If you want fizzy beer then bottles or corny kegs are the way to go.

[HisDudeness]

HisDudeness, do you find you can pour a better pint by reducing the amount of priming sugar you use?

Thanks btw.

Yes absolutely, still have to go very slow and steady but much easier to avoid the glass of foam result! This will still happen if you open the tap too far though

[charliemartin]

Try putting a length of silicone tubing on the end of the tap, long enough to reach the bottom of the pint glass. Hold your glass so that the tube hits the bottom of it and pour. If the pressure is really high you will still get a fair bit of foam, but nowhere near as bad as pouring straight from the tap.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

[charliemartin]

Double post. Blooming Tapatalk. Tried to edit a typo and ended up double posting (twice).

[charliemartin]

Double post 2!!!