Pressure Barrel worries

[Ditch]

Heat Belt? I'd always put those in the same place; The bin. Why mess about with superstition when a fish tank heater, with externally settable thermostat, costs about the same and gives ye precision control? " Set and Forget ".

[lollypopp]

That belt cost me £15 Ditch, and I got it to go round my pressure barrel, but like you, I use a Fish tank heater in my FV! but you're right, those heat belts are not easy to control, I think it's where on the barrel you put them that decides the heat , well I hope so, so if anyone knows the best height would love to know, cheers Lawrence...

[Ditch]

Difficult to imagine why ye'd want heat on ye Keg, mate. Cold conditions them, to start with. Then normal, indoors temperatures should do the trick for the rest, shouldn't it?

[lollypopp]

It just goes on for a few days to prime out the 100grams of suger I put in there when I syphoned from the FV, I'm hoping (Well if I can get that ice box thing out the top?)to put the pressure barrel in a old fridge I've got, been switched off and being used as a brewing cupboard, just playing with the ajuster knob to see if I can get it to run at a steady 12C?

[rikpo]

I got a large plastic storage box from the pound shop (it cost £4.99 so I'm still trying to figure that one out) I put my barrel/bottles in that with water and heat it with a fish tank heater. Its in the garage so I also lag it.
You have to tie or weigh the barrel down as it tends to want to float, but it keeps it at a steady temperature for the start of the conditioning.


Rikpo.

[lollypopp]

Thanks rikpo, that is a brilliant idea, why hadn't I thought of that? don't answer that, might look in to giving that a try!

[Tim W]

I've only been homebrewing for about 6 months and had lots of pressure barrel problems to start with. Here are a few of the things that I have worked out.
1/ The little sparklet bulbs hold 8g of CO2. That works out as about 4l or 7 pints of CO2 gas at atmospheric pressure. So if you get less than 7 pints out after adding one, you definitely have a leak!
2/ When you put vaseline on the rubber sealing ring, don't put any between the cap and the ring. If you do, it can easily slip out because the rim of the barrel is not round enough to offer good stability
3/ The top edge of the barrel rim has been cut flat after the 2 halves are joined, but you get sharp edges, so it is worth spending a few minutes with a very fine piece of wet and dry sandpaper smoothing the edges but without reducing the height at all.
4/ I have 2 barrels and 2 injector caps and they both used to leak around the CO2 bulb whenever I fitted one. I used to get a blast of cold CO2 onto my hand. After measuring, either the brass has been incorrectly machined or it has the wrong size section O ring in there. I get around the problem by wrapping a small amount of PTFE plumbing tape around the end of the bulb beforehand. When I lost my PTFE tape, clingfilm worked as an emergency fix!
5/ When I started in the winter, my secondary fermentation was too slow as my barrel was too cold, in the warmer months I often only need 1 or 2 bulbs at most, but sometimes none at all!
6/ The pressure barrels hold up to about 15 psi. This is about the same as 1 atmosphere (above the prevailing atmospheric pressure). So if you have drunk half a barrel an it needs more gas, you are only adding 4l of gas into a 20 l space so the pressure will only increase by 3psi
7/ What we forget is that you can dissolve quite a lot of CO2 in beer. http://www.thebrewhouse.com/resource_ce ... nation.htm is an American beer site that shows that colder beer can hold a lot more gas than warm but also that even with very little headspace, you should theoretically be able to get enough gas to dispense the whole lot (providing that you have no leaks and don't mind extremely lively beer at the start, going through perfect to flat at the bottom of the barrel)

I'd like to get a pressure gauge. a control valve and a scrap sodastream and plumb then up so I could accurately control the pressure, and then maybe something to keep it cooler in the summer..... or maybe I should just enjoy what I've got!

[Normski]

Hi Tim W
Nice post for a 1st go. I just use kegs with an S30 valve fitted to the caps and a large Co2 cylinder, its woks out far cheaper than bulbs and a lot less hassle.
Welcome to the site.

[Tim W]

Thank you for the welcome!

I'm wondering how you use the larger cylinders. I think I've seen pictures with a CO2 cylinder screwed directly into the valve cap. Are they the same as Sodastream or just similar? Do you leave them loose and just screw them down a bit more when you need to add gas? and then unscrew them a bit to stop?

OR is there some sort of button to press to just give a squirt when necessary? If not, I think that standing a scrap sodastream alongside with a tube from the sodastream push button valve to the barrel cap might work well. My local hardware / home brew shop sells Hambleton Bard cylinders, but I don't know if they're the same as Sodastream. Does anybody know?

[Lillywhite]

I'm wondering how you use the larger cylinders.

The Hambeleton Bard Super 30 gas cylinder contains 240 grams of CO2.

When your brew needs a bit of gas to dispense the beer through the tap you screw the cylinder down on the S30 valve for a maximum 1-2 seconds quick blast. You'll hear the gas rattle on the inside of the keg and you quickly unscrew the cylinder. If you leave on too long you'll waste gas as it will escape through the pressure release valve. You should never leave the cylinder screwed on the valve. You should also check that the cylinder pin has closed off otherwise gas will escape.

I've found that the budget bottom tap keg needs hardly any added gas although KK top tap kegs will require more gas when the keg is half empty or you're drawing off many pints in one session.

You really need a fairly local HBS who stocks these cylinders so that you can get an exchange refill.

[Tim W]

Thanks for the advice on the S30 cylinders, when I've used all my 8g bulbs I'll see if my local HBS still stocks them. Each S30 should hold the same as 30 x 8g bulbs

I've since realised that my previous post was wrong. While the 8g bulbs do contain 7 pints of CO2 (at atmospheric pressure), if some of that is dissolved in the beer when you dispense it, you won't get 7 pints of beer out! So, the previous posters experience of only getting 6 pints out in quick succession before the gas ran out seems OK.