Spunding

[admin]

Made my spunding gauge as you can see.

What I'm using it for: I brewed a pils of sorts a week ago. It takes 2.5 weeks for these to ferment out fully, but after a week I transferred it to the corny where it will finish fermenting under pressure, approx 1 bar. It's pressure it will create itself.

I have no automatic release valve so every day I'll check and if we're a bit above 1 bar I'll let off some using the corny's pressure release valve.

[Tucan]

What are the advantages of fermenting under pressure.
Is it faster?

[johnrm]

I like. It would be nice to have a settable pressure relief valve.
Do you run the risk of overcarbing the beer if the pressure increases substantially and you degas the headspace?

[Jacob]

What are the advantages of fermenting under pressure.
Is it faster?

Your beer will be fully carbonated and ready to drink as soon as your fermentation ends up.

@Tube: Is that your plan?

[Tucan]

Thanks for the info.
I'm still struggling with the basics so won't be making any advanced moves like this in the near future .

[Jacob]

Thanks for the info.
I'm still struggling with the basics so won't be making any advanced moves like this in the near future .

If you will, remember to not exceed 15 psi

[brenmurph]

I secondary all my beers in 5 gallon sealed drums. The drums hold about 5 r 6 psi. The beer comes out reasonably carbonated. Because I let my beer secondary / condition in sealed drums I dont keg till the beer is clear completly.
I cool or chill the drum and siphon into my corneys and I now have drinking ales straight away.
Second benefit if you want well carbonated  beers then very little force conditioning is needed. If I want high carbonation my pre carbonated beers will be very fizzy after a week in cold at 15-20 psi.

A side benefit is that your beer alweays has a great protective blanket of co2 even when transferring because as you siphon some co2 escapes develloping a nice co2 layer as you are transferring.
Hope this helps
regards brendan

[Ciderhead]

This like like putting a live chicken in the oven and turning on the gas, when its cooked picking bits off, no thanks. I prefer my birds plucked and clean

That valve looks familiar, bit droopy though luv

[Ciderhead]

No, it's not.

It has been syphoned off the yeast in the bucket into the corny. So comparatively speaking there's feck all yeast there.

And when it's done fermenting it goes into another corny for lagering.

so whats the advantage, there has to be more than just saving gas?

[Jacob]

so whats the advantage, there has to be more than just saving gas?

In case of lagers you can ferment them in higher temperature then usual without getting unwanted esters.
Because of that pressure fermentation is very popular in commercial breweries.

[brenmurph]

I read in banforths book that loads of commercials brew under pressure. I also see the conical on mybeer and wine boasts their conical ferments under pressure and serves if necessary from the conical (after dumping the yeast)

anyway Im a fan of pressure fermenting ( secondary) for reasons stated earlier

[Will_D]

Another reason I have heard from various small craft breweries is:

We don't like to pump the beer. An impellor pump is not considered good for our beer. As we don't have gravity assist we like to secondary under pressure so the beer "moves itself"

Btw: Did you know that in an empty G. or H. keg there is about 3 bar of mixed gas? 3 bar * 50  litres = 150 Litres of gas at STP!

[Cathal O D]

I read somewhere that certain yeasts dont respond well to pressure. Its fine at first but as the yeast multiplies the new yeast can mutate and produce off flavours.

Depends on the yeast i suppose.

[brenmurph]

This post emphasises the mystery, science and not least the ART of brewing. The more we experiment, the more we debate, the more we taste we fine out so much about the complexity of this wonderful product and the multiple variables involved.
Would be great to find out more about which variety of yeast may be risky. I would be willing to believe that there may be a case of truth here, however is it because the beer may be left on the yeast under a certain pressure for too long? does this not mean the yeast will throw an off if it is bottle conditioned?
Personally Ive had most of my beers fermented under 5-6psi and me , lucan brewers and my blind tasters havnt reported off flavours.
Anyway for me end result is a tasty beer, not necessarily a competition winning beer that is designed and brewed with beersmith software but one I can sit back with and exclaim, "isnt this barley, potato and lemon beer, only gorgeous!" After all an off flavour for one is a nice flavour for another, think belgian wild fermented beers these are Putrid to many if not most people and competition winners to others. Hope this debate goes on a bit longer, its clear that fermenting under pressure is very common among commercial, craft and homebrewers.

[Ciderhead]

its clear that fermenting under pressure is very common among commercial, craft and homebrewers.

5 years brewing and 3 years AG and this is the first serious detailed info, I have come across