Episode #1: Force Carbonation in a Unitank

[@8mstudios]

In 5 years of owning a brewery, I have never used a spunding valve in that way. I love it. I will now!

[@davidpestana5290]

Hi sr, one of my dreams is having my own brewery, I am still learning how to brew, could you please give me any advice or tell where can I self educate myself ? Thank you in advance

[@TheSeanSmash]

I love this video, thank you so much. I've recently become the head brewer at a 7bbl Brewery and this filled in a few gaps I had.

[@YoungSmo214]

Cheers brother I'm in the same boat

[@gburciaga1]

Awesome tutorial man. I just did my first unitank force carb this past weekend and it did not turn out well. After many many attempts my beer still came out flat. Time to go back to the drawing board and try again.... Can’t wait for more videos from you.

[@sanchichis6484]

This video is awesome. It makes me want to quit my 9-5 and just fucken go for it.

[@27Lawlor]

Really thorough and clear explanation,very impressed by the attention to hygiene practice with the handling of the components

[@angel1994estrada]

This video is awesome, We just upgraded our brewhouse from 5 gal batches to a 200 and 400 L unitank fermentors, hope to see more videos on the future, if you could do a small tutorial on the whole fermentation process for unitanks that would be awesome

[@chrisbryant2365]

It's a shame there aren't more uploads here. This is very informative.

[@gregf9486]

Great video! I always wondered how microbreweries carbonate their beer. Would love to see more videos on the commercial brewing process.

[@brianbutton5176]

This is a great video. Please do more.

[@JelmoNL]

I really like this video. Thank you for making it, very informative for me as a homebrewer. I do hope you’ll make a follow up video. Thanks again!

[@danssv8]

Why don't you put a quick disconnect fitting on your Co2? What pressure can that glass handle? You don't want that to blow. Great information and video , cheers

[@barthensley8582]

Thank you for sharing. Make some more badass videos man. It’s very informative!

[@nattyj000]

Oh dude that sux! All the best for the clean out and hope this is the end if the wild yeast battle for you.

[@thetommyandbobbyshow]

Carbonation tips and tricks! Wicked video! Keep em coming!! We should have you on our show one of these days!

[@ryanburningham6952]

Very cool, Thank you for showing a newbie like me how a brewery does it.

[@litoquayle283]

Hello from Panama!! You can use a taprite to measure the co2 vol. It’s cheaper than the other one!

[@olivseven]

or a barby + kuehner ;)

[@TheTimski72]

Excellent video guys. Thanks for sharing your process.

[@hamishbooth3359]

Great video- can you do more like this? Would love to see processes like how to dry hop in this uni tank etc.

[@derekremington8807]

May I offer an alternative solution? At 19:32 in your video you have two TC connections; one a sample valve and the other a temperature gauge? I'd recommend buying TC "T" pipe and install it where the sample valve is with the long legs attached to the tank, attach the temperature gauge on the other side of the long leg allowing the thermowell for the gauge to pass straight through into the tank, attaching the sample valve on the side short leg of the "T", this allows you to turn your single port into dual use; sample and temperature, allowing you to directly attach your carbonation stone to the tank where the temperature Guage used to be. Then you don't have to go through all the trouble. The stone should be high enough if it's at the same level as your sample valve to allow yeast cone to develop under neath it, then when you are dumping the yeast, you can do quick bursts of co2 on the stone to clear the pores of any yeast/trub/sediment that settled on it till then. Best of luck, cheers

[@tashawyson5221]

Thanks for a clear explanation. When you fill a keg is there any issue with putting carbed beer into it?

[@supaxr]

Such a good video really learnt alot look forward to more 👍

[@metam.devad.neimte9212]

ورق نقدي

[@eurekamgc]

excellent explanation thanks for sharing ... greetings from Peru

[@JAWSFREE]

You can do your initial yeast pull through the racking arm. This will give you the heart of the yeast and clear out your racking arm for your co2

[@sambegdouri1619]

Love this video. I am in the process of building a cidery and looking at bottling our product. We are looking for the most efficient way of force carbonation. Most do it at kegs at a time, but that does not seem very efficient. This video is very helpful indeed. Thank you. I might even get in touch with you directly in the future for some advice if you do not mind. Regards, Sam

[@josephmuriuki5154]

Great video

[@Gearshera]

great work 👏

[@ImYoutubing247]

Are you guys still in business? Three years later there’s no more videos lol. I hoping I could watch some more, but your channel just has episode #1.

[@Sancle90]

Awesome video dude!

[@EhnPeeDee]

Great instructional video. I hope you do more of these types of video in the near future! One question, you mentioned using the spray ball arm for purging with CO2 as the blow off may have residual yeast, etc., in the line. When attaching the spunding valve, did you bleed/blow off prior to attaching the valve?

[@nedt]

Excellent. Thankyou

[@pabloappen5539]

Great video!! Thanks!! 🍻🍻

[@Davidbwhitedesign]

Start your FV with the racking arm facing down or mostly down? Surely it will fill to the elbow with yeast after flocculation, but may follow the flow out of the tank while you're dropping your yeast?

[@jd5393]

Since ales are top fermenting, you could try just keeping your racking arm horizontal or upside down during primary. If that doesn't do anything, just turn it upside down and push some co2 through it before cold crashing. And definitely invest in a pig tail. A lot of co2 will break out of solution before you're able to taste it 👍

[@adammarcus8562]

If you are going to dump yeast from the racking arm why not do it before connecting your carb stone. Then sanitize and continue on. Also I didn't see you do a oxygen purge of the carb stone and the little chunk of pipe after the check valve and site glass which would have needed to be done before you made contact with the yeast/beer. If you did assemble after racking arm yeast dump you would still want to purge the oxygen from the site glass, stone and hose.

[@ironclaw27]

100% thought the same thing

[@liquidgold2735]

Isn't the fact that he's got 15 psi of headspace in the unitank and a spunding valve preventing O2 from getting into the beer?

[@adammarcus8562]

@@liquidgold2735 Whatever O2 was in the sight glass and tubing and stone will now be pushed into the beer by the CO2 and dispersed through the tank of beer.

[@jeremyhalverson6358]

But he didn't push the oxygen into the brew, he purged it out with that short yeast dump. Brilliant!

[@adammarcus8562]

@@jeremyhalverson6358 Look at the 16:58 minute mark. His racking arm is sideways. All the oxygen in the sight glass has to go somewhere when he opens the first valve and the beer fills that space so it went into FV then he flushes the sight glass slowly. Even if his racking arm was pointed down I doubt the arm could hold that volume O2 that was in the sight glass so I still think it would have made its way into the beer. Even if it didn't the 2 foot of CO2 hose after the check valve has oxygen in it when he hooks it up and the yeast dump surly has zero chance of purging that O2 out of his process.

[@enigmatic1976]

I noticed you didn't purge the CO2 line, through the stone, with gas before purging the assembly of yeast... wouldn't you be oxidizing your beer?

[@joshuapower1542]

Dude!!! I’m 27Brewing names Josh. Grew up in Chapel Arm NL Just seen this video. I’m a home brewer. But I use all SS equipment from SS brew tech. I have chillers etc so more than a typical home brewer. Still at it we wha?

[@porterbrewer9349]

Very nice presentation. More please (??).

[@josepena4515]

I really enjoyed the video. I just didn't comprehend how the time of carbonation is determined. I only brew 15 gallon batches. Could someone explain?

[@toddbartlow8770]

Question, why didn't you drain the yeast out of the racking arm before installing the carbonation stone?

[@jonmccombs1711]

Great job!!

[@BrewingBowman]

So…would it work to just turn the gas on to just a few psi over the wetting pressure and let it go overnight? Be more gentle and scrub the beer less? Or does it need to be ABOVE what the sounding valve is set to?

[@eduardovillegas2267]

You can still carbonate perfectly at the port a bit higher up right?

[@thalladay]

Great video, thanks!

[@XkannsenX]

It was a great video. Will you continue ?

[@thebaybrewer2216]

Definitely going to try to continue these in 2021. We are in the midst of expanding our brewery now to double production. It will be a hectic few months ahead, so hoping to get back to this in the new year! Cheers!

[@F-16-c4j]

@@thebaybrewer2216 Hello ! We are manufacturer of brewing equipment

[@fits-me1244]

Thanks for the video Where did you purchase the carb stone? Looking for a similar setup where you can flush the yeast out.

[@stephenboyajian8844]

Trying to find the same thing.

[@garyjarvis2959]

Thanks for the great vid! I’ve just started force carbing my second ever batch on a new bright tank. The first didn’t go too well and I think it was a temperature issue. This second attempt isn’t going to well so far either, and I’m really worried I’m going to lose another batch. Basically, I’m getting a lot of foam from the sample valve, and have been reading that this is caused by force carbing too quickly and damaging the lipoproteins in the beer, which is irreversible. I have 600 litres in a 1000 litre tank, and initially carbonated at 18psi by gradually increasing the levels over the space of about 5 hours. However, the beer is not very carbonated and there’s a lot of foam. You have eased my worries a little when you showed in your video the pouring of your ‘foamy’ beer and said that’s how it should be:) Can you please advise on if I can recarbonate to get more ‘fizz’ into the beer and advise on head pressure/psi levels/carbonation time etc pleeeesssse? Hoping you can help. Gary.

[@Jordan-gl1jz]

Forgive my ignorance, as I’m only just learning about spunding valves - why do you not capture some of the CO2 created during fermentation, using the spunding valve to regulate the desired pressure? Also, I noticed in this particular video you didn’t harvest any of the yeast. Is this something you do only some of the time?

[@XkannsenX]

on some beers you want some esters that you loose if you ferment under pressure.

[@grantburton7204]

Will thete ever be an episode 2?

[@derekremington8807]

Also why use a spunding valve? Why not start carbonating at lower psi, and step up the psi slowly as you go until you get the carbonation levels you want, allowing the tank to equalize as you go? As co2 flows in through the stone it's traveling through the beer, and anything that doesn't absorb takes the aroma with it and blows it out the spunding valve does it not?

[@dedencyde1]

thats my worry as well. I think this is just for force carbonation though. Typically we set the psi to 15 and let it sit for a couple days. We are getting spunding valves so we can start naturally carbonating beers but this is a good video imo because if you get in a bind and need to force carb, this will work.

[@XkannsenX]

First, sorry if i dont speak very well english. In my brewery I put the spunding valve at the equilibrium pressure for the °C and CO2 vol I want (usually 0 to 2 °C to go faster). Then i go for the force carb until I got the good CO2 volume (I test CO2 every 10/15 minutes with a tool called "Zahm"). I recirculate with pump during all the process, then I let recirculate without CO2 for while when I have the good CO2 value. Then I keg the following day after a last measure of CO2 volume. The tank is carb after 1 or 2 hours like that, but the resting period of 24h is important in my opinion. It works pretty well ! My last advice would be : don't force carb beer without a CO2 measure tool, unless you want pubs send back your kegs.

[@diegomoreno9885]

Excelent tutorial video, amazing. If you think to visit Argentinian Patagonia will be very welcome at La Zorra Glacier Brewery. Thanks a lot!

[@sloanenixon4070]

awesome video. I have a question on ID of the gas line. I have 5/16id line on hand, would that size force carb adequately a 500L Brite tank? does it make much difference whether its 5/16id or 1/2id? Cheers

[@clubroot3383]

Clear video. Have you heard of “bottle conditioned beer”? You could save a lot of CO2 by closing of the Unitank and let it self pressurise in the last 2 days of fermentation until attenuation is achieved at a lower temperature of 10C approx. Then cold crash, dump the last residual yeast and pack for retail sale. You would retain all of the hop aromas which you are losing with CO2 scrubbing in this video.

[@davidpestana5290]

Hello everyone. One of my dreams js to have my own brewery, I am still learning how to brew, could you please give me any advice or tell where can I self educate

[@robmoen4609]

Loved the comment "I'm just a guy on the internet". Awesome! Is your product sold in Alberta?

[@ar5000]

I heard you say you were using isopropyl alcohol in the bucket for sanitizing the parts. Did you mean to say ethanol, or do you actually use isopropyl?

[@christopherkim1744]

Hello Alex~

[@proyectomachocabrio]

Hi, thanks for sharin. You have the table of carbonatation for sharing me? Thanks agan

[@josemanuelramosp.5641]

Hi, awesome video. I would really appreciate you to tell me if you filter your beer, or how do you do to not to have yeast residues in the bottles after carbonation? And how long does it take to ferment and mature your beer before carbonation? Thank u

[@liquidgold2735]

You would have to filter the entire batch of beer through plate filters or some other form of in-line filter to remove the yeast if you want to completely remove yeast residue.

[@endisnorway]

Great video! One question: if you only have one blow off arm to your tank. Would you think a tee would be the best way and connect both the spunding valve and co2 gas to the one arm?

[@Gearshera]

please more on types of yeast and flavours

[@africantwin173]

How long do you need to carbonate normally. Home brewers say about 2 days ? . Im looking to get a 10 Gallon SS Brewtech Brite tank to clear the beer and hoping to carbonate it with co2. But how do i know for how long i need to carb the beer.

[@brunolopez9923]

Hello friend, a question, do you use a filter to purify the co2 or filter the solid particles that may be there, before it comes into contact with the beer?

[@jonathanferrante3271]

Curious about your pass through carb stone on a tee. Is that custom or did you purchase it that way. If so from where. I am only familiar with the style that has the gas inlet in the back end of it.

[@owentp]

Same question!

[@Bohern1]

I'd like to know more about how your carb stone is setup. I have tried to find something like that setup so I can carb through my racking arm on my 1/2 bbl here at home. Please help, thanks.

[@CarlosLopez-uk9pr]

Do you let sit fully carb or do you keg/can u keg right after?

[@givemeaname7922]

why you don't reuse yeast?

[@dvdrwsor]

Too much head for cans, right?

[@anthonyfigueroa762]

I hear a lot Brewery life quotes that's fucking rad man

[@ando9508]

Is this the method you still use for your unitanks? I just got two 3.5bbl, looking for M&P's.

[@nirniks]

After carbonation how do you maintain CO2 levels in UT, i get carbonation but due to lockdown beer was sitting in UTs which i need to force carbonize again n again. What do you suggest to maintain CO2 levels

[@F-16-c4j]

very great!

[@kingtom6433]

more videos please

[@Trevor.Morrice]

are you telling me that carbonation level in the the same liquid doesn't homogenize??

[@ronaldcallacna]

what sanitizer do you have your white bucket filled with?

[@kylewills9404]

Do you know what the carbonation rate per litre would be? Would love to dial in forced carbonation on a homebrew level.

[@corky5]

So your spunding valve is set to 12 psi but your pumping co2 into your beer at 30psi?

[@geoffreybalme4215]

Yeah I don't get that as well, it would be great if you could explain please

[@trondthorsen2669]

I would like to hear the answer for that to. Is it because the beer is taking up the co2, and when the beer reaches the co2 volume the spunding valve will start letting co2 out? 🤔

[@lylelevesque7741]

More episodes!

[@nicksonrenzardaniel9212]

how many psi for carbonating beer?

[@hobbetychop3533]

What are you using the sight glass to look for exactly?

[@sargedavid]

Looks to be when the beer runs clear instead of a bunch of yest and then to make sure that there is bubbles happening and the carb stone isn't clogged / working properly by making a bunch of bubbles.

[@andreasdjamas9808]

More please

[@kraljevskapivarakraljevo4578]

What is pressure in co2 cylinder?

[@Andy-id1ui]

Does this add O2 to the beer as well? When adding the sight glass?

[@liquidgold2735]

It's a sealed system, how would it at O2 to the beer?

[@matgill6963]

Why in gods name would u not clear the racking arm prior to putting the stone in.

[@jamiea2281]

The only thing I would have done here is no flush the yeast through the carb stone. Instead just use sight glass and butterfly valve then hookup carb stone. Also use a pigtail spigot to do tasting from the tank.

[@KellerBi3r]

If you think about it. By flush in the yeast, you are also eliminating any potential D.O pick up.

[@srivas303]

Why not save yourself a bunch of time and money and just put your spunding valve on towards the end of fermentation and cap it at about 12-14psi based on desired carb level?

[@ricardocira7471]

How long does the CO2 stay connected?

[@ryandunlap6893]

Just permanently keep your carb stone in your tank so you don’t have to deal with that nightmare you’ve created trying to carb.

[@fdk7014]

Look at all that wasted yeast! That's at least 30 packets of White Labs worth.