While no skilled brewer would ignore carbonation levels, the typical procedure for ensuring the correct levels of carbonation in a brew is about force, not finesse. All it takes is pressure and time. Developed hundreds of years ago by German brewers working under the constraints of the inflexible Reinheitsgebot laws, spunding is as simple as sealing a vessel toward the end of active fermentation. Without a blowoff and with no place to go, the carbon dioxide is instead dissolved into the liquid.
Brewers dedicated to this method use a simple valve to manage the pressure level in the tank and, thus, the amount of gas that ends up dissolved in the beer.
Similar devices are also manufactured by GW Kent, Ss Brewtech, and others, with various pressure ratings and fitting hardware from tri-clamp to ball lock. Why not use it? It can also extend the shelf life of beer by delaying the staling effects of oxidation.
Carbonating your beer, cider, or soda in kegs can be simple, easy, and quick. There are a few things to know in advance, and a few different methods. This guide will go over them for you. Most carbonation in kegs is done using pressurized CO2 from a gas cylinder, a process called force carbonation. The fastest results can be achieved when the beer in the keg is at a cold temperature. This will let the CO2 diffuse into the beer more efficiently and at a faster rate.
A more accelerated method of force carbonation involves putting PSI of CO2 into your chilled keg of beer and shaking or rocking the keg to diffuse the gas at a faster rate. Depending on how cold your beer is, and how much you agitate the beer, you can have your beer carbonated anywhere from 12 hours to 3 days. Once it is carbonated, dial your CO2 regulator down to serving pressure, and vent excess CO2 out of your keg. It is advised that you wait an hour or two for the beer to settle down before serving.
The bigger temperature difference between the beer and the air means lagers warm up faster than bitters. Their rate of loss of CO2 is consequently much higher, and they go flat faster. Secondly, lagers are generally more carbonated than bitters, so are fizzier at the point of purchase and therefore have more CO2 to lose in the first place.
This extra carbonation, like the lower serving temperature, is usually used to camouflage the lack of flavor that is found in most British-brewed lagers. Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist.
I provide a simplified version of the krausening equation here. Carbonation Tablets — A number of brewing shops sell carbonation tablets which are simply small sugar or dextrose tablets that you add directly to the bottle when bottling.
Typically they are sized for 12 oz bottles. Carbonating with Kegs Kegs offer some significant advantages over bottles. Forced Carbonation — By far the most common carbonation method for kegs is forced carbonation. In this method you simply refrigerate the keg and then apply CO2 pressure to it.
Over a few days, the CO2 will permeate the beer and carbonate it fully. Also you can easily control the carbonation level by adjusting the CO2 pressure up or down. I run my kegs at around 13 psi 90 kpa but your system may vary. This is how kegs were carbonated before we had bottled CO2 and widespread refrigeration, but it is still used with some classic real ales.
Calculating Carbonation Levels As I mentioned above, you typically choose a target carbonation level, expressed in volumes, before you carbonate your beer. Don't make another bad batch of beer! Give BeerSmith a try - you'll brew your best beer ever. Download a free 21 day trial of BeerSmith now. Got BeerSmith?
0コメント