Bellying Balliihoo barrel

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user 18576

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Oh dear,
I've had a beer kit conditioning in the house for five days. Went to move it
somewhere cooler and then I noticed the bottom of the barrel had all bellied
out. Checked the pressure and it was 15psi.
I thought the S30 valve on top was to vent off excess conditioning pressure as
well as there to put pressure in as required.
So, do I have a faulty valve (first time I've used this barrel)?

Paul
 
1. The normal maximum pressure for a barrel is 15psi so it looks as if the pressure relief valve is working properly.

2. I have a Wilco Barrel that "bells out" at the slightest provocation.

3. If you didn't "over carb" the brew when transferring it to the barrel then maybe the brew was "stuck" and has started fermenting again.

In any event, I would just move it to a cooler place and leave it alone for at least two weeks.

When you do finally pull a pint it will almost certainly be 100% foam so take along plenty of jugs and let it settle back before drinking it.

PS

Earlier on this year, I took a Wilco Cerveza brew over to France with me in a King Keg. I suspect that it hadn't finished fermenting (I was in a hurry) because about two months later I managed to pull 1.5 litres of beer from the keg for 14 days without using a CO2 capsule! :whistle:
 
If your primary had finished and you used no more than about 95g priming sugar then your PB pressure has probably peaked anyway.
Like Dutto I have PBs that distort under pressure, even when primed with no more than the 95g sugar, and without any possibility of a continuing primary. So again as Dutto has suggested moving into a cold place will reduce the internal pressure since the gas in the head space is then slowly absorbed by the beer. Warm it up again and the gas will return back to the head space and the pressure increases. And the trick with drawing off beer from a fully pressurised PB is to simply do it slowly.
 
Thanks for the replies so far.
I reduced the pressure in the barrel to about 8psi via the schraeder valve.
But the barrel still stayed bellied out.
Will it be possible t o re-flatten the base once it is empty or is it now stuck
at that shape?
Also, if the S30 valves are designed to release pressure at 15psi - which mine
did shouldn't the barrel be able to stand at least that pressure.
I mean these Balliihoo barrels are just about the most expensive you can buy.
(I thought I was buying quality).

I have bought a Festival Boston beer kit which came complete with 150g of
priming sugar, is that excessive and should I not use it all when the time comes?

Paul
 
Thanks for the replies so far.
I reduced the pressure in the barrel to about 8psi via the schraeder valve.
But the barrel still stayed bellied out.
Will it be possible t o re-flatten the base once it is empty or is it now stuck
at that shape?
Also, if the S30 valves are designed to release pressure at 15psi - which mine
did shouldn't the barrel be able to stand at least that pressure.
I mean these Balliihoo barrels are just about the most expensive you can buy.
(I thought I was buying quality).

I have bought a Festival Boston beer kit which came complete with 150g of
priming sugar, is that excessive and should I not use it all when the time comes?

Paul
PBs tend to go back to their original state and shape when empty so chill it'll be fine.can't speak for balihoo kegs but KKs and I have 2 can sustain 20 psi without damaging them but not recommended
 
Also, if the S30 valves are designed to release pressure at 15psi - which mine
did shouldn't the barrel be able to stand at least that pressure.
I mean these Balliihoo barrels are just about the most expensive you can buy.
(I thought I was buying quality).

I have bought a Festival Boston beer kit which came complete with 150g of
priming sugar, is that excessive and should I not use it all when the time comes?
I have 3 budget PBs and each is stamped Maximum Working Pressure 15psi. There should be some design margin on top of that however.
And my PBs do return some of their original shape when depressurised but not all in my experience, but that's not a problem as far as I am concerned.
As I said earlier I would never put more than 95g priming sugar into a PB. That's why standard PBs are fine for low carbed beers like ales, but for lagers and AIPAs where higher carbing suits the style you really need to use bottles. So your Boston ale is really better packaged into bottles.
 
............. shouldn't the barrel be able to stand at least that pressure? ..............

As you haven't reported beer splattered all over your house I think we can confidently confirm that the barrel has stood up to the 15psi design pressure. :lol: :lol: :lol:

It may return to its original shape but if its like my Wilco Barrel it will only stay there until the next batch of beer is carbonated.

Make sure that it can't fall over now and in the future because the sudden shock of a full keg hitting a concrete floor from height will almost certainly cause it to fail in a big way! :thumb:
 
A big thank you to all who have posted replies to my latest problem.

I didn't realise that PB's are perhaps not best suited to IPA type beers, and
expensive doesn't always mean best. ( As everything).
I do prefer ales but I was looking forward to a Munich style beer this summer
from a barrel (draught) I might press on with that but be very aware of
conditioning sugars and reduce the recommended amount to no more than 90g.
One of the reasons for re-starting home brew was to have beer on tap rather than bottles.
I tested the S30 valve on my other barrel using my Hambleton Bard cylinder
and it released pressure at 10psi, pity the one with the IPA didn't do the same. That said 15psi shouldn't have ballooned it.

Damn baptism of fire this home brew malarkey.

Best finish on a positive note - drinking my first brew Directors bitter and
it's very nice, but I was hoping to to keep for Xmas, fat chance at this rate,
can see me going to Tesco for cans to fill the gap before my IPA is ready.

Next Xmas should have 3 barrels up and running ,thinking of a KK top tap.

Paul
 
Next Xmas should have 3 barrels up and running ,thinking of a KK top tap.
You have probably paid extra for a few bells and whistles on your Balliihoo PB, over what you would have paid for a standard PB. My guess is they are fundamentally the same.
And if you are looking to package beers that are highly carbed into a volume container rather than bottles, it might be worth your while looking into using metal Corny kegs rather than another plastic (more expensive) PB. I don't use these but there are members on here who do and who might be able to advise.
 
I have had 3PBs from Ballyhoo they say they test them before sending them out if thats the case how come one I had a cracked lid and would not hold pressure. And I got a friend of mine interested in brewing so he ordered two PBs from Ballyhoo both did not any pressure we used a air pumb to double check we could here it coming out Ballyhoo first denied it big time until my mate started losing it anyway took them back and said that we where right so my mate said dont you test the pressure before sending them out you say you have and signed of after testing at 6PSI on each keg. I mean we even tested the one that was not even used still in its wrapper. That was the same as the other one zero pressure. I know this much I will not be buying from Ballyhoo again
 
One of my barrels was not holding pressure when conditioning.
I noticed I could swivel the tap with light force. Although I checked the tightness of the tap nut before adding beer I think
what I should of done was hold the nut steady and swivel the tap and man handle it into the correct position.
Also, when attempting to remove the cap on a finished barrel even with the metal spanner i had a hell of a job to move it - I had applied a smear of Vaseline to the seal beforehand - so I thought I had over tightened it and that could lead to the cap splitting.
As for the bellied out bottom on one of the barrels Ballihoo have agreed to replace it when empty.
 
Just recently purchased one of these from Ballihoo. It seems to be OK. I have a Woodfordes Nog in there at the minute but wow it doesn't half crank out the foam when I try and pull a pint. I have just put it outside to try and cool it down a bit but is it really normal to get that much foam when you pull beer out of them. My pressure is low (5psi) so maybe I need to add a CO2 or 2 into the barrel to get the PSI up.
 
Well I've only made 2 brews so far, a Courage Directors and a Festival Razorback IPA.
Both barrels are the garage with varies this time over the year between cold any bloody freezing (almost) and
both beers come out like a foam fire extinguisher even when the pressure drops to 2 PSI.
God knows what they will be like in the summer but I am going to try less conditioning sugar next brew to se if that helps.
I had a beersphere in the 1980's which it pretty much the same as a top tap Ballihoo barrel and I don't remember anything
like this amount of foam from them.
In fact it was difficult to get a head on them at all sometimes. But mostly using the likes of Tom Caxton kits etc.
The 2 can kits that I been using so far are a lot more like pub beer now, I'm convinced the Director's I made was 'almost'
as good as pub beer just could have done with being a bit more hoppy if anything. But the Directors in my local is approaching
£4 a pint I think. Does about half of that go in the Chancellor's pocket?
Anyway, I've got a lot to learn and will keep trying and tweaking beers to suit my tastes.

Happy brewing,

Paul.
 
@Paulyr and @smithsj1
The higher the internal pressure forcing beer through the PB tap, either generated by priming sugar or by injection of gas, the more foam you will generate as you draw off beer. More about that here
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=729446&postcount=6
If you use priming sugar I suggest you limit it to no more than 95g and you should then find that this is just about manageable and then gets better as you draw off beer from the PB. If you add more sugar or more gas you might pressure stress the PB (i.e. distort it even more) although ultimately the pressure relief device should vent to protect the PB.
 
Ah yes it was the first of this thread that I posted about my bellying barrel at the bottom.
The barrel had got up to 15psi and pushed the bottom out. I checked the other barrel and when adding co2 it vented pressure at 10psi. so 5psi difference between the 2 barrels. As somebody pointed out in an earlier thread the beer might have stuck and not fully finished fermenting before I barrelled it, also I used the full 100g of conditioning sugar that came with the kit. I am a bit worried about barrelling this one as well, I have read about cold crashing and will do that as well and limit the amount of conditioning sugar to about 85g. Even thou' the kit is supplied with 150g. It's a Festival US steam beer kit.
As also as been pointed out to me barrels are best suited to low conditioned ales - suppose like a real ale and that's what I do prefer anyway. Although I was hoping to make a Munich beer in the summer?

Please keep the good advice coming folks, I'm grateful for all the helpful comments.

Paul
 
Hi Terry

Thanks for the reply. So I just vented out some CO2 to bring the pressure down and I managed to get 3/4s of a pint without the foam so that is much better. Will see how that goes on from here on out. Less carbonation seems to be more in this case so will keep the barrel for low carbonation beers.

thanks again

Stuart
 

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