Just purchased a 55L Fermzilla conical fermenter going to ferment under pressure for the first time. I serve all my beers on 70/30 gas. Will I be OK fermenting with 70/30 gas or does the Nitrogen inhibit the yeast ? I've got a bottle of Co2 as well to use incase.
Fermenting under pressure with 70/30 gas
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I would use the co2, like you i don't know if you can use 70/30 but you will be saving money
I'm not sure I understand the question. Fermentation creates the pressure inside the fermenter. Why are you adding gas to your fermenter?
RoomWithABrew
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Complete waste using beer gas. Spund it to your target vols and use the natural CO2
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The power of advertising can sell a unit to a punter without the punter having a clue of what on earth is going on!
So do I not put gas in to my fermenter to move the beer to the keg? If I've released the gas to dry hop do I not top it back up to the desired psi after?
I needed a 55l fermenter and that was cheap enough so I bought it. It came with pressure kit so I thought I'd give pressure fermenting ago after watching several YouTube vids.
People ferment under pressure for various reasons (suppression of esters when temperature control isn't possible etc.)
Depending on the level you set your spunding valve at your beer can be carbed prior to dry hopping. I don't use pressure for this so your mileage may vary.
RoomWithABrew
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Either get some hop dropping device that can cope with " closed " introduction of hops.
Or suspend your hops in bags using sous vide magnets and lower them in at the times you want. I use this method and it's worked fine for several batches.
You can easily carb the beer about 5 points from the end of fermentation with the residual sugars. Far more CO2 than is needed to pressurise your beer is made during the ferment. Hence it can be an open ferment for much of the time.
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RoomWithABrew
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Suggest you flush out the starsan in your keg and then pressurise that at the same time as spunding your beer to your correct vols.
Then disconnect the keg at cold crash time.
Follow this method to do the closed transfer and you shouldn't need to add ( waste ) any gas for the transfer.
Agentgonzo
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If you dry hop whilst it's still fermenting there will still be plenty of gas released to make the pressure back up, even if it's still at the tail end of fermentation.
2 SG points will release 1 "volume" of CO2 (ie, the same volume of CO2 as the volume of wort/beer), which if in a fermenter with little headspace should be about 1bar/1 atmosphere, which I think is 15psi.
Agentgonzo
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I wonder if it was confusion between 30/70 beer gas and w34/70 yeast? This channel has just come back to life
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/34-70-pressure-fermenting.95631/
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/34-70-pressure-fermenting.95631/
Thank you for your informative post. Much appreciated
phildo79
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If you carb your beer whilst it is in the FV, you will have too much co2 in solution when you hook up your bottle of 70/30 gas. In other words, you won't create a beer with a 70/30 split of gas. And the result of that will be a very different looking pint to what you are expecting.
I made a Beamish clone not that long ago that came out very strange looking. Couldn't work out why until I remembered that the blow-off tube had been clogged during fermentation, thus carbing the beer. The extra co2 that was in solution completely threw off the 70/30 mix that I was trying to achieve. I had to vent the beer for 24 hours (twice) and re-gas (twice). Complete faff and the beer still wasn't perfect.
Fermenting under pressure is fine if you are only carbing with co2.
I made a Beamish clone not that long ago that came out very strange looking. Couldn't work out why until I remembered that the blow-off tube had been clogged during fermentation, thus carbing the beer. The extra co2 that was in solution completely threw off the 70/30 mix that I was trying to achieve. I had to vent the beer for 24 hours (twice) and re-gas (twice). Complete faff and the beer still wasn't perfect.
Fermenting under pressure is fine if you are only carbing with co2.
Perfect someone who's had experience with 70/30 that's all I wanted to know thank you. not get remarks about buying a fermenter I don't know how to use. I've come to the conclusion pressure fermenting isn't for me. the fermenter came with pressure kit so no big loss. Maybe I'll do a lager under pressure at a warmer temp at some point just to have a play around.
phildo79
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No worries. Unfortunately, I don't think using nitro during fermentation is a viable option. I presume this was an idea to cut down on the length of time it takes 70/30 gas to carb a keg?
Yeah I thought it would carb nice and creamy whilst fermenting but obviously I was forgetting about Natural Co2 being released at same time. I only pay £25 to fill a big 10kg gas bottle so I'm nowt to wasting a bit of gas. But I don't want a beer fermenting with Natural Co2 then putting it on Nitro. Like ya say it will cause funky carbonation.
Agentgonzo
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Try to ignore the trolls
RoomWithABrew
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Nitrogen about 100x less soluble in water than CO2.
Hence another reason to not ferment under beer gas.
Hence another reason to not ferment under beer gas.
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