Otto Von Blotto Posted September 29, 2015 Author Share Posted September 29, 2015 So I've done a bit of experimenting with the font fan over the last week or so. First off I used it on low speed with the insulation foam in place inside the font, then I removed the insulation foam and ran the fan at full speed. I decided it was better with the foam in, so today I put it back in again. A little while before I left I decided on a third experiment - running the fan full bore with the foam in. And then, I came home to the thing covered in condensation from it (as it also did when it was running on low speed). So, the conclusion now is basically leave the foam in and run the fan at whatever speed, probably around half I reckon. It has definitely solved the foamy pour problem too. Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essfer Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 That's a nicely chilled font you have there mate. Top work. So where is your foam in relation to the font wall, the beer line etc? Looks like the fan blows into the body of the tower so I'm guessing foam around the beer line for added thermal insulation? FYI: I've coiled my sealed glycol system into my beer font though it was hard to keep the coil going past the taps - very little space with two beer taps and a postmix tap occupying all the head room. Managed one little loop over the top. Will fire it all up this weekend and see how it goes. If it's a winner I'll post some pics. If it isn't I will just console myself with foamy beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted September 30, 2015 Author Share Posted September 30, 2015 Cheers mate! The foam sits against the inner wall of the tower, and the beer lines and the fan conduit tube all sit inside it, yes. There is a pic of it somewhere earlier in this thread actually that looks down the tower from the top of it which shows how it all looks in there. It worked without the foam but with no insulation it wouldn't be as efficient, and it wasn't quite as good as it is with the foam. So the foam stays. I've been following your progress with interest too, and I hope that system all works well for you mate, would be awesome to have a glycol cooling system setup! Look forward to seeing some pics Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essfer Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 No one is more keen to see it working than me But I don't count chickens. I'm an ideas man... but execution isn't always my forte. Time will tell. But it can't be worse than an unchilled font so I suppose there's that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 1, 2015 Author Share Posted October 1, 2015 I'm sure good luck with it though! I committed an act of desperation today, I went to Dan's and bought two cartons of 500mL Oettinger cans to fill one of my kegs with, just to buy some more time to fill the others with home brews. If I rely on home brew only, it'll take fn' forever... I figured I'd have to buy beer at some stage to buy more time so I decided I might as well put it in a keg and have it on tap too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 Kelsey, do you keep the fan running all the time or do you just flick it on 30 minutes before pouring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 1, 2015 Author Share Posted October 1, 2015 Hey Hairy, I don't run the fan all the time no, I only turn it on about an hour or so before I plan to pour one. In the case of weekdays, I turn it on when I go back to work for my second half and it runs all arvo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 Hey Hairy' date=' I don't run the fan all the time no, I only turn it on about an hour or so before I plan to pour one. In the case of weekdays, I turn it on when I go back to work for my second half and it runs all arvo. [/quote'] Thanks Kelsey. The only problem I have is that if I turned the fan on everytime I 'wanted' a beer then it would be running all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 G'day stranger! (Hairy) The only problem I have is that if I turned the fan on everytime I 'wanted' a beer then it would be running all the time Has someone been & bought himself a kegerator? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnaman Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 OMG!!!!!I committed an act of desperation today' date=' I went to Dan's and bought two cartons of 500mL Oettinger cans to fill one of my kegs with, just to buy some more time to fill the others with home brews. If I rely on home brew only, it'll take fn' forever... I figured I'd have to buy beer at some stage to buy more time so I decided I might as well put it in a keg and have it on tap too![/quote'] Otto dude, second fermenter, extra brewing days to meet changing circumstances. consumption. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 1, 2015 Author Share Posted October 1, 2015 I forgot to add the part about refusing to ferment without temp control. My fridge only fits one FV in it. Sure I could use my old bottling bucket as a second fermenter but given my beers have turned out much better since using the fridge I'm obviously reluctant to not use it now. Anyway, it should be all ok from now on - I'm kegging a batch on Saturday so that will see 3 kegs in the kegerator with a red ale going in the FV also on Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 1, 2015 Author Share Posted October 1, 2015 The only problem I have is that if I turned the fan on everytime I 'wanted' a beer then it would be running all the time Well' date=' yes, so would mine... [img']lol[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 Hi guys, Just a quick question, obviously aimed at keggers. Up until yesterday, I've only had one keg at a time in my kegerator, with the gas hooked directly into it from the cylinder (through a non-return valve of course). Yesterday I filled a second keg, and then used a T-piece to run two lines off the main gas line into each keg. Since hooking all this up and turning the gas back on, I've noticed that the pressure creeps up after a few hours on the regulator. I have it set normally to about 11PSI, but I've noticed it move itself up to 12-13 PSI. Is this normal when introducing extra kegs to the system? I have a Micromatic regulator. On the first keg it was a bit up and down at first, but settled itself down after a few days. There are no leaks in the system. Last night I reset it to 11PSI then went to bed, this morning it was up near 13 PSI, so I reset it again. Checked it just now and it was up a little but nothing much really. I decided to reset it anyway, and I won't be back here again until about this time tomorrow once I leave for work again later. Will be interesting to see if it moves again. Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Hi Kelsey. It didn't take long for me to realize that giving just the tiniest turn of the gas valve is enough to shift the PSI 1-2 points very easily, as it is quite sensitive. In theory if you set the pressure to a keg of flat beer at 11 PSI it shouldn't be able to increase above that pressure without manipulation of the valve controlling the pressure. If however you carbonate the beer at a higher pressure & then unhook your gas-in & expel the gas from the regulator & set that to a lower pressure, then of course the higher pressure in the keg will be the dominant pressure for some time without venting to reduce it. I certainly check the gauge throughout pouring & at times will tweak it depending only on how the beer is pouring. I consider that completely normal to do so given the variety of ingredient changes that impact on head formation & development from beer recipe to beer recipe. As long as the beer has suitable carbonation through the beer & is pouring well, I don't worry about a shift of 1-2 PSI a whole lot. Cheers, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zargonb Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 perhaps temperature changes are also varying the pressure. Been heating up the last couple of days in Brissie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 Thanks Lusty, Yeah I worked out pretty much straight away how sensitive it is.. even closing the little cover on it sometimes makes the needle jump. The existing keg already in there was carbonated at 30PSI for a day then dropped back to 11, where the regulator stayed until this second keg was hooked up. The pressure wasn't changed though. Oh well, I guess I'll find out tomorrow but from my issues with the first keg at least I know now how to make it pour properly in a hurry if I need to. The temperature has definitely risen Zargon for sure, although I haven't noted that affecting the serving pressure too much - it does affect the high pressure gauge though which has gone up to about 1000PSI since it warmed up. Before that it was sitting around 850-900PSI and dropping lower at night. It's not a catastrophe by any means, but being new to it all I'm obviously not used to all the idiosyncrasies of it yet. Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essfer Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Carbonation? Much like what Lusty was saying. I've always run 2 kegs and never experienced the same issue... though I always had foamy beer so I was constantly messing with the input pressure. I'm really no help at all. Sorry. Glycol: Concept seems pretty sound right now. Have only had it all hooked up for a short time and had to run it from a warm fridge but the font is getting a nice fog on it. In fact, I think I've frozen my anti-freeze. But I have thoughts about why this has happened and I'll troubleshoot before giving a proper analysis. Early signs suggest it might be a workable idea though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 Yeah I've only ever had one keg til now but it seems to have settled itself down now. Hopefully you can sort out the glycol issues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essfer Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Have shut everything off overnight (including the fridge) in the hope of achieving some sort of equilibrium with the temps of the beer lines, kegs, glycol and fridge. Without that everything is working at different temps to normal operating conditions. Will fire it all up in the morning and see what the result is, but I suspect I'll need a stronger concentration of glycol than the 1:2 (water:glycol) that I have right now. If freezing is a problem though, it suggests cold beer shouldn't be any issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 How did it all end up going when you fired it up again? I haven't been home since Saturday, when me and a couple of mates unfortunately drank my Bo Pils keg dry... good thing there's my quick fix keg of Oettinger and the other one full of my Mosaic Pale Ale in there (which tasted brilliant from the glass I poured out of the FV to ditch the trub before kegging it). I also have a small stockpile of bottled beer to drink while these kegs fully carbonate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanL7 Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 How did it all end up going when you fired it up again? I haven't been home since Saturday' date=' when me and a couple of mates unfortunately drank my Bo Pils keg dry... good thing there's my quick fix keg of Oettinger and the other one full of my Mosaic Pale Ale in there (which tasted brilliant from the glass I poured out of the FV to ditch the trub before kegging it). I also have a small stockpile of bottled beer to drink while these kegs fully carbonate. [/quote'] I Need the recipe of that mosaic pale ale by the sounds of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 Here it is. You'd have to sub the base malt grains for some LME or DME though. 4.500 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.6 EBC) Grain 1 84.9 % 0.500 kg Munich Malt - 10L (23.0 EBC) Grain 2 9.4 % 0.300 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 3 5.7 % 10.00 g Mosaic (11.70 %) - First Wort 75.0 min Hop 4 12.9 IBUs 10.00 g Magnum (12.20 %) - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 11.7 IBUs 20.00 g Mosaic (11.70 %) - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 8.2 IBUs 20.00 g Mosaic (11.70 %) - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 7 5.6 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 8 - Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 % (5.3% in bottles) Bitterness: 38.4 IBUs Est Color: 16.7 EBC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanL7 Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Here it is. You'd have to sub the base malt grains for some LME or DME though. 4.500 kg Pale Malt' date=' Maris Otter (5.6 EBC) Grain 1 84.9 % 0.500 kg Munich Malt - 10L (23.0 EBC) Grain 2 9.4 % 0.300 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 3 5.7 % 10.00 g Mosaic (11.70 %) - First Wort 75.0 min Hop 4 12.9 IBUs 10.00 g Magnum (12.20 %) - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 11.7 IBUs 20.00 g Mosaic (11.70 %) - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 8.2 IBUs 20.00 g Mosaic (11.70 %) - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 7 5.6 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 8 - Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 % (5.3% in bottles) Bitterness: 38.4 IBUs Est Color: 16.7 EBC [/quote'] Thanks mate :D might even try do a half batch on stove top, how many litres was this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 It ended up being 22 litres in the FV but I mucked up the boil a bit - was aiming for 25 litres. Oh well, at least I didn't have to faff around with any bottles on Saturday after it was kegged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanL7 Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Awesome :) well ill have a go at halving it to make an 11l batch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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