Random small questions

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

https://medsupplies.co.za/products/i...smart_campaign

Can this iodine be used to test mash conversion?

Yup, that's the exact one I use. Cheap as chips from any pharmacy.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I got a question on CO2. How long should a cylinder last, keeping in mind I'm a newbie? I played with the kegging setup a bit when I first got it, severely overcarbonated a beer in there, pushed sanitizer through the whole thing (twice), etc. etc. and the cylinder is now at around 25 bar. When I got it, it sat at 70 bar. The only real use I got out of it is literally pushing sanitizer through the thing, and serving some beer. Between uses I turn off the shutoff valve right below the regulator.

Now the cylinder is in the fridge at 2°C, so I'm not sure if that'll make the pressure drop a bit, but man that doesn't seem like a lot of use out of a filling for me. Guys reported "6 months use" of a 2kg before refilling, but it looks to me like I'll do two kegs or so and then it's done. That can't be, right?

Should I start looking for leaks?

OK, back to this. I removed the cylinder from the fridge last night and it's currently at "warm" room temperature. It sat at 70 bar when I got it. It went from 25 bar back up to just over 60 bar - and that's AFTER carbonating another keg's worth.

So yes, keeping the CO2 cylinder in the fridge makes the pressure drop DRASTICALLY, at least in the regulator. That also means that I'll be able to do 7~8 kegs per 2kg cylinder easily, which is fantastic news to me, and more in line with what I had hoped for.

I'm now looking for a place to snake the gas line through to get into the fridge. It's staying outside now. I can also confirm there's no leaks, luckily, the whole system seems to hold pressure pretty well.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

To add to the above, I've also used less CO2 this time around because there's less playing, I know how the regulator works and I tweaked my process. I want to ask a small question on this. I finished off a keg and refilled it. Between the finish and now, this is what I did (with a corny keg):

1. Decompressed the empty keg.
2. Opened the empty keg, and used a hosepipe to spray it clean inside. Rinsed it out well, and then jumped in with a sponge. My hand and my arm actually managed to fit through the keg's opening and I managed to clean off the (very) loose gunk on the inside of the keg very easily. It was pretty clean throughout so I didn't really bother much.
3. Filled the keg up halfway, closed it up and gave it a shot of CO2.
4. Ran the clean water in the keg through the beer line and out the picnic tap until the water coming out was crystal clear and I couldn't see anything in the line.
5. Decompressed the keg, poured out the water and halfway filled it with sanitizer. Pressurized it with CO2 (to make it seal), shook it up and put it aside.
6. It stood aside for about 45 minutes (while I did other things) with the sanitizer everywhere. I then shook it up again (just to get them lovely foams), connected the beer line and ran sanitizer through the beer line and tap. Before the keg was empty (by checking volume coming out), I stopped the tap and disconnected the line. The line is now filled with sanitizer, coiled and in the fridge, ready for serving day.
7. Decompressed the keg, poured out the last sanitizer, dumped the lid in the sanitizer bucket and tapped in the beer, filling from the bottom with a long sanitized tube and keeping splashing to nil. The foam on the beer was created with CO2 in the keg, so it protects the beer in my mind VERY well.
8. With the keg full, I replaced the lid and connected gas again, pressurized it to carbonate and that's where it is now.

Come party day all I'll do is connect beer line, push out sanitizer and start serving. This seems fine to me, but I just want to make sure. Because I used the keg immediately and it never stood open, nothing has dried inside and it was super easy to clean, so that's fine, right? No need to let it soak in SPC and all that stuff if there's nothing to clean, right?

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

https://medsupplies.co.za/products/i...smart_campaign

Can this iodine be used to test mash conversion?

In 10 years of brewing I've NEVER done a test

[Chris S Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris S]

In 10 years of brewing I've NEVER done a test

You are a pro. You don't need to[emoji12]

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

You are a pro. You don't need to[emoji12]

Wasn't a pro on brew 1

....but from the 100's of YT videos I watched beforehand, every single person that did the test after 1hr mash, had perfect conversion and not once someone that didn't, so I decided to just mash a hour and all SHOULD theoretically be fine

[PearlJam Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PearlJam]

I'm now looking for a place to snake the gas line through to get into the fridge. It's staying outside now. I can also confirm there's no leaks, luckily, the whole system seems to hold pressure pretty well.

I know it isn't for everyone, but I just drilled a hole through the sidewall of the fridge.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

To add to the above, I've also used less CO2 this time around because there's less playing, I know how the regulator works and I tweaked my process. I want to ask a small question on this. I finished off a keg and refilled it. Between the finish and now, this is what I did (with a corny keg):

1. Decompressed the empty keg. YES
2. Opened the empty keg, and used a hosepipe to spray it clean inside. YES Rinsed it out well, and then jumped in with a sponge. My hand and my arm actually managed to fit through the keg's opening and I managed to clean off the (very) loose gunk on the inside of the keg very easily. I dont even do that - its usually pretty clean It was pretty clean throughout so I didn't really bother much.
3. Filled the keg up halfway, closed it up and gave it a shot of CO2. I fill with 2L boiling water
4. Ran the clean water in the keg through the beer line and out the picnic tap until the water coming out was crystal clear and I couldn't see anything in the line. YES, i do with boiling water
5. Decompressed the keg, poured out the water and halfway filled it with sanitizer. Pressurized it with CO2 (to make it seal), shook it up and put it aside. I fill with about 1L only - shake and push through line/tap
6. It stood aside for about 45 minutes (while I did other things) with the sanitizer everywhere. I then shook it up again (just to get them lovely foams), connected the beer line and ran sanitizer through the beer line and tap. Before the keg was empty (by checking volume coming out), I stopped the tap and disconnected the line. The line is now filled with sanitizer, coiled and in the fridge, ready for serving day. perfect
7. Decompressed the keg, poured out the last sanitizer, dumped the lid in the sanitizer bucket and tapped in the beer, filling from the bottom with a long sanitized tube and keeping splashing to nil. The foam on the beer was created with CO2 in the keg, so it protects the beer in my mind VERY well. sound ok
8. With the keg full, I replaced the lid and connected gas again, pressurized it to carbonate and that's where it is now. after a few minutes let the O² out ... do it a few times ... then let it sit overnight at about 30PSI ... should be good to test after ±24hrs

Come party day all I'll do is connect beer line, push out sanitizer and start serving. This seems fine to me, but I just want to make sure. Because I used the keg immediately and it never stood open, nothing has dried inside and it was super easy to clean, so that's fine, right? No need to let it soak in SPC and all that stuff if there's nothing to clean, right?

I do a SPC clean after about every 5th brew

Other replies above in RED

[Chris S Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris S]

I have a stuck fermentation day 7 to day 9 stuck on 1.020 now. Safale us 05 at 20c.
I raised it to 21c added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient and gave the bucket a shake.

OG was 1.042

Frustrating me now.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

I know it isn't for everyone, but I just drilled a hole through the sidewall of the fridge.

Same

[atunguyd Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close atunguyd]

OK, back to this. I removed the cylinder from the fridge last night and it's currently at "warm" room temperature. It sat at 70 bar when I got it. It went from 25 bar back up to just over 60 bar - and that's AFTER carbonating another keg's worth.

So yes, keeping the CO2 cylinder in the fridge makes the pressure drop DRASTICALLY, at least in the regulator. That also means that I'll be able to do 7~8 kegs per 2kg cylinder easily, which is fantastic news to me, and more in line with what I had hoped for.

I'm now looking for a place to snake the gas line through to get into the fridge. It's staying outside now. I can also confirm there's no leaks, luckily, the whole system seems to hold pressure pretty well.

Something is wrong with your regulator high pressure gauge or that is not CO2 in the cylinder.
CO2 is stored as a liquid in the cylinder which means that the pressure will remain at 74bar until there is no liquid left at which point it would run down pretty quickly.

So if it went up to 60 out the fridge then either your gauge is broken or there is no more liquid left and you just saw the expansion of the left over gas with temp.

Although I doubt the latter because if went from 25 bar to 60 are that would imply a 240% increase in temperature (60/25).
So you went from a fridge at presumably 2C or 275K to 660K (or 386C).

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Something is wrong with your regulator high pressure gauge or that is not CO2 in the cylinder.
CO2 is stored as a liquid in the cylinder which means that the pressure will remain at 74bar until there is no liquid left at which point it would run down pretty quickly.

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I also stated this point a few pages back. I drew a line on my cover where the needle is on full and that needle doesn't drop past that line till the very last few day before a refill, so I hardly ever look at the HP gauge the first few months after a refill.

[atunguyd Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close atunguyd]

Yeah, turns out what they taught us at school about gasses and liquids was true all along...

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

co2pv.jpg
...............

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I do a SPC clean after about every 5th brew

Other replies above in RED

Thanks mate.

Something is wrong with your regulator high pressure gauge or that is not CO2 in the cylinder.
CO2 is stored as a liquid in the cylinder which means that the pressure will remain at 74bar until there is no liquid left at which point it would run down pretty quickly.

So if it went up to 60 out the fridge then either your gauge is broken or there is no more liquid left and you just saw the expansion of the left over gas with temp.

Although I doubt the latter because if went from 25 bar to 60 are that would imply a 240% increase in temperature (60/25).
So you went from a fridge at presumably 2C or 275K to 660K (or 386C).

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

Or you're wrong and temperature plays a huge role in the pressure inside a CO2 cylinder: https://www.catalinacylinders.com/fa...to%20837%20psi.

So my gauge isn't wrong and I'm not crazy. From filling to room temp, the pressure increase is 837%. A bit more than the pressure increase I noticed, even.

EDIT: Holy crap that sounds aggressive reading it now. Sorry mate, definitely not the intention.

I know it isn't for everyone, but I just drilled a hole through the sidewall of the fridge.

I'm considering doing this, actually, I just need to figure out on which side of the fridge - and where.