Hello all,
brewing my second batch on my now second machine as the first had a leaking issue. What should the psi levels be seen at while it's brewing? I am starting with the pale ale kit. Any help would be great and the more knowledge the better. Thanks ahead of time.
Drew
Since nobody who knows what they are talking about answered, I am a total newbie, but I would think all brews would hit the release valve's set point of around 24 psi while fermenting. But will take a couple of days getting to that point.
I base it on my first and current brewing attampt, as well as youtube videos complaing about the igulu having to high pressure. :)
As Nova said, PSI will go up to pretty much what the keg allows.
When brewing Kombucha I have went up to around 30. Unlike when doing beer I actually prefer the higher PSI for carbonation of Kombucha, sodas, and sparkling water as it helps carbonate it much better. For a gallon of fresh pressed sparkling orange juice I pumped the keg myself up to around 29PSI, removed the keg, and shook it for a few minutes to help the Co2 get into the liquid better, then added it back and let it chill at high PSI for another two or so days, resulting in a delicious sparkling OJ. Was even able to bottle the OJ right from the tap into plastic water bottles that held the Co2 for weeks without issue.
My current batch of Kombucha is currently sitting at 24.6 PSI after 2 days at 77 degrees for second fermentation, and I have switched it to Chill mode. The PSI will not raise much more at all in this mode now.
Once I am past where I want to get a lot of Co2 into the actual beverage I will let out pressure to bring it down to the 12-15 range for actual dispensing to prevent too much foam/head.
In general the levels of pressure you will get in this will have no affect at all on yeast and brewing. The pressure would have to be higher than the keg will allow and at a extended amount of time to be able to have any real effect on the yeast and brewing process. The only issue you could have from high pressure is the dispensing and ending up with too much foam after the beer is finished brewing, and that can easily be dealt with by releasing pressure manually. Someone on here also tested dealing with excessive foam by adding in a much longer dispensing tube, and that also helped with the problem. Was a youtube video about it.
@Halaster I have not completed my first brew yet, but I seem to have heard somewhere that having the pinch valve not fully open helps with foam during dispensing?
Have not tried that yet, as releasing some pressure solved all the problems for me.
