What is Pressure Fermentation? - Homebrew Techniques - Brew Dudes
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- Опубліковано 14 бер 2023
- Pressure fermentation has grown in popularity and we've got a short discussion on why you might want to try it.
We've been pulling together some of the pieces needed to do a pressure ferment. In this video, we dive in a little bit around why you'd want to do a pressure ferment.
Using a pressurizable fermentation vessel allows you to achieve two things:
1. Ferment under pressure to suppress yeast ester formation while fermenting at higher temperatures.
2. Capture the released CO2 late in the ferment to get an early jump on carbonating the beer before you package for keg/draft applications.
Tell us about your experiences with pressure fermentation.
CHEERS!
#pressurefermentation #homebrewtechniques #brewdudes
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![Using PRESSURE FERMENTATION to BEAT THE HEAT! [and save on CO2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/24UURMRtYQg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Using PRESSURE FERMENTATION to BEAT THE HEAT! [and save on CO2]](/img/tr.png)
It's been a game changer for me including serving out of the same keg with a floating dip tube. I'm also in the desert so the temp variation helps too. Just made a great pilsner with nova lager at 72F
Don’t forget that you can purge cleaned kegs filled with sanitizer to create purged sanitized kegs to be ready for beer racking to them as serving kegs. Enjoying your videos, thanks, guys.
I've went the route of adding dip tubes to a couple of my ball lock kegs and adding Kegland's spunding valves. Imo, that's the cheapest way to get into pressure fermentation.
The only down side is reducing the batch size since the typical corny keg is 5 gallons.
Fantastic explanation of the relationships and logic between temperature, pressure and yeast production. Thanks!
I sort of agree with Mike on the "solution Looking for a problem" except for making quick beers. Yes you can use Kveik but have you seen the price of Lutra. 34/70 at 22c (72F) & 12psi is super quick, super clean, and half the price. With a crash cool and finings you are drinking that beer (relatively bright) in 7 days. Whats not to like.
I've been pressure fermenting for a while. I should note that I ferment in 15 gal unitanks and I brew mostly IPAs since thats what my neighborhood likes but I've done this with other ale types (stouts, porters, pale ales). I do the "wait 48 hrs" technique before letting it build up pressure. I've definitely noticed a pretty good increase hop aroma mostly from the dry hops. I can get away with using less hops per dry hop this way. Also, because of the carbonation, I can shorten my cycle time from brew-day to glass significantly (without the need to do shaking techniques or use something like the blichmann quick carb). Also saves on CO2 bottle consumption. My tanks last much longer.
The reason why I got into pressure fermentation was to avoid the expense of temperature controlled refrigeration equipment for lagers and to ferment them faster.
I have 2 x 30 liter kegs adapted with each having 2 x 3" tri-clamp fittings on top of each keg. 1 opening on top of each has a tri-clamp lid with 2 corney fittings, (1 gas and 1 beer plus a prv valve). I stack them in a tall larder fridge and ferment in the bottom one. I have fitted to each, a silicone dip tube with a small strainer on the end which is connected to the beer corney fittings. This allows me to have the c02 from the bottom fermenter keg get pushed into the top fermenter keg and I have a spunding valve connected to the same top fermenter keg. I get to collect plenty of c02 in the purged top fermenter keg. When fermentation is complete, I can then pump the finished beer via a gas bottle into the top keg, leaving behind yeast and hops. At the same time the gas in the top fermenter keg is pushed out and through my prepared corney keg to purge it of starsan. Works very efficient. The second 3" openings I have on the kegs have a butterfly valve and I can connect a sight glass to them so I can be able to dry hop either vessel, under pressure.
I treated myself for Xmas to a 7 gal torpedo keg & borrowed a buddy's spundling valve. My only attempt at this (so far) was an Oktoberfest. Nice flavor, pre-carbed, no complaints. Definitely invest in floating dip tubes so you can xfer from your pressurized fermenter into your serving keg!
Looking forward to trying the next batch!
Well done! I've seen where folks like John Palmer and Denny & Drew have pretty much drawn the same conclusions as well. A lot of great beer was made before this became a thing. But yeah, might be fun to give it a try and see if it improves the beer. Cheers guys! 🍺🍻
I just bough an allrounder, excited to try a pressurized closed transfer to the keg
That is why I use pressure - to do oxygen free transfers from fermenter to keg
I'm using a couple of kegland blowtie spunding valves (100% would recommend) with my corny kegs to basically let me save the space of having a dedicated fermenter since I can ferment and serve from the one keg (my kegs have floating dip tubes), the footprint of a corny keg is a lot lower so i can get two kegs in the space of one fermenter. One interesting idea I've seen for capturing co2 is to jumper from the fermenting keg to a second keg to collect co2 and attach the spunding valve to that, not tried it yet but i think the idea has promise.
I’ve been doing it for years. I find it works very well (also can do pressure transfers, much less chance of issues). If I am doing something like a bitter that I want those esters, I will let it ferment a few days with no pressure. Then turn up spunding valve and let it build up. Since I already blew the $$ on a fancy stainless fermenter (Spike) it was no big deal to do.
I use it with Kviek Voss and Lutra, around 90-95ºf, works great and comes out superb. I thought the Lutra at 70ºf was a lot better than the lager. (But perhaps just specific brews?)
Since I've been pressure fermenting I've only needed the CO2 for purging and pushing and I really think there is a difference in the flavor and aroma of the finished beer. My only bad experience fermenting under pressure is the one time I had a super active ferment and the krausen clogged my valve, huge mess trying to bleed off 25 lbs of pressure and foam. The beer still turned out great though.
Great discussion! I think pressure fermentation absolutely has a use case as a substitution for temp control in hotter climates, but as you said there's many other ways around that problem. That being said, spunding is awesome - less time waiting for carbonation, free CO2 and in my experience it does help keep volatile aromas in the beer. But not sure about the science behind that, I agree there's still a decent amount of CO2 that still has to offgas over 15 psi or so. Maybe the aromatic compounds bind to the CO2 in solution?
Yeah, I don't know what the direct science is but the volatile aromatics are likely just blowing off with the CO2 like perfume in the wind. Cheers! -Mike
I’m on my second pressure ferment right now. I decided to give it a try to help (1) brew lagers at higher temps, (2) lower yeast esters with ales at higher temps, and (3) make low oxygen transfers easier and (4) to try to get an increase in hop aroma on my IPA’s. 1 and 3 have been successes. Still working on 2 and 4. I do find that I like not having to mess around with an airlock (especially when I am cold crashing a beer). Been using the King Chubby with a spunding valve. So far so good. Definitely not 100% necessary but definitely fun. Thanks dudes.
Yeah, I stopped cold crashing in the fermenters. Don't want the oxygen getting in there.
I love the sloth factor. Let it get sorted before wasting time messing it up. Just like you should never buy a first year car model.
Yeah, I didn't really understand what pressure fermentation was about until shortly after I bought 2 new fermenters. Of course I got fermenters that are not rated for pressure, so I'll probably never try pressure fermentation. I have temperature control, so I'm not worried about that. Seems like an interesting concept for people who don't have all the crap I already have. You know, if I was going to start from scratch today, I would start off alot different than I did before. Brew in the bag, pressure ferment. Maybe investing the money on kegs up front instead of messing around with bottles. There's lots of relatively new ideas that I didn't know about when I got started.
Hey dudes, love the new logo and music. great timing on this one. I just finished my first pressure ferment batch, a helles. My initial reasoning was to not worry so much about fermentation temps on lagers because I don’t have a fridge or glycol system for fermentation and this winter has been so mild. Everything you said in the vid i went through and have my own opinions on. Also was thinking of this for hazy ipa because of the closed transfer and pressure letting minimal aroma out. Anywho, any interest on giving feedback on the helles? If so let me know and I’ll hit you up on email with my thoughts on the whole process ect and get you a few bottles of the helles and maybe something else. Appreciate all you do boys. Cheers from Uxbridge.
I"m with you on the temp control not being a great reason. Aromatics are a big plus with pressure and I disagree that more hops are the solution. Even with short and cold dry hopping upping dry hops increases vegetal flavors and hop burn. Flavor from the hops are benefited from pressure fermentation too in my experience and I've read others that feel the same. Another major plus is the protection against oxidation. If you're under pressure and do a closed transfer you really limit O2. Cheers
I've been doing this for a couple years for lagers and IPA. It opens up your yeast choice a bit in lagers. Sometimes you want a maltier profile than 34\70 and some of those bock yeasts can be finicky about temperature. For IPA let it ferment at ambient pressure until about 3/4 of the way through the fermentation then add dry hops and spund. Always use foam axe with ale yeasts under pressure. From the other comments I'm not the only one that's learned that the hard way.
What's foam axe? Obviously, sounds like it cuts down on fermentation foam, but does it have an effect on the beer when you pour it?
@@Soupy_loopy Foam Axe is a silicone defoamer you can add at the start of fermentation. It isn’t soluble so it precipitates out by the end of fermentation so it doesn’t have any effect on the foam stability of the beer.
Interesting idea about using this to prevent loss of hop aroma. My guess is that a pretty small fraction of the entire CO2 volume produced during fermentation is saved in the beer by this technique. It's probably not saving aroma in the beer. It's not like a different total amount of CO2 is created during a pressure fermentation that is during a non-pressurized one.
Ok, so I am gonna risk being labelled a heretic here. I have been pressure fermenting for a few years now. I use a brew keg (Williams Warn) and predominantly make hop forward beers. I ferment at 28 deg C and 30-35 psi, voss kveik yeast. I can dry hop using the isolation valve/collection bottle with a little mess. When I chill the beer it sits at 12 psi fully carbonated and I only use CO2 to dispense. CO2 prices have skyrocketed here in NZ so this is a real plus. Also - everyone I share the beer with loves it, I even get told I could sell it. Never going back to non-pressure fermenting. 🙂
Pressurefermenting for 3 years now but only on lagers and Neipas. Specialy with Kveik Voss 8 psi gives a nicer rounder palate with out this Kveik taste. And if you are a appartment brewer and have no temperature controle so 5 psi could help you.
I ferment in an all-rounder. Fairly cheap and the beers carbed at the end of ferment. I've heard you can serve from the fermenter but I haven't
Thanks for the information, very interesting. I recently purchased an “all-rounder” with the thought of pressure fermentation at some point. I’m still a relatively new brewer and l’m still bottling. If I were to ferment under 10 - 15 psi pressure how much carbonation would be captured in the beer and would that be adequate carbonation or would additional priming sugar still need to be added at bottling to get proper carbonation?
Thank you for another practical, well thought out video. I've been fermenting in kegs for years, splitting batches between 5.25 - 7.5 gallons between two kegs. I've been capping the beer towards the end of fermentation, checking the pressure with a spunding valve to keep it in the 10-12 psi range so I can transfer to a serving keg using gravity without adding extra CO2.. (I use a CO2--> CO2 jumper to keep it closed.) Just last week I let the pressure go up to 25-30 psi which would result in a 12 psi beer at keg temps. I cold crashed it to prevent foaming, but did not chill the serving keg. The transfer kept stopping so I popped the PRV and foam poured out. Turned out the jumper was full of foam. Do you think it would have worked with everything chilled sufficienctly? Have you tried serving directly from a fermenting keg?
Did you have the receiving keg pressurised?
@david Hall Normally, the jumper keeps the pressure the same. You just have to lower the pressure of the receiving keg to get the siphon started. In this case, the foam caused massive gas-off and pushed beer up the jumper so the pressure was too great to receive more beer. What a mess!
Using no-chill and hotter fermentation is a no brainer
So say fermenting pressure is 12 psi ( serving pressure) ... is that enough after cold crashing not to go into negative pressure?
As home brerey persons we can do what ever we like to..... but as we scale up and how comersial beer are brewed its in hugely high vessel which measn that 50%
feremented under preasue and even high preasure.
Have never tried pressure fermentation, but took note of a comment from Nate in a Treehouse brewery tour UA-cam video. He mentioned they pressure ferment a pilsner for "nice tiny bubbles". It's been a while since a bottle conditioned, but is that maybe just an overall fact in any naturally carbonated beer - i.e. carbonation from fermentation activity (regardless of whether it's primary or from bottle conditioning) vs force carbonation? Is that maybe another benefit to pressure fermentation if you don't bottle condition - you get a smoother carbonation with smaller bubbles?
I have been fermenting in a crony keg at 30 psi and then then throw it in the fridge and serve out of it. Been doing for 2 years. I will never go back.
How long before the trub gives off flavours?
@@xjamis I have never had off flavors. I would say for me the beer only got better with time. But then again I drink the beer in a month or two, so maybe that isn't long enough to get off flavors if there would be any at all.
Do you need to brew under pressure to create a NEIPA style? I've heard oxidation can be a massive problem with this style, so having the ability to brew under pressure will help mitigate this?
You do not need to ferment NEIPA under pressure, but you should certainly try to follow the closed transfer procedure. Sometimes that involves pressure and sometimes it does not, depending on your techniques. @CascadesHomebrew has a nice vid on this. ua-cam.com/video/qs1f369QcLA/v-deo.html
@@secretlevel5951 Thanks for the info, cheers. I love NEIPA but get it wrong and that's a lot of hops wasted. For me hops are expensive. Tesco have some really good NEIPA's at good prices, so attempting a homebrew is a little beyond me right now. I need better equipment. I'd love to have my own on tap at home though. One day maybe. Tried it in a Pinter 2 but that thing can reach 30 psi easy and they recommend 4 day brewing time. All I ever poured from that was almost wort.
Ok, he scares me. But very insightful commentary 👌