Cellar Rat pointed out that it might be a better idea to post my Counter Pressure Bottler (CPB) in a thread of it's own. Basically the idea is that you have a source of beer that is carbonated and you bottle from that using the CPB. The bottler is setup in such a way that it allows the bottle to fill whilst slowly releasing the pressure. By keeping some pressure on the bottle, the beer does not foam and can be bottled whilst keeping carbonation (generally people will chill the source down to as low a possible temperature to minimise foaming.
The basic design is this:
74786_10151847888294673_511201501_n.jpg
The long 6mm pipe goes to the bottom of the bottle whilst the 10mm pipe only goes to the top. The beer is dispensed from the 6mm pipe and the air in the bottle is ejected via the 10mm pipe. A pressure relasese valve is set to keep a couple of PSI on the bottle which will maintain pressure in the bottle.
The finished article looks like this:
969751_10151847882869673_1184972338_n.jpg
and here's a close up of the T-piece that contains the magic.
24647_10151847882794673_2003508569_n.jpg
The large brass fitting is a ball valve the open and close the flow to the bottle. The silver fitting at the top is a pressure release valve set to crack at about 5 PSI.
You'll notice that the assembly is made from a combination of stainless and copper. All of this has been soldered together. The trick with soldering stainless is in the flux. Apparently you need to use a hydrochloric acid based flux. I don't have that but I do have hydrochloric acid I use for treating my brewing water. It works perfectly, just dip the stainless into it for a minute and then solder as you would copper pipe. It solders in exactly the same way as normal copper pipe once you get the stainless 'fluxed' properly.
I'll try and get a video of it in operation up later on. If I can get some time I'll order in some more parts and build another one and video it.
The basic design is this:
74786_10151847888294673_511201501_n.jpg
The long 6mm pipe goes to the bottom of the bottle whilst the 10mm pipe only goes to the top. The beer is dispensed from the 6mm pipe and the air in the bottle is ejected via the 10mm pipe. A pressure relasese valve is set to keep a couple of PSI on the bottle which will maintain pressure in the bottle.
The finished article looks like this:
969751_10151847882869673_1184972338_n.jpg
and here's a close up of the T-piece that contains the magic.
24647_10151847882794673_2003508569_n.jpg
The large brass fitting is a ball valve the open and close the flow to the bottle. The silver fitting at the top is a pressure release valve set to crack at about 5 PSI.
You'll notice that the assembly is made from a combination of stainless and copper. All of this has been soldered together. The trick with soldering stainless is in the flux. Apparently you need to use a hydrochloric acid based flux. I don't have that but I do have hydrochloric acid I use for treating my brewing water. It works perfectly, just dip the stainless into it for a minute and then solder as you would copper pipe. It solders in exactly the same way as normal copper pipe once you get the stainless 'fluxed' properly.
I'll try and get a video of it in operation up later on. If I can get some time I'll order in some more parts and build another one and video it.
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