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Counter Pressure Bottler

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  • Counter Pressure Bottler

    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.
    Dutch Gunderson: Who are you and how did you get in here?
    Frank Drebin: I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.
    -Police Squad

  • #2
    Brilliant I tell you...... Give the man some sort of science degree.......

    Oh yeah ! He's already got one of those
    Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

    Some blog ramblings

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    • #3
      Originally posted by fatbloke View Post
      Brilliant I tell you...... Give the man some sort of science degree.......

      Oh yeah ! He's already got one of those
      In chemistry! The old engineer at my work used to laugh at me because I had more interest in the mechanics of the equipment we ran than the actual chemistry I was being paid to do.

      He got one of the first batches of mead I made. He didn't open the bottle for a year. Joe's Ancient ORange if I remember and he rated it rather highly. I think it may be time to do mead again!
      Dutch Gunderson: Who are you and how did you get in here?
      Frank Drebin: I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.
      -Police Squad

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      • #4
        Joe's Ancient Orange really does take some beating. Hang on it REALLY does I have a 1st for it!

        Good pictures. Have you considered a CO2 purge?
        Gluten free, caffeine free, dairy free, fat free – you gotta love this red wine diet!

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Cellar_Rat View Post
          Joe's Ancient Orange really does take some beating. Hang on it REALLY does I have a 1st for it!

          Good pictures. Have you considered a CO2 purge?
          I did, but I need to investigate valves. I'm not happy with the traditional 2 ball valves with a feed into each. It's just a bit of a faf and makes it more difficult to operate.
          I vaguely remember from my work days having a valve that had two feeds, one exit and could select between either of the feeds or just be shut completely.

          It wouldn't be difficult to put a feed onto this, either using john guest fittings onto the 3/8 pipe or buying standard ball valves and soldering a junction on it.
          Dutch Gunderson: Who are you and how did you get in here?
          Frank Drebin: I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.
          -Police Squad

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