41
SECTION 3: BREWING ON YOUR ZYMATIC
®
- CONTINUED
40
4
Try not to move your fermentation keg very much during
this process as it will stir up any yeast and trub sitting at the
bottom of the keg.
Remove the airlock and keg seal from the keg. Re-seal with
metal lid.
Ensure that your serving keg is sanitized before beginning.
Attach the transfer tube to the two kegs by connecting the
ball locks to the OUT posts of both kegs.
Set your CO
2
regulator to a low pressure (4- 6 psi).
Connect your CO
2
regulator hose to the IN post of the
fermentation keg. Open the CO2 gas valve; this will fill your
keg with CO
2
and push the beer out of the fermentation keg
through the transfer tube and into the diptube of the serving
keg, which will fill slowly from the bottom up to minimize
any splashing.
When racking is complete the transfer tubing will blow empty.
Turn off the CO2 tank, close any valves on the regulator and
remove the transfer tubing from both kegs. At times, you
may need to bleed off built of CO2 pressure in the receiving
keg. Periodically pull up on the Pressure Relief Valve (PRV) to
relieve the built up pressure and restore a food flow of beer.
The bottom few inches of beer in the fermentation keg will
be full of trub and yeast. The diptube of the keg included with
your Zymatic is cut shorter as to avoid the majority of the
yeast and trub. Discard the trub and thoroughly clean and
sanitize your keg as mentioned previously.
3.8 Carbonate
To carbonate your beer, you can either keg condition or
connect your keg up to a CO
2
tank. CO
2
absorbs better in
cold temperatures. Keep your keg and CO
2
tank in a cold area
while it carbonates. (32°-42°F)
Forced Carbonation
Before serving, you need to carbonate your beer. Traditionally,
beers were carbonated by adding sugar post-fermentation,
which reacted with the residual yeast to produce carbon
dioxide gas. This process can take weeks to complete, so
most commercial breweries and many homebrewers use a
process called “forced carbonation”. With forced carbonation,
CO2 gas from an external tank is forced into suspension and
typically carbonates a beer in 3-5 days.
To carbonate, attach a gas line from the CO
2
tank to your beer
keg’s IN post.
Set the gas line’s regulator to the appropriate pressure
setting. Carbonation charts and calculators, available on
the Internet or from your local brewing supply shop, can
provide detailed information about carbonation pressures
and gas volumes for different beer styles. Generally, 10psi is
sufficient to carbonate most beers in 3-5 days.
The carbonation period depends on the beer brewed and the
psi pressure. In general it takes a pale ale seven to ten days to
carbonate at 10psi. You may increase the pressure to speed
the process, for example 4 days at 26psi.
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