Toggle sidebar

Simple CO2 Gas making

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Barrel Char Wood Products
M

Mu

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 1, 2005
215
0
0
40
Melbourne
So you have just racked your favorite brew and there is a bit of headspace, you don’t have the money to get yourself a CO2 bottle (and your not quite serious enough to get one yet) but you want to put some gas on it none the less.

Well I was thinking the same thing and I came up with this. You need some bicarbonate soda, citric acid, water, a container (a wine glass is fine) a funnel (I assume you have one if not they are about $3 for a set) and some tube (Your racking tube should be fine).

Connect the racking tube to the funnel, you can then put the funnel over the top of the glass and you form a seal. Now you just add some citric acid to the glass and some bicarbonate soda, put in the water and cover it with the funnel. Put the tube under some water to see if gas is coming out. If it is you have created a device for putting CO2 gas over the top of your brew. The reaction between a base and an acid creates CO2 gas.

Citric acid and bicarbonate soda make a good reaction so don’t add to much water and make sure the gas can escape otherwise you have yourself an explosion risk. That aside it’s pretty simple to do.

Mu.
 
Mu said:
So you have just racked your favorite brew and there is a bit of headspace, you don’t have the money to get yourself a CO2 bottle (and your not quite serious enough to get one yet) but you want to put some gas on it none the less.

Well I was thinking the same thing and I came up with this. You need some bicarbonate soda, citric acid, water, a container (a wine glass is fine) a funnel (I assume you have one if not they are about $3 for a set) and some tube (Your racking tube should be fine).

Connect the racking tube to the funnel, you can then put the funnel over the top of the glass and you form a seal. Now you just add some citric acid to the glass and some bicarbonate soda, put in the water and cover it with the funnel. Put the tube under some water to see if gas is coming out. If it is you have created a device for putting CO2 gas over the top of your brew. The reaction between a base and an acid creates CO2 gas.

Citric acid and bicarbonate soda make a good reaction so don’t add to much water and make sure the gas can escape otherwise you have yourself an explosion risk. That aside it’s pretty simple to do.

Mu.
Click to expand...

this sounds like a good idea. anybody else try this? i don't see why it wouldn't work..... i know the wine preserver spray cans that you can buy have a blend of gases so as to least affect taste, but this looks like a goood alternative...
 
Medsen Fey said:
If one wants to use CO2 without investing in a tank, one of the handheld keg chargers would proabably be easier and safer. The CO2 catridges are cheap and readily available.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for telling us about those. Every once in a while, I look at homebrew shop websites at the shiny new $150 CO2 tanks and sigh, "Some day..." This sounds like just what I'm looking for.

Though, I really like the creative homebrewed CO2 idea with the citric acid and the sodium bicarbonate. Good thinking! :sign13:
 
Here I am asking silly questions, again.........

So, I'm worried that my 2 aging batches of mead (a) have been over-exposed to oxygen during my testings & tastings; and (b) are about due for racking, since they absolutely REFUSE to clear. I was thinking, since I have access to dry ice (here we go again!), would I (after sanitizing & sterilizing, of course) drop some chunks in the carboy I'm racking into and wait till it's "gone", then rack into it? would that be useful and effective, or am I hosed?
 
Actually, there are no silly questions. (Only silly answers, right??) :D

Anyway, I think that the dry ice in a carboy trick would work very well to flood them with CO2. I would worry about the intense cold from the dry ice (it is under -100F, if I remember correctly) causing thermal stresses in a glass carboy and maybe cracking it.

Still, if you have access to the dry ice and to a bucket with a lid and some plastic tubing, you can make a CO2 generator easily enough. Fill the bucket halfway with some lukewarm water. Add dry ice. Cover with a lid, to which you've attached a plastic tube that can transport the gas from the bucket to a carboy. Keep the bucket at a level above the top of the carboy and direct the other end of the plastic tube into your carboy. Since CO2 is heavier than both oxygen and nitrogen, they will be displaced as the dry ice sublimates into CO2 gas and fills your carboy.

Was that a silly answer?? ::)
 
Gee, Medsen, doesn't anyone who makes mead eventually end up with a chem lab in the house anyway? :laughing7:

I like Wildaho's idea, actually. I missed that earlier thread -- just goes to show you, butterlily, how useful the search tools on this site can be! ;)

I would still be careful to ensure that the funnel had a small screen, or other thing, to keep larger pieces of th CO2 from dropping into the carboy. That super cold ice directly on the bottom of a glass jug would be asking for trouble.
 
Good point on the temperature, problem; Thanks, guys!! I'll probably go for Wlidaho's suggestion. His answer was to an earlier version of the question, but we wasn't sure how effective it would be, so I wondered if putting it inside would be a more effective idea. But, if the carboy cracks, how effective is that? :tard: ;D
 
I like your method for getting the CO2 into the carboy! If you don't have citric acid, you could use acetic acid (vinegar) instead with your baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). We used to make volcanoes out of this reaction when I was a kid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns

Top Bottom