DIY Spunding Valve?

Lately I’ve been really intrigued with the concept of spunding valves. A spunding valve is like an air regulator that you attach to the gas port on a closed fermentation vessel. It is generally adjustable and you can dial in the point at which it will release the excess co2 to the air. Something like a spunding valve is necessary in order to do pressurized fermentation.

OK, but why?

Brewers use these during secondary or the end of primary to carbonate the beer while it is finishing. It has the benefit of skipping (or combining) the force carb step, and that means that you can go grain to glass faster!
There are a few different ways to build one of these. Here is an article from BYO, here is a post from homebrewtalk, and here is a ready to buy version from morebeer. All of those cost around or a little over $30.

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Ball lock vs Pin lock Corny keg?

Shiny5GalCorny

Once someone decides that a kegging setup is right for them, the very next question is usually:

“what is the difference between ball lock and pin lock kegs?”

The answer is pretty simple. The kegs are usually quite similar, but the connection point that the gas and beer lines use is slightly different.

This is an example of a ball lock post
Ball Lock Post
and this is an example of a pin lock post.
Pin-Lock-Posts
Notice the small pins that poke out of the base of the pin lock post. That is why it is named “pin lock”

History

In the past these kegs were used predominantly for soda syrup. Coke used the pin lock kegs and Pepsi used the ball lock kegs. They could have easily used the same system, but it was probably obfuscated in order to discourage restaraunt owners from switching soda companies as well as to keep the kegs circulating in their respective distribution pools.
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Batch #18 – Evil Twin Part II – Dry Stout BIAB

Batch# 18 – Dry Stout BIAB Split batch

Days000

Date Brew:4/24/2014 Rack:0/00/0000 Bottle:5/27/2014

Recipe:

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/9665/brads-dry-stout-biab

Goals:

Make a simple recipe for our first foray into BIAB. Not very much hops, not a ton of grains, and (theoretically) fairly simple. I was in the homebrew store trying to decide on yeasts and someone brought up the idea of doing a split batch.
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