Hello all,
I was hoping to get opinions of the Blichmann Quick Carb system. I am not very patient so far in waiting for my corny kegs to get carbonated and was hoping this might me answer?
thx
My opinion: Too expensive for the small benefit of drinking a day or two earlier and it means one more piece of equipment to clean.
I just hook up the keg in the fridge at 30 psi and leave for 2 days before venting and turning down to serving pressure.
Used mine twice works well they don’t tell you need to let set in refer 24 hrs after carbing so co2 bonds with the liquid learned that on first batch
I like mine.
I’m happy with my simpler diffusion stone carbonating lid. It’s simply a corny keg lid with a air-in ball lock installed and a length of tubing attached to a .5 micron diffusion stone. The stone alone is only worth 10 bucks or so, but having the tubing attach to the easily-removable lid makes it a lot easier to install/uninstall and you can swap it out after reaching carbonation to your normal lid for use with another keg. The beer was pretty carbonated (set at the appropriate PSI, not 30+ like I used to do for quick-carbonating) after 12 hours and perfect within a couple days.
The rig is $45 bucks Amazon.com. I’m sure more industrious types with the proper tools could assemble their own from an existing keg lid for much less.
I like it for many uses. Blichmann engineering standards are very nice. Agreed it’s pricey. I use mine to carbonate quickly as intended but the parts allow you to do more. The pump is a positive displacement pump so it can draw fluids against gravity. The pump doesn’t impart air or loose prime like a centrifugal pump does. Some other uses i have used it for include…
- drawing beer from carboy (or other primary) and pump into keg using a racking cane.
- add oxygen to wort on transfer to primary vessel using stone. It’s a larger stone.
- pump beer through filter or Randal
I’m sure there are other people using it for other things as well. The case is handy so you can lend it to your homebrew bros.
thx everyone. Going to a homebrew supply today. Going to see if they have any in stock…
Thanks for the information Stepp2, it sounds like that will go on my brewing wishlist. I didn’t realize it had additional uses.
I guess it would depend on batch size. For a 5 gal corny, where I can just shake for 2-3 hours and have carbonated beer that night, I couldn’t personally justify the expense.
I saw the demo yesterday and it does look pretty cool and has other uses, like transferring, but I’m a shaker as well.
Well I got to use mine for first time yesterday. Very impressed, works as advertised! I am happy with purchase 
I built a clone that works the same (~$60), and for the most part it works as advertised. Blichmann has a chart showing temp/psi, that is very important to follow. I underestimated the high PSI settings required, I found by using the highest ‘green’ psi setting worked best. As an example if your keg is at 65 F then you will be using 30psi.
Run for 45 mins and check it, and every 10-15 after that until you get it where you want it. I purge the air out of the keg before checking the carb levels as it will be at ~30psi if you don’t (let it set for a few before purging).
All the machine eliminates is the shaking, since it employs a diffusion stone to help dissolve the gas better than can be achieved with the standard corny. However, neither that machine or shaking can overcome the fact that another chemical change has to occur for the carbonation to become fully dissolved and fine (aka: creamy).
The Hydration of the dissolved CO2 is a time- and temperature-dependent chemical process and it isn’t affected by finer diffusion or shaking. Your beers won’t have fine, creamy carbonation until the CO2 is fully hydrated. I find that hydration takes about 2 weeks to complete when a keg is in the refrigerator. I don’t see value in this machine.
Chemistry is a bitch!