Little head with Beer Gas!?

jmkratt · 03-07-2011, 06:45 PM

Ok, so I have been having issues with the Nitro system. First keg went great, nice creamy head throughout. When it died I evidently didn't properly seal the tank shut and had a slow leak and lost all my beer gas... d'oh! Lesson learned!

I have an Oatmeal Stout in the keg now. I carbed it on straight CO2 to 1.5 volumes per instructions from BYO. Switched it over to a NEW tank of beer gas (75%/25% mix) and have poured a couple pints at 30 psi. The beer pours with minimal cascading and only yields approximately a 1/4" nitro head. I have checked all connections and no leak. The last keg at the same settings had the huge nitro head I am used to.

Anyone more familiar with nitro/beer gas able to offer some suggestions?

Should I pump more psi into the Stout keg to get more nitro in the system?

Does any of this make sense!?

HELP!

SpanishCastleAle · 03-07-2011, 07:22 PM

I'm a noob on nitro too so I'm still in the steep learning curve.

That stout just sounds like it is not carbed enough. Did you carb the first keg on straight CO2 or did you use the beer gas to carb it?

AFAIK; the pressure you set the beer gas to, is to achieve the right level of carbonation at whatever temperature you keep the beer at (just like with CO2). For a given faucet, line length and ID determine how fast it pours i.e. how much foam you get at whatever carb level you've chosen (you could also think of it as adjusting 'pressure at the spout when flowing').

Nitrogen is about 100x less soluble by weight in water than CO2. But you are using a pressure of 75% of 30 psi...or 22.5 psi. I think almost all of the Nitrogen gets knocked out of solution as it flows through the restrictor disk because nitrogen in your beer is anything but 'creamy'. I recently took a Mild off nitro, purged the keg, and then put it on CO2 so I could carb it up for bottles. I think there is still nitrogen in the beer because the mouthfeel is all wrong. Whatever 'creamy' is; it's the opposite of that.

jmkratt · 03-07-2011, 07:43 PM

I should say that I left it on straight CO2 for 1 week. It's been on Beer Gas for 4 days.

jmkratt · 03-07-2011, 09:57 PM

I think I will try bumping the psi to 40 tonight to see what happens.