under $15.00(plus S&H) picnic tap to stout tap modification

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zazbnf

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Just finished setting this up and testing using blended gas. works great when connected directly to my blended gas system. I am currently working on assembling parts to test a true portable stout setup. Updates to follow when I get all parts together.

Parts required

stout faucet spout - $6.50
stout faucet straightener - .75 cents
stout faucet restrictor plate - $3.30
stout faucet o-ring - .60 Cents
1 - 2" piece 5/8 ID plastic tubing $0.85 for 1 foot
1 - 3/4" piece 5/8 OD plastic tubing (Fits inside larger tubing to reduce id for picnic tap.) $0.68 for 1 foot
2 hose clamps - .99 ea

I got the parts exept tubing and hose clamps from micromatic, got tubing and hose clamps from local hardware store.

This is the finished product.

2uqjcbr.jpg


small print disclaimer: cost assumes you already have a picnic tap setup. May need to play with pressure setting to dial it in.
 
I've never used blended gas with my stouts. Always just a low carb and then at the end of the pour let the picnic tap close some so I get the foam I want. Looks just like a proper guiness pour. Glad you have a good setup for your blended gas dispensing though :)
 
How does it work?

connect the picnic tap to the keg just like you would any picnic tap, When you press the lever on the picnic tap the beer is forced through the restrictor plate and straightener inside the stout faucet spout. By adjusting the pouring pressure (27psi worked best for me) of the blended gas, you get a perfect stout pour with the cascade effect.

I am waiting for delivery on an nitrogen paintball tank and some fittings to try a pour using pure Nitrogen on a pre-carbonated stout to see if I get the same effect. If it works, it will be a lot more portable than hauling around my 60cf nitrogen tank (just bungee cord the tank to a keg and go). Also considering trying to blend my own gas mix into a paintball tank.


conpewter - Using just co2 can probably emulate the look of a guinness pour, but I have never seen a pure co2 pour that can emulate the creamy mouthfeel of a blended gas pour, The co2 bubbles are just too large and unstable.
 
How did the Nitrogen paintball tank go?
I would love to be able to swap in a nitrogen tank for select beers.
 
conpewter - Using just co2 can probably emulate the look of a guinness pour, but I have never seen a pure co2 pour that can emulate the creamy mouthfeel of a blended gas pour, The co2 bubbles are just too large and unstable.

I thought that the nitrogen did not disolve in the beer and it's use was so you could have the beer stored at a higher PSI (so that the ristrictor plate does it job) without over carbing the beer. My thoughts on this was to try on straight CO2 with as short a run of 1/4" line as possible at normal carb pressure.
I might have a bit of money soon to make one of your DIY stout faucets and try it out ;)
 
Mattd2 you are right. Nitrogen does not dissolve into solution except under extremely high pressures. People confuse the tiny bubbles on these beers as coming from Nitrogen.

Tiny bubbles are produced by shooting high pressure beer through a restrictor. These bubbles are still CO2 bubbles but they are formed differently so they produce a different mouth feel.

Your method of a super short line may work, but I'm not sure. I think you really need around 30 psi to get the right flow through the stout restrictors. And that is the reason I want to know about the nitrogen tank. Because you can carb your beer to 1.5 volumes with CO2 then switch over to nitrogen to blow it threw the tap without any worry of over carbing your beer. (Or even have a single tank of beer gas that can be used on just one of your taps) In addition, you can also crank up you CO2 then lower it after serving and should get the same results.
 
Mattd2 you are right. Nitrogen does not dissolve into solution except under extremely high pressures. People confuse the tiny bubbles on these beers as coming from Nitrogen.

Tiny bubbles are produced by shooting high pressure beer through a restrictor. These bubbles are still CO2 bubbles but they are formed differently so they produce a different mouth feel.

Your method of a super short line may work, but I'm not sure. I think you really need around 30 psi to get the right flow through the stout restrictors. And that is the reason I want to know about the nitrogen tank. Because you can carb your beer to 1.5 volumes with CO2 then switch over to nitrogen to blow it threw the tap without any worry of over carbing your beer. (Or even have a single tank of beer gas that can be used on just one of your taps) In addition, you can also crank up you CO2 then lower it after serving and should get the same results.

Sweet to know I'm not thinking about it the bubbles the wrong way ;)
My thoughts on the whole stout tap pressure thing were that most seem to set up the tap the same way as a normal tap, about 10' of 3/16" line, which gives a usual pressure drop of about 12 psi. So if the normal beer gas pressure is 20-30 psi and you loosing 12 psi through the line you are getting about 8-18 psi drop across the restrictor. So if you had the keg on 8 psi (about 1.75 V @ 50 degrees F) and no restrcition in the line (at least negligable restriction) you might get away with it.
I'll try remember to update this in September when I might have the spare cash to try it out.
 
pressure drop on a stout faucet isn't really critical. you need sufficient back pressure to force the beer through the restrictor plate, driving the co2 out of solution.

you can get the same affect with co2 only, but it will only work for a while as the co2 will slowly absorb into the remaining beer. for a nitro faucet to work well, the total dissolved co2 needs to be relatively low, while the pressure needs to be high. Nitrogen is typically used to solve this conundrum as very little actually gets absorbed into the beer.

zazbnf, you're idea of a paintball tank will work, although you'll have the opposite effect of using pure co2, namely that the beer will gradually go flat, causing too little head. That said, this case should be much more manageable.

Also, be careful that it's only nitrogen, as many of the fills are just air.
 
pressure drop on a stout faucet isn't really critical. you need sufficient back pressure to force the beer through the restrictor plate, driving the co2 out of solution.

you can get the same affect with co2 only, but it will only work for a while as the co2 will slowly absorb into the remaining beer. for a nitro faucet to work well, the total dissolved co2 needs to be relatively low, while the pressure needs to be high. Nitrogen is typically used to solve this conundrum as very little actually gets absorbed into the beer...
Do you know what sort of relativly low levels of dissolved CO2 are? Is 1.75 volumes too much, that's bordering on kinda flat beer ;)

The pressure drop across the restrictor I mentioned is, I'm assuming, the same thing you are calling back pressure as I would assume the exit side is at approximatly atmospheric pressure.

I am keen to try this and see what happens
 
zazbnf, you're idea of a paintball tank will work, although you'll have the opposite effect of using pure co2, namely that the beer will gradually go flat, causing too little head. That said, this case should be much more manageable.

Also, be careful that it's only nitrogen, as many of the fills are just air.

Sorry I never got back to this thread before today. As an update the Nitrogen paintball tank with pure nitrogen and this modified faucet works great if you are dispensing for an party/event I took this setup to the Peoria,IL Beerfest and it worked great.

I also bought a fill station for the paintball nitrogen tank so I could fill my own and play a bit(and confirm it was really nitrogen). One thing I have learned. Do not try to fill a nitrogen paintball tank with liquid co2, one of the o-rings froze and popped during filling and it all leaked out.

However by filling the paintball tank with just gaseous co2 first to about 700PSI (whatever the standing pressure of co2 is at the temperature it is being stored at - paintball guage is not terribly accurate) Then filling the tank on top of the co2 to about 2500psi with nitrogen(this was the standing pressure of my nitrogen tank for the test) It made a blended gas that has done a fairly good job of maintaining carbonation and dispensing pressure for the past month or so.

My alternate idea for a test was to just dispense with pure nitrogen and give the keg a shot of co2 every so often. Since the idea above seems to work I never got to this one.

note: when I filled the pure nitrogen tank I took to the beerfest my home nitrogen tank was a little low on pressure I was only able to fill to 1100PSI. However 1100 PSI was still sufficient to dispense my 2.5 gallon keg with around 900PSI remaining in the paintball tank at the end of the day. I am pretty sure that even 1 low pressure fill would do a full 5 gallon keg.

My final conclusions: My purpose of these expierments was to try to find a way to make stouts on nitrogen more portable. I think that was a success. This may also be an alternative for those that just want to try a beer on nitrogen once in a while. That being said I always have a stout on nitrogen on tap at home, and I wouldn't trade my Nitrogen/C02 gas blender setup in my home bar for this. But if I wanted to take a keg to an event/party it's a hell of a lot better than a guinness widget:)
 
Thanks, I just got a Stout faucet at home for my keezer. I didn't realize that your solution was a possibility. That is great as I like to bring my kegs to parties occasionally. My first thought was that you might break the picnic tap if you clamp down too hard on it with the hose connection, but apparently that was not a problem.
 
Thanks, I just got a Stout faucet at home for my keezer. I didn't realize that your solution was a possibility. That is great as I like to bring my kegs to parties occasionally. My first thought was that you might break the picnic tap if you clamp down too hard on it with the hose connection, but apparently that was not a problem.

Glad you found it helpful, the nice thing is if you already have a stout faucet and don't need both at the same time you could just borrow the bottom spout from you existing faucet to go portable.

I didn't have any problems with breaking the picnic tap with the clamp, however I didn't really crank the heck out of it. The rubber hose has some give to it so that gives a bit of leeway.
 
So could this work on an existing beer faucet connected to a tower? I forgot I have an old nitro tank from my paintball days... This might be interesting...
 
watch out when using CO2 in your tank. Paintball compressed air/nitro tanks are not meant to deal with the liquid left by CO2 when the compression falls or the temperature drops and the gas condenses. the regulators can be finicky. just saying keep an eye out. thats not to say the tank will explode, but those regs can be expensive/annoying to fix. i havent heard of anyone venturing out to put CO2 in their paintball tank... good luck :rockin:
 
watch out when using CO2 in your tank. Paintball compressed air/nitro tanks are not meant to deal with the liquid left by CO2 when the compression falls or the temperature drops and the gas condenses. the regulators can be finicky. just saying keep an eye out. thats not to say the tank will explode, but those regs can be expensive/annoying to fix. i havent heard of anyone venturing out to put CO2 in their paintball tank... good luck :rockin:

Thanks for the heads up, when I started this project I had no idea what CO2 would do to an HPA paintball tank. Tried googling and didn't find much info. I scored the tank used for $20 and figured I had blown $20 on dumber ideas in the past.

With the initial test, I actually tried liquid CO2, that was a mistake as about 15 seconds in the o-ring froze and popped. Took 15 minutes for the tank to empty back out then it was cold as heck and had to wait for it to warm up before I could see if I ruined it. Was pleasently surprised when it had just popped the o-ring.

When I was taking this to the beer fest, It probably would have worked just as well on pure nitrogen as the beer was gone in a couple hours after tapping. Long term usage, I would still probably take my chances and blend the gas, but if you were worried about the long term health of your HPA tank, you could always do as many here do and give the keg a charge of CO2 every now and then.

As for using this on a standard faucet, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Based on what I have seen here the parts in the spout seem to be the working parts of a stout faucet. You might have to play with your pressures a bit to get it dialed in.
 
I have a few questions about the setup. Does the straightener go in the spout, then the restrictor, and then the o-ring? Also I bought the tubing with the measurements you provided but I'm having a hard time getting the inner tubing to fit inside the bigger tubing. Also the inner tubing is way too big to fit over the picnic tap spout. I'm pretty sure that my picnic tap is standard. Are you sure that the inner tubing is 5/8 OD?
 
I have a few questions about the setup. Does the straightener go in the spout, then the restrictor, and then the o-ring??

Yes, exactly like that.


also I bought the tubing with the measurements you provided but I'm having a hard time getting the inner tubing to fit inside the bigger tubing. Also the inner tubing is way too big to fit over the picnic tap spout. I'm pretty sure that my picnic tap is standard. Are you sure that the inner tubing is 5/8 OD?

That was the size tubing I purchased from local ace hardware(at least that is how they had it marked), the tubing was not a tight fit over the picnic tap, but it wasn't sloppy either, and The clamp tightened down enough to prevent leaks.

I suppose it is possible that the tubing I bought was thicker walled which would make the inner diameter smaller. Is it possible your smaller tubing is larger than 5/8 od? mine slid inside the 5/8 id tubing without a lot of effort. I don't think a longer piece would have worked as it did tighten up after a short distance.
 
Hi zazbnf, I haven't done this yet, but was thinking of bring my "Guinness" keg to a family reunion this weekend. Also I have my taps apart due to a blown compressor. I'm making a new keezer.

The question is, what is the purpose of the "1 - 3/4" piece 5/8 OD plastic tubing (Fits inside larger tubing to reduce id for picnic tap.)"? It seems like the larger tube is the one that is clamped and where the beer goes through a restrictor anyway, I was wondering why you even need the inside tube. Or is that to keep the O-ring seated? I think the O-ring is usually screwed in place. Also my stout faucet is metal. I wonder if that makes a difference. I believe there are indents in the faucet for a wrench.
 
Hi zazbnf, I haven't done this yet, but was thinking of bring my "Guinness" keg to a family reunion this weekend. Also I have my taps apart due to a blown compressor. I'm making a new keezer.

The question is, what is the purpose of the "1 - 3/4" piece 5/8 OD plastic tubing (Fits inside larger tubing to reduce id for picnic tap.)"? It seems like the larger tube is the one that is clamped and where the beer goes through a restrictor anyway, I was wondering why you even need the inside tube. Or is that to keep the O-ring seated? I think the O-ring is usually screwed in place. Also my stout faucet is metal. I wonder if that makes a difference. I believe there are indents in the faucet for a wrench.

The smaller inside piece reduces the inside diameter of the larger tubing like a bushing so it would seal on the picnic tap. The outside diameter of the picnic tap is much smaller than the outside diameter of the stout spout. Using tubing large enough to fit over the stout spout alone, I was unable to get it to seal on the picnic tap.
 
Thanks zaz, I put one of these together last night as I was missing my stout. Fortunately I had all the ingredients. I found that the cheap thin walled Lowes tubing fit well on the picnic tap outlet. I also had some larger tubing around that worked well. My guess is that this set up doesn't set the O-ring and disc underneath as tightly as a standard stout tap. Perhaps that was why you were suggesting a lower serving pressure. I found that this picnic stout tap poured faster than my normal stout tap, but the final results were very good nonetheless.
 
Hi, I tried this again without the o-ring, and it still seems to work OK.
 
I found the restrictor plate, straightener, and nozzle for $10.57 here.

https://leadersbeverage.com/product/stout-faucet-parts-nozzle/

Nice thing is you can buy one set with everything you need and pay USPS 1st Class Shipping for $2.55.

I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can't find some nylon adapter w/ a hose barb that I can thread into the nozzle. I'll thread that into the nozzle and attach a piece of hose to the barb and then the other end to the picnic tap.

Anyone happen to know the thread size for the nozzle?
 
Wanted to check back in and show what I came up with. I ended up going to the hardware store and walking the aisles to figure out a way to make this a bit more "elegant." :) So here's what I came up with.

I used a 3/8" compression fitting to 1/4" NPT female coupling. Then I bought a 1/4" Nylon hose barb. The 3/8 Compression Fitting threads into the stout faucet tip perfectly. Then the hose barb threads into the other end. A short piece of tubing attached to the hose barb and forced over the top of the picnic tap and...viola! It works awesome.

Picture posted below. The beer is a Ordinary Bitter carbonated at 1.5 volumes of CO2, so very low carbonation. I have my regulator set at 17psi, but I use some of those "mixer stick" things that were posted on here a while back to reduce the pressure in the lines allowing for much shorter hose runs. Anyway, here's some picks of the whole contraption and a pour as well.

IMG_2566.jpg


IMG_2567.jpg


IMG_2568.jpg


IMG_2569.jpg


IMG_2570.jpg


IMG_2572.jpg
 
Awesome thread! Just order my the parts and can't wait to try! Anytime I can save money with a DIY I'm happy! Have you happen to do a side by side test with a stout faucet?
 
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