help from my brewing brothers, and sisters.

Hey all,
looking for some info. I would like to make a stout and a smokey porter, i know it seems a bit out of season. i have a homebuilt kegerator with 3 taps and running on CO2. can i put stouts on tap with co2 or do i need beer gas??
any info will be helpful.
Also looking for a good place to get tasting glasses and 12-13 oz beer snifters,.
thanks
East Enders home brewery Waterbury CT

You can use CO2, it will just pour differently. The only way to have big head with less carbonation is to introduce nitrogen to the mix.

As long as you are OK with less of a head, the beer is OK with your CO2.

I had an oatmeal stout on C02 and it was fine. My understanding is that beer gas is best used if you have one of those stout faucets, but I was told it was ok on just C02 without one. One thing I did that might have made it better was carbing it to style in a secondary then just using C02 to serve it from the keg.

Pubwilson said:

I had an oatmeal stout on C02 and it was fine. My understanding is that beer gas is best used if you have one of those stout faucets, but I was told it was ok on just C02 without one. One thing I did that might have made it better was carbing it to style in a secondary then just using C02 to serve it from the keg.

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I would not follow any advice that advocates a different carbing and serving pressure. Unless you drink the whole keg in a day, the carbonation will be lost over the course of the keg as the pressure equalizes to your "serving" pressure.

So I should carb and serve at the same temperature? I will try that and see if I notice a difference. I was wrong, the stout was force carbonated cold. Maybe that's why it seemed fine through the whole keg. O well, this next one is gonna be flat, cause its the one I carbed in a secondary. Learn something new everyday.

dkershner said:

I would not follow any advice that advocates a different carbing and serving temperature. Unless you drink the whole keg in a day, the carbonation will be lost over the course of the keg as the pressure equalizes to your "serving" pressure.

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Pubwilson said:

So I should carb and serve at the same temperature? I will try that and see if I notice a difference. I was wrong, the stout was force carbonated cold. Maybe that's why it seemed fine through the whole keg. O well, this next one is gonna be flat, cause its the one I carbed in a secondary. Learn something new everyday.

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I wrote temperature, I meant pressure.

You should keep your beer on a consistent pressure throughout it's life. Anything else will adjust carbonation and release CO2 while it's pouring, causing issues of all sorts.

It is also easier to carb and serve at the same temperatures, but not necessary. If you use two separate temperatures, make sure to adjust the pressure as indicated on this chart: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

You can always adjust your carbonation, so no worries even if it is flat, it just takes time.

If you mean that you naturally carbed in a secondary...that is a whole nother process. Now that I re-read your post, that is what it sounds like you did. In your case, just try to match your CO2 pressure as closely to what you think the priming sugar achieved carbonation wise. It sounds like you did that, and your process is sound, sorry for spooking you.

For the OP, I stand by my original post.