no head at all out of a stout faucet

so i tapped my first stout tonight. i am using a stout faucet.

i have my 75/25 nitrogen co2 mix set at 40 psi.

10 foot hose

fridge around 40.

its filling crazy fast, and there's no head at all. no "Guinness waterfall" nothing.

any ideas?

i cant raise the temp of the fridge, there too much other stuff in there to do that

any help???

Could the restricter plate be missing from the stout tap?

Did you carb it with CO2 first?

Do you have to push the tap the other direction to make it foam?

I don't have one yet but have been reading up...

the plate is there. it was carbed with co2 first. i didnt try to push the tap back

Your description really makes it sound as if the restrictor plate is missing. Check that again before anything else.

Are you sure it was properly carbonated at roughly 1.0 volume?

it was carbed at more of 2.0 volume. and yes the plate is there

I've got one in the mail right now so I'm curious to hear the answer to this.

Is it carbonated when you pour it now?

If you whisk it a bit, can you manage some froth?

when it sat for a minute and i swirled it around a little head formed

Is it carbonated right now? (i.e., after you pour it, does it taste fizzy?). It should. If not, your beer went flat before you put it on the gas.

Just so we're clear, the restrictor plate is the far leftmost component below:

yes, and it goes in the nozzle in that order, right. the pointed end of the white plastic thing down, then the plate?

and yes, it is carbed. it was on the co2 till i put it in the fridge, and now its been on the mix for about 4 days before i poured my first drink

You're correct about the assembly of the faucet.

You should be able to taste/feel carbonation if you sip the beer. It's not enough to assume that it is.

I'm out of ideas.

4 days at what pressure.

Seems like that's not enough.

Yeah, how long on CO2 before switching to beer gas? MY LHBS told me the beer will go flat if you leave it on the beergas for too long (of course they didn't say what too long was) but I've been putting it on nitro for a couple hours while enjoying, then switching it back to straight CO2 to make sure it stays carbed.

I have an Imperial Stout in the secondary and have recently received a stout tap from micromatic to use when mine is ready. I am interested to see how this all comes together. I plan to carbonate at normal pressure for two weeks then switch to beer gas. I have thought that pushing back on the tap handle is supposed to provide a creamy head to the stout, not actually create carbonation in the beer. I am new, so I may be wrong.

Don't most pubs keep their stout on nitrogen/co2 mixtures all the time? Isn't that why you pre-carbonate the stout and doesn't the mix maintain the proper level of carbonation?

I hope someone with experience actually helps to answer you original questions and mine too.

Good luck.

Salute!

i had it on the co2 for about 2 weeks. i am going to put it back on the co2 for a few days and see what happens

It sounds like you tried to force carbonate at room temperature. That requires higher pressure than usual (greater than 20 psi).

Beer will not go flat once it's carbonated and on beer gas. The key is that it really should be carbonated before you put it on something other than pure CO2. Once it's carbonated and under pressure (from any source), there is nowhere for the CO2 to go, so it will remain carbonated. I've proved it in practice by using pure Argon as my serving gas. The pre-carbonated beer always remains carbonated until the keg is kicked (sometimes over a month).

This thread seems to have some confusion between stout and creamer faucets. A stout faucet is used by simply pulling hte handle forward and dispenses beer with a beer gas mixture to produce the tiny bubbly foam typical of Guinness. A creamer faucet can be used with or without beer gas and is used by regularly dispensing beer. To add the "cream" with a creamer faucet, one pushes back on the handle thereby introducing air into the beer stream and frothing up a nice creamy head on top of the already poured beer.

I don't own either, or know which you have. Good luck

i have a stout faucet.

and yes, i carbed it at room temp for a little over 2 weeks with pure co2. it was around 30 psi.

is 2 weeks long enough to carb 5 gallons at 68 degrees? or should i drop the presure and put it back on the co2 for a while in the keezer?

30psi at 68 should have carb'd to about 2.7 volumes.

Could it be that the line is too long? I would think that having a too long line would act to defeat the purpose of the high pressure gas. You need the beer to hit the plate at a nice high pressure to really churn it, no?

its a 10 foot line. its still coming out really fast, so i am not sure, but i would assume the line is not too long.

Hey JP,
just saw this post. I'm assuming this is the faucet we traded for. I know it worked on mine. I did pretty much the same as you, except for carbing in the fridge, not at room temp. I've got a couple of querstions:

1. When you pour the beer from the stout tap is there any head at all? Is it all beer that comes out, or is it a glass of foam that settles down to beer with no head?

2. Have you tried attaching the keg to a regular faucet and seeing what happen there?

3. When I got my beer as tank filled the guy told me I would need to roll the cylinder around ever so often to mix the gas. Since you work for a gas company you might know if this was B.S. or not. Might try that.

Here's a .pdf from NorthernBrewer: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/Hi-Res/deluxe-nitro-system.pdf Have you tried lowering the serving pressure to 20-25 psi? I did a little looking on the net and some people seem to see better results after a week or so on the beer gas. You have the nitrogen regulator and everything right?

Hope some of this helps.

hey ender.

i just put the keg back on the co2 in the fridge. it might not have been carbed. i lowered the serving pressure, it didnt seem to do anything.

when i poured it just looked like black water. i could tell there was some carb to it because there were bubbles on the glass.

i havent tried a regular faucet yet. to tell you the truth i havent had much time to mess with it. i am having major leaking problems with this new tower, so most of my attention is going to that.

about rolling the tank, its a little bit BS and there is a little truth to it. co2 wil settle, but with the percentage in the tank, a home sized tank shouldnt be to much of a problem. we put a dip tube in all of our larger mix tanks(the 50 lb co2 size) to aid in mixing the gasses.

thanks for the PDF. i am sure by this weekend the beer should be carbed correctly, and i'll try a bunch of different serving pressures, i'll try a regular tap, and i might dump my mix and re fill it.

that should account for everything.

one thing ive noticed, the beer is coming out inceadibly fast. i read somewhere to use 4x the co2 pressure when using the mix, but this fills a glass in about 2 seconds. and yes i checked again, the plate is there

This isn't the plate you're looking for.

what plate?

so today i took the beer off of the co2 and put it back on the nitro mis. 25 psi this time. it willed at a better speed. still kinda fast. there was a little bit of head but not much.

it tastes great but kinda flat.

i plan to leave it on the co2 for a few more days and go from there. i might drom the serving pressure from 25 to 20 psi. anyone do this?

I cant remember what the serving pressure I used for my beers. Never had a stout on Nitro at home. Done pale ales and bitters. I do remember messing with the pressure on the beer gas tank to get the right cascade pour, but cant remember what the final setting was. I actually dont think there was one. I was always adjusting it I think.

i think i might try something close to 20 psi tonight. when i had it at 25 it still seemed a little fast. 20 might work.

i tried it at 10 with straight co2. it made my dark chocolate stout look like chocolate milk.

I think you need to make sure your beer is actually carbonated, I found a good read on prepping nitro beers here : Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Brew Wizard - Nitro beers & low-carb beers
best of luck I want to do the same, I just need to fill a tank at this point.

so now i need a carbonation stone. this sucks.

i just tried about 10 different pressures. i guess this isnt going to work haveing just carbed it with co2 and now trying to pour it with the mix. dam this sucks.

what i dont understand though is, if i am supposed to seve this at 30 psi, then why does it come out of the faucet so dam fast.

i know the plate is there and it still pours very fast and it has no head at all, even though its been on co2 in the fridge for about a week

so this writeup is telling me i need to carb with notrogen and co2. what do i do now thats its carbed with just co2. put it to room temp and keep bleeding the relief valve till its flat?

this is beginning to really drive me nuts

Somehow you need to get the NO2 into solution. The reason for the creamy top on nitro served beers is because the NO2 comes out of solution at atmospheric pressure (rapidly). In order for this to happen you need to first get the NO2 dissolved into the beer.

I really wish you luck, that sounds terribly frustrating....

after reading online for a while and searching and searching i've come to the conclusion that i need to make this beer flat and then start over carbing at high pressure(30-40 psi (cold) with the beer mix. this higher presure will dissolve the nitrogen into the beer(so says one website. they compared it the the bends that divers get).

how do i get it flat?

I think it has something to do with the plate - either way.

Getting it flat....

I would purchase a HEPA air filter and rig it up so your beer was venting to atmosphere. warm up the beer and relieve the pressure as often as possible. That could take a while.

is it possible that the holes in the plate are too big? is the plate directional?

is the plate directional?[/QUOTE]


if its not, it should be!