Nitrogen keg system and priming?

Hey guys,
I have a kegorator and am set up for standard ales however I want to add a second tap that I will use exclusivly for stouts. I am looking for a guiness or murpheys style head (creamy delicous ) and was wondering what I need to get as well as how I prime this thing. My questions are as follows:

1) What do I need that is not standard with regular ale systems? I know I need the stout tap but what is different aside from the nitrogen gas? different canister or same? different regulator? ect....

2) How do I prime this thing? do I use co2 to force carbonate and then push it with nitrogen or do I use stritcly nitro the whole time?

Thanks guys

-Dustin Hickey

1) What do I need that is not standard with regular ale systems? I know I need the stout tap but what is different aside from the nitrogen gas? different canister or same? different regulator? ect....

Nope, just the tap and beer gas.

2) How do I prime this thing? do I use co2 to force carbonate and then push it with nitrogen or do I use stritcly nitro the whole time?

Prime with CO2 or sugar and push with the N2/CO2 mix (aka beer gas). You can use pure N2, but that will require occasional shots of CO2 to maintain carbonation.

So how do I mix the co2 and nitro? and how do I know how much to use of each?

If you can obtain a tank of 75% Nitrogen and 25% CO2, do that. Lookup "AirGas", that is where I got mine. They just had to special order it. That is the mix Guinness uses. It will be a nitrogen tank, so different valve, so you'll need a nitrogen regulator.

Keep in mind you must have a very low carbonation volume, like 1.2-1.6. It does not take much to achieve that. Then just hook the gas mix up to the keg at about 30psi at 38*F through the Stout faucet and you're good to go.

Cool. thanks man. How do you fill the tank when your done? also, when kegging and planning on storing it for a bit before hooking up to the kegerator system, would i pressurize it and remove the co2 and then store or just store in the keg and then carb it when you use it?

AirGas orders the fill for me. When the tank empties I'll just call and request another, then swap out tanks with them.

Naturally carbing in the keg would be your best option and easiest controlled. Keg it, put in about 0.75oz of corn sugar (for 1.4 vol CO2), store at about 70*F, wait a couple weeks (or more), and when you're ready to put it on tap put it in the keggerator and hook it up to the nitro mix.

Get out your yellow pages and look for a welding supply shop near your area. They will be able to make up your beer gas mixture and you also can find great pricing on used tanks (I got a 20lb tank filled with beer gas for $65.00).

When you need it re-filled, take it back to them. When the tank expires, they typically will just swap it out for you at no cost when you get it filled again.

Once you have a relationship going with them, they will also take care of your CO2 tank the same way. My local shop does so anyway.

Salute!

Here is the one of the tanks I picked up:



https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=17557&size=big&cat=all&ppuser=25472