Stout faucet, Beer gas or CO2??

From what I can find reading through the forums and a few other sites is that it seems like there are 2 options for using a stout faucet...

Current for my set up, I have a triple faucet tower with 1 CO2 tank and the standard double gauge regulator, 2 perlicks, and 1 stout faucuet. Not sure who makes the stout faucet atm, but it does have some kind of adjustable thing on it (a recent gift from my wife)...

For the options:

1. Add a secondary C02 regulator to deliver higher pressure to the stout keg.
2. Buy a Nitrogen tank / regulator for the stout keg.

I've tried experimenting a bit with Cheese's caramel cream ale, and got varying results with cranking up the CO2. I had it a bit over carbed, so I had to de-carb it a little bit and then cranked the CO2 back up and got a lot of foam, but it did have that cascading head effect and left a nice creamy head.. Although I would prefer less initial foam... Now if I went with CO2, would I have to continually shut off the valve and lower the pressure of the keg, and then turn it back on when I want to pour? Seems like you'd go through a lot of CO2 doing that...

Now for using beer gas, it's just some upfront expenses, but should perform much better I assume, with less effort... The only question I have with using beergas is if you force carb with it, or use CO2... I found varying information about nitrogen being absorbed into the beer or not...

Any thoughts?

I'd say just carb with CO2, just use lower pressure since you want around 1 to 1.2 volumes of CO2 in the beer. Beer gas is more expensive and I've heard hard to carb with unless you use a diffusion stone. Once it's carbed then hook it up to the beer gas.

So it looks like I'll just buy a nitro tank and regulator then...

Will pushing the rest of the beers with the beer gas through the normal faucets effect the flavor if I still carb with just CO2? Of course I know I'd need a secondary regulator to keep the PSI down on the normal faucets...

^^no, in fact it will probably pour better depending on your line lengths. The last bar I worked at pushed all their beer with beer gas.

Before you buy anything, go ask where you're going to fill which tank they support for beer gas. Some places, like PHX (Phoenix Welding Supplies- aka Dye Carbonic supplies most of the beverage gas in PHX) prefer that you use a CO2 tank and regulator.

Being able to use the same tanks and equipment is waaaay less of a hassel than having to drop off your beer gas tank for a fill.

Have you tried using that resistence knob? If it has one of those most of the time you won't need to get a beer gas setup. The reason for the beer gas is that the N2 won't disolve into beer and you can crank up the presure with over carbing the beer. Now if you have a older stout tap and has a resistance knob on the back you might not need to get beer gas. I've been looking for one of those older stout taps for a while.

I think old Sause has it right. Carb and serve as normal and adjust the knob. What makes stout faucets special is that they have a restrictor plate in the them. As beer passes through this plate it knocks out most of the CO2 in solution, which gives that cascading bubble effect and thick dense head we all recognize on a Guinness. The newer stout faucets have no adjustment to the restrictor plate and you need about 30 PSI to push through them. This is where the beer gas comes in. You can crank up the PSI to 30, but since its 70% Nitrogen, which is not as soluble in liquid, you don't overcarb your beer and you can push it though your restirctor plate. Since you have that knob, that means your faucet has variable restriction. This should enable you to carb as per usual and push through the restrictor plate with a normal ammount of pressure, say 10 PSI. This should give a similar effect to what we recognize from a nitrotap, but do it without the nitro and the hassle of serving at 30 PSI.

Hope that helps a little, I think it puts pieces of everyone's summaries together

EDIT: An update, I've also been trying to find one of these style faucets with limited success and just pulled the trigger on one on ebay. Its will arrive at my door for a grand total of $30, not bad. If I don't like it, keep your eyes peeled HBTers! I'm pretty excited, its my first impulsive purchase in a long time

Actually, it is a newer faucet, so it looks like I can't adjust the restrictor plate...

So it looks like I'll need some beer gas at higher pressure... I'll call around and hopefully find some place that will fill a CO2 bottle with beer gas, but will still need to buy a new tank and reg so that I can still carb with CO2... But at least CO2 tanks and regs are a little cheaper...

Thanks for all the help! I'll let ya know how the first pour works out once I get it set up...