Carbonating with Nitrogen

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Anyone know anything about carbonating homebrew with nitrogen?
- can it be done?
- if so, any tips, such as pressure, etc...
- is it expensive?
- and how is it?

Thanks, I'd be interested to find more out about this and give it a shot.

- Ryan
 
carbonating without carbon dioxide....

its like trying to slake your thirst without drinking anything :drunk:
 
If you are talking about beergas, it can be done but it isn't recommended to use beer gas other then to push the beer out of lines (since beer gas has less CO2 so it wont over carbonate the beer).
 
I have a nitro/stout faucet and use beer gas with it... Setup is easy, you'll need a beer-gas regulator (different fittings than a standard CO2 regulator) and obviously you'll need to get a tank (most welding shops should have them, just ask for Guinness gas). The ratio of nitrogen to CO2 is usually 70/30 or 75/25.

I recommend attaching a carbonation stone to your 'in' dip-tube on your keg. It's kinda hard to do but I was able to use some food safe tubing and slip it over the short dip-tube. Unfortunately I don't remember what the ID of the tubing was that I used. Adjust the length so that the stone is just resting on the bottom of the keg. This will cause the CO2 that comes through to be tiny bubbles, which will dissolve quicker and I think it increases the effect of a nitro tap... Make sure to use hose-clamps on the end of the stone as well to make sure it doesn't blow off. This also speeds up the carbonation process... If you didn't do this it would take much longer for the keg to get carbed. By bubbling the gas up through the beer it gets carbed pretty quickly.

The main reason to use beer gas is to prevent crazy amounts of foaming. The nitro faucet has a restrictor plate with tiny holes in it, and when the beer is forced through these holes it causes the dissolved CO2 to come out of solution and create that amazing creamy head. You have to use a higher pressure than normal to get this effect, so if you used 100% CO2 you'd get nothing but foam.

I set my regulator to ~28-30 PSI and get what I estimate to be about 2 volumes of CO2 carbonation. I do not precarbonate with 100% CO2 like one of the other poster suggested, but that's just a personal preference mainly due to laziness.

To properly pour a pint with a nitro/stout faucet, you first pull the tap handle all the way forward, it should stop a 90 degree angle to the faucet. Fill the glass about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Allow the beer to sit for a minute or two, you will see the tiny bubbles slowly raise to the top, as they do so the creamy head will get thicker and thicker. Once the beer has returned to one uniform color (the bubbles have all floated up and became head), Push the tap handle back to bypass the plate with holes and fill the glass.
 
Oh, and to answer your questions about expenses, the initial setup can pretty expensive.

The nitro/stout faucet is about $100 and then by the time you get the shank and all the fittings you're looking at another $20-$30 or more. The welding shop I use had beer gas in 5 lbs and 15 lbs tanks. I wanted the big one, so I went on Craigslist and found a 20 lbs CO2 tank for $50 and used that as an exchange for the beergas tank, which cost another $30 or so... So I would plan on around $200 at least, maybe more depending on how much a tank cost you, to get up and running if starting from scratch.
 
What the others said. I bought a tank, regulator and faucet. I use CO2 when kegging. Once the brew has conditioned, I put it on Nitrogen/CO2 mix (called beer gas) at 35 psi.

I get a wonderful cascade and very creamy head.

Currently have a Porter on this.
 
I primed my stout with corn sugar and let carb for about 10 days. I then used beer gas and a pressure of 25-28 lbs. The first pour was perfect. Each pour since has been great. You can use a carbonation chart and find the pressure you need to keep the beer carbed. If you have a 70/30 mix just divide the pressure by 3.3 to get the corresponding carbonation pressure (I like to use 7 to 8 lbs for CO2).
 
Oh, and to answer your questions about expenses, the initial setup can pretty expensive.

The nitro/stout faucet is about $100 and then by the time you get the shank and all the fittings you're looking at another $20-$30 or more. The welding shop I use had beer gas in 5 lbs and 15 lbs tanks. I wanted the big one, so I went on Craigslist and found a 20 lbs CO2 tank for $50 and used that as an exchange for the beergas tank, which cost another $30 or so... So I would plan on around $200 at least, maybe more depending on how much a tank cost you, to get up and running if starting from scratch.

Just ran across this great info. Hopefully your still out there for a followup. How long did you allow the process to take using the cab stone? hours, days?
 
Just ran across this great info. Hopefully your still out there for a followup. How long did you allow the process to take using the cab stone? hours, days?

Good question. I've never tried carbing with beergas, but it takes ~18 hrs to carb with a carb stone and pure CO2. I wouldn't imagine it would take too much longer with beergas, but I don't really know.

What line lengths are you guys using for your beer gas run in comparison to what you are using for your normal CO2 lines?

As mentioned in the link above, it doesn't really matter since the restrictor plate in the stout faucet provides the resistance. Obviously not a good idea to make them super long and add excess resistance, but other than that just make them whatever length works best. If there's a chance you won't always be serving a beer on beergas, you might consider making it the same length as your other lines just so you can use it for both if you need to.
 
I plan to us the cheap technique using conventional CO2 described at http://***********/stories/techniques/article/indices/39-kegging/1524-the-nitrogen-effect. Because homebrewers are dealing with smaller volumes, have shorter delivery lines, and don’t have to maintain a constant serving
pressure, we can re-create the nitrogen-pushed authentic English ale effect easily and cheaply, without nitrogen. With a little practice, you can achieve that “cascade” effect when drawing a pint of your favorite traditional English ale.

1) Carb beer to 1.2 volumes.
2) Drill five tiny holes in a food-grade pastic disk the size of a penny. The disk should just fit the inside diameter of your tap faucet.
3) To serve, increase CO2 pressure to 25-30 psi, but keep it there only while you are drawing the beer! Pressure this high would increase the level of carbonation in the beer in time, but in short spurts it won’t hurt anything. Carbon dioxide at 25-30 psi will push the beer through the restrictor and knock tiny bubbles of CO2 out of solution, producing the desired creamy effect.
3) Immediately after pouring a beer, turn the pressure back down to the pressure required to maintain 1.2 volumes of CO2 at your storage temperature.
 
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