Carbing Issues

So I used up my first tank of CO2, and had very good luck with force carbing my beers up to that point. I went to the local "Pub Gas" outlet and he filled the tank with CO2, then filled it MORE with Nitrogen. Seemed almost half and half, the time the valve was open and gas was flowing.

Now I find it nearly impossible to get good carbing in my beers, they are lightly carbonated and have a decent head, but the beer itself has very small bubbles and very few of them.

I force carb by initially giving the keg a blast at 30 psi to seal the lid etc, and then let most of the pressure off, just to purge the oxygen, then condition at room temp for at least 2 weeks. Then it goes into cold conditioning for a couple more weeks, and finally I hit it with 30 PSI and rock the keg back and fort in my lap for a few minutes. I repeat this 4 times and put teh keg back into cold conditioning for another 2 weeks. THe keg is unsually over carbed when I go to serve it, but I just release all the pressure, give it a bit of rock back and forth and serve 5-6 pints. Then I put gas to it at aroun 8psi and it's usually all good.

This new gas is giving me some grief. Anyone else have issues with Nitrogen in their gas bottle?

Nitrogen is much less soluble in beer than is CO2. So if you're doing everything the same as you did with CO2, you'll get less "carbonation" with the beer gas mix.

You'll need to boost your PSI.

Hi,
Personally I recommend using a separate nitrogen bottle with a stout tap to mix the two gasses if you really need a Guinness like draft experience.

Mixed CO2 and nitrogen in a single bottle can be spotty for just the reason you describe - the nitrogen is not soluble in the beer and needs higher pressures than desired both for CO2 and proper pouring.

For my money, I might just go back and purge the tank and have it filled with CO2 (it usually does not cost that much to fill a tank). That would be easier than struggling with the mix.

Cheers,
Brad

In order to know what PSI you will need to carbonate at you will need to know a few things: What level of carbonation do you want, what temperature is your beer at during carbonation and what percentage of your pressure is Nitrogen rather than co2. If they are indeed putting nitrogen in your tank you need to find out how much, then consult a carbonation chart and compensate for the amount of nitrogen in your tank. For example...if your tank is 75% nitro you will need to find your desired carbonation PSI on the chart and multiply it by FOUR. If you are half and half 30 psi at an average chill level seems right (if not a little high)...BUT I don't know what your actual temperature, desired carbonation OR percentage of c02 is so there's no way to tell.

I carb at 3°C (37°F) Desired carbonation is.. well the correct amount of carbonation for a standard lager I guess. Percentage of Nitrogen is ... no flockin idea... Must be quite a bit, as I just cannot get a god carb. I am now trying it at 40PSI and shaking the **** out of it 3 days in a row...

I would just purge it and rrefill it, but it's $65 to fill it here. I may have to resort to priming with sugar for carbonation, and just use the nitro/C02 combo to dispense it. Once theis bottle is gone, I will never get nitrogen again. I only did it because that was how the guy filled it and I didn't know any better

Other option is to just get another bottle.

Kicking it up a notch. Pumped the pressure up to 60PSI and will leave it like that for 24 hours, then give it a shake and wait another 24 to see what happens.

Another problem is eventually the headspace in the keg is almost all N2, so you can't get any more CO2 into the keg. A typical mix is 75% N2.

There has to be a way to get a rough estimate of the ratio. Do you have a separate gage for measuring gas pressure? I've got one attached to a gas connector, which is useful for monitoring primed kegs. My first thoughts are you could measure the keg pressure, then vent the headspace. Shake it to out-gas CO2 until the headspace equalizes with the beer. Measure the remaining pressure. Divide that number by the original pressure & it should be close to the CO2 percentage.

Doesn't help with the basic problem though.

still no luck. I will either purge teh bottle and refill with C02 only, ot buy another bottle full of C01 for carbing and use this one I already have just for dispensing until it's empty. This really shlts me, because I went tot eh "Pub Gas" retailer and expected him to know what was best.

Time to buy a stout faucet & come over to the really dark side.

david_42 said:

Time to buy a stout faucet & come over to the really dark side.

Click to expand...

Stop teasing me...

I rang the pub gas place where I got the bottle filled and told him what was happening ( or what wasn't happening is more like it), and he agreed to purge it and refill it with C02 only. He said he only adds nitrogen to the tanks because he can fill them fuller? Like once it's full of C02, he can put more gas into the bottle if he adds nitrogen? Not sure why that is, but if i were only using this bottle to serve beer, I would be happy with it. Oh well, at least I will have the bottle back for the weekend, I have 4 kegs to force carb.