new nitro setup - no cascade and not a lot of head

Good Morning:

I was hoping that I could get some help troubleshooting my new nitrogen setup. When I pour a glass of dry stout I am not getting the cascade effect and the foam head is not nearly as thick and creamy as a guiness for example.

Here is what I have done so far.

Primed my stout in the keg with .75 oz of corn sugar and let it sit for 2 weeks at 70+ degrees. Hooked it up to the beer gas and set the PSI to 30. Let it sit 24 hours in the kegerator at approx. 40F. My corney's and gas all fit in my kegerator.

Pour a glass and it tastes great and definitely has some of the nitrogen foam, but so little compared to guiness.

What should I change to get fix this. I have very little experience when it comes to nitrogen setups.

Thanks in Advance.

Brad

You could probably use a couple more points of carbonation for one. Do you have a Stout faucet with the restriction plate in the nozzle? Is your nitrogen tank 100% nitrogen, or is it the mix? If it's a mix, what percentages?

Carb it with CO2 as you would with any keg and just use the Nitro (aka Beer gas mixture) to serve it.

mmurray said:

Carb it with CO2 as you would with any keg and just use the Nitro (aka Beer gas mixture) to serve it.

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Beers served through a stout faucet should not be carbonated to normal volumes or you will get a bunch of foam.

ODaniel said:

You could probably use a couple more points of carbonation for one. Do you have a Stout faucet with the restriction plate in the nozzle? Is your nitrogen tank 100% nitrogen, or is it the mix? If it's a mix, what percentages?

Click to expand...

I carbed it with priming sugar (.75 oz for approx. 1.2 volumes of CO2). CO2 level seems to be about right for a dry stout. I'm using beer gas. I asked for 75%, 25% mix, however it's possible they messed up when filling it and it's 80%, 20%. I don't know for certain.

I have a stout faucet with the restrictor plate.

I turned up the psi to about 38 and it seems to cascade a little bit better and maintain a head of about 1/4 inch, but it still isn't close to a beautiful guinness pour.

Anything else I can try?

What temp did it condition at? I have a feeling it's less than 1.2 volumes. Beersmith says 64*F and .75oz will equal 1.2volumes, but I don't know how accurate that is.

How long are your lines? Nitro setup is difficult to nail down the perfect pour. I've seen numerous videos with terrible pours (including Northern Brewers setup). Everything needs to be perfect. Right now it seems like it's undercarbed, especially with you going up to 38psi. You can try bursting it with a little CO2 for a day - I don't even know at what psi and for how long, but just don't overcarb it. Or you can keep it hooked up to the beer gas at 30psi for a week or 2 and let the 25% CO2 carbonate it. I have done this with flat (just kegged) Stout - let it sit for weeks and it got better each week.

Let me know how it goes.

I need a better camera to video this, but here is mine. Not perfect, but pretty close.

ODaniel said:

Beers served through a stout faucet should not be carbonated to normal volumes or you will get a bunch of foam.

Click to expand...

I was suggesting he Carb it with CO2 only to actually "CARB" the beer like commercial breweries do. Then use the Beer Gas to serve with.

Force carbing it would be tricky. If you use the carbonation chart it would need to be under 1psi cold, or you would have to carbonate at room temp, and it would probably take a little while to equalize anyway. Apparently Guinness naturally carbonates their kegs, according to a BYO article. I prefer to naturally carbonate, and have carbonated by the beer gas alone, but if anyone wants to experiment go for it.

I had the same problem. It turns out I was undercarbed. Put it back on co2 for a week or so at 7 psi at 50 deg, then put it back on G gas and had nice cascade action and head. Shoot for 1.6-2.0 vol co2. Your 1.2 seems a bit low.