Serving pale or ipa on nitro, questions

[agrazela]

I get that if serving (and, I suppose, set-and forget carbing?) a stout on 75/25 nitro/CO2, you want to set your regulator to about 4 times what you would for straight CO2 (say, maybe 30-35 psi at 40F) since only the CO2 portion readily dissolves. And use a stout faucet with restrictor plate for the cascading head.

So if you wanted to serve a pale or ipa from your keezer or kegerator on the same gas, do you also carb and serve at ~4x normal (say, maybe 45-50 psi)? Do you also need a stout faucet with restrictor to get any effect from that? Would a flow-control faucet suffice for a non-stout on nitro? A faucet with creamer function?

Related question: if you were to natural carb (or force carb) a keg with straight CO2, whether stout or ipa, then stick it on the nitro at pressures like those above, that would be ok, right?

(I did try web searching all this, but was not satisfied with the chatter!)

 

[zachattack]

You need the stout faucet with restrictor plate, and the carb level needs to be very low or else you'll have a foamy mess. You can't carbonate it higher just because it's an IPA. The function of the stout faucet is to knock out any carbonation as it goes through the restrictor plate (creating the nice cascading head), and the function of the high pressure that N2 provides is to force it through the plate. If there's too much CO2 you'll have foam.

So to answer your questions:

So if you wanted to serve a pale or ipa from your keezer or kegerator on the same gas, do you also carb and serve at ~4x normal (say, maybe 45-50 psi)?

No

Do you also need a stout faucet with restrictor to get any effect from that?

Yes

Would a flow-control faucet suffice for a non-stout on nitro? A faucet with creamer function?

No and no

Related question: if you were to natural carb (or force carb) a keg with straight CO2, whether stout or ipa, then stick it on the nitro at pressures like those above, that would be ok, right?

As long as you keep the carb level ~1.2 volumes. This would be difficult with natural carbonation.

Since the stout faucet just serves to knock out the carbonation, you can achieve similar affects with a syringe:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/free-the-nitro.html

 

[agrazela]

Thank you zachattack, very useful.