An alternative to buying beer gas?

[AlexKay]

I'm thinking about setting up a small keezer for nitrogen-dispensed beers. The straightforward approach would be to buy a cylinder of beer gas and a regulator and hook it up. However I already am running tanks of CO2 (for beer) and N2 (for iced tea and coffee). What if I ...

1. set up secondary regulators and set pressures for CO2 (low) and N2 (high),
2. put solenoid valves on each of these lines,
3. mounted a switch on the front of the keezer with "carbonate" and "dispense" settings that opened CO2 and N2, or even
4. a third setting to use between pours that alternated between CO2 and N2 on a timer (because my keezer needs a '555).

Is this crazy or stupid? I'd save a couple hundred bucks, plus I really don't have anywhere to put an extra cylinder.

As an aside, what faucets do people like for dispensing nitro beers? There are a bunch of threads already, but I didn't find anything too recent, so if there's something new on the market ...

 

[Dr_Jeff]

They make a special valve that does that, and some allow one to set the blend rate. (Perlick makes one)

I believe that what you propose, would just be a bunch of continual headaches.

Typically a stout faucet is used for nitro beers and it has a diffuser plate in it.
Intertap makes a stout faucet adapter for their faucets, that might be cheaper, uncertain as to how well they work.

 

[day_trippr]

Many companies make blenders, but they're all extravagantly priced, imo. For domestic purposes I don't see a blender making cost-effective sense vs just buying the desired blend.

In that regards, I've been keeping a nitro double imperial chocolate stout continuously on tap for over a decade, typically dispensing 20 gallons of it per annum, and with a 40cf mixed gas cga580 cylinder have only filled it three times over that period. That math doesn't rationalize a blender very well...

Cheers!

 

[AlexKay]

Many companies make blenders, but they're all extravagantly priced, imo. For domestic purposes I don't see a blender making cost-effective sense vs just buying the desired blend.

In that regards, I've been keeping a nitro double imperial chocolate stout continuously on tap for over a decade, typically dispensing 20 gallons of it per annum, and with a 40cf mixed gas cga580 cylinder have only filled it three times over that period. That math doesn't rationalize a blender very well...

Cheers!

Bought a 40 cf 75/25 N2/CO2 tank this afternoon. Just need to settle on what kind of stout faucets to get...

 

[day_trippr]

Fortunately, there aren't that many to pick from.
fwiw, I have a Micromatic. It's a massive hunk of stainless steel, a war club of a faucet.

It uses a proprietary "gland" to seal the guts. Looks like this:

The original breached after ~9 years, fortunately during a pour, but that set off a Keystone Kops recovery that my wife still remembers - decidedly not fondly
Other than that drama it's a marvel of consistency and pour quality...

Cheers!

 

[Greatlefty300]

Bought a 40 cf 75/25 N2/CO2 tank this afternoon. Just need to settle on what kind of stout faucets to get...

Just curious how long that 4cf lasts. I used a 20 cf and got about 8 pints before the tank was empty. Or maybe I had a leak ? Thoughts ?

 

[day_trippr]

You had a massive leak. 20 cf should dispense numerous kegs...

Cheers!

 

[spittybug]

I've used beer gas for years to dispense my stouts. My 80cuft (tall guy) steel tank somehow or another developed a leak at the valve handle. In checking the stamps on it, it looks like it has been recertified over and over since 1957!! It will need it again, plus a fix to the valve. I can't just swap it as it is Linde while my local distributor is Matheson. I also don't like the big $$ associated with beer gas.

I would much rather buy a small tank and fill it with nitrogen. So long as I fully carbonate the beer first, I should just be able to simply dispense with nitrogen, shouldn't I? Or will the CO2 end up coming out of the beer and into the keg head space, even with 30psi of nitrogen on it? I've long since forgotten the laws of partial pressures etc.....

 

[DuncB]

Could look at the Nitrobrew system. Expensive to start but then buy no beer gas ever. Beer gas seems exorbitantly priced here so it's a viable option for me and gives me an excuse to buy a small compressor.

 

[doug293cz]

Or will the CO2 end up coming out of the beer and into the keg head space, even with 30psi of nitrogen on it?

Yes, you will lose carbonation to the headspace as the headspace volume increases. The two gases behave independently of each other - the CO2 doesn't know the N2 is there.

Brew on

 

[day_trippr]

^That said^, I've been dispensing imperial stout through a dedicated stout faucet using 70/30 beer gas @30-35 psi, carbonate the kegs to 1.2 volumes on straight CO2 before putting them on tap, and have always found the pour character to be remarkably consistent to the last drop.

I use a "10 pound" steel cylinder, fwiw, which lasts for at least four full kegs...

Cheers!