Beer Gas Blender Questions!

[luis84]

Hi fellow home brewers ... I need a bit of advice and i'd appreciate it! I want to be able to pour stouts and ales with beer gas. I already have 6 co2 taps that work well and 2 nitro head taps but I can't find beergas around here. Airgas and Arc don't sell it (I live in a rural part of VA).

Anyway, I can get pure nitrogen and pure co2.... so, I found a Micro Matic Gas Blender, the MM100 which blends at 70/30 @ 50psi output.

I have a few questions many some of you can help out with though:

1. To distribute this can I use a regular co2 manifold or do I need a special higher pressure nitrogen manifold?

2. I should use braided lines and not standard air tubing due to the higher pressure on the gas side, right?

3. Are the beer beverage tubing elements the same, nothing special here?

4. If I use a gas blender, I need high pressure regulators on both my co2 and nitro tanks, I got those -- on the actual output do I need any type of regulation or should 50 psi it outputs go straight to the keg?

Thanks for any help!

 

[mredge73]

Is this a business; how long does your kegs last before being changed out?
Nitrogen is used to dispense beer at high pressure without adding carbonation.
You really don't need the blends if your beer is already carbonated.
With straight nitrogen you will loose very little carbonation as long as you keep it cold.

1. Most beer regulators max at 30psi, you are probably going to want to distribute at 25psi. You should be fine.
2. The gas side will be no more than 35psi, your air lines are probably good for well over 100psi.
3. You should be ok.
4. You don't want to serve at 50psi. You want 25-35psi depending on the brand of Stout faucet that you are using.

 

[bfish]

At a growler shop that I used to work, we had a McDantim 60/40 blender/mixer.

I believe we pushed 30 psi on around 1/2" or 3/4" braid hose to a secondary regulator (I assume nitrogen, not CO2).

From the secondary, it was a run of about 5 ft with regular beer hose (3/16" I believe) to the keg. The beer line from the keg ran about 20 ft (and over the interior roof of the walk-in-cooler) and was also 3/16".

The secondary regulator was set around 20 psi, but we would vary + or - 3 psi depending on the receiving keg.