Best Faucet for Beer Gas Oatmeal Stout?

[Clint Yeastwood]

I am crazy in love with the oatmeal stout I made, but I am not sure I'm doing it justice.

When I picked a stout faucet, I just went to Amazon and picked one with good reviews. Is it actually any good? No idea. The one I bought is from Kegworks, and it costs $48.00. Web says the real manufacturer is a company called Krome.

Is there a great stout faucet out there I should be considering?

I had some trouble carbonating this stout. I made an error and turned the beer gas up to 60 for a day when I thought I was turning it down. That was a while back. Tons of foam on top of flat stout. Afterward, I shut the gas off and burped the keg a lot, and then I moved it to about 32 psi.

Now, the stout is wonderful, BUT I am not sure I'm doing it as well as it should be done. When I pour it, I get about half an inch of dark stout in the bottom of the glass, and after a few minutes, it settles with about three fingers of foam. The stout is not flat, but I wonder if I should be getting less foam.

I guess I need to know if it's normal for some oatmeal stouts to have that much head when served correctly. If not, I wonder if I should look at another faucet, shorten the line, or consider a flow control disconnect.

 

[AlexKay]

I am crazy in love with the oatmeal stout I made, but I am not sure I'm doing it justice.

When I picked a stout faucet, I just went to Amazon and picked one with good reviews. Is it actually any good? No idea. The one I bought is from Kegworks, and it costs $48.00. Web says the real manufacturer is a company called Krome.

Is there a great stout faucet out there I should be considering?

I had some trouble carbonating this stout. I made an error and turned the beer gas up to 60 for a day when I thought I was turning it down. That was a while back. Tons of foam on top of flat stout. Afterward, I shut the gas off and burped the keg a lot, and then I moved it to about 32 psi.

Now, the stout is wonderful, BUT I am not sure I'm doing it as well as it should be done. When I pour it, I get about half an inch of dark stout in the bottom of the glass, and after a few minutes, it settles with about three fingers of foam. The stout is not flat, but I wonder if I should be getting less foam.

I guess I need to know if it's normal for some oatmeal stouts to have that much head when served correctly. If not, I wonder if I should look at another faucet, shorten the line, or consider a flow control disconnect.

View attachment 813677

You do not want a long line (at all). You do not want a flow-control disconnect. All the restriction should come from the faucet already.

I have these on my nitro keezer, and have no complaints.

A stout pour is really a process, mostly foam at first, with bubbles cascading down the outside of the glass. If you want to troubleshoot, post a video of your pour!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

What line length has worked for you? My keezer is a forest of lines.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I decided I should actually check my line length, because it is pointless to ask people questions if I have no idea what I'm doing already. Sorry about that. It turns out it's very short. Under a yard.

The stout is fine once it settles. It just has a lot of thick, fine, sturdy foam.

 

[AlexKay]

Less than a yard is good.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

It would be interesting to hear if other people have had good experiences with Kegworks/Krome faucets. I doubt there is anything wrong with them, but this is only the second stout faucet I've owned in 20 years, so I am no expert.

This stout is crazy good. What a pleasure it is to find something I like better than Murphy's, without buying Old Rasputin and getting cirrhosis from the ABV. Old Rasputin is a more intense experience, but if you drink two of them in three hours, it's time to hide the car keys from yourself, put on your Star Wars pajamas, and go dance among the stars with the sandman.

 

[day_trippr]

Your stout may simply have too much carbonation...

Cheers!

 

[Bobby_M]

It's just a little overcarbonated. The faucet is fine.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

It was certainly overcarbonated to begin with, but I'm also interested in finding out whether the huge head could be normal for the recipe. I tried pretty hard to get the excess gas out.

I don't know how a person would go about finding out how much gas is in a beer. Maybe I could pour some into a glass with a picnic tap and the gas shut off.

A second batch will be ready in a few days, so if I can avoid turning it up to 60, I guess I'll see what this beer looks like when I don't make mistakes.

 

[day_trippr]

Once a beer is overcarbed it can be difficult to correct, so the key is to know exactly what your carbonation target is and make sure not to do anything that would push beyond that - which pretty much comes down to the simple combination of temperature and pressure used vs any carbonation table.

As I have mentioned, I shoot for 1.2 volumes for my stout and make sure not to subject it to any temperature/pressure combo that could possibly take it beyond that target. That makes it simple to know what the carbonation level is once it's reached equilibrium - which takes a few weeks doing the "set and forget" steady pressure strategy...

Cheers!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I saw someone talking about using a spunding valve with a gauge.

I really can't see putting a flat keg in the keezer and doing without stout for days while it carbonates. I'd like to have the next keg ready to go before connecting the faucet.

 

[passedpawn]

I have an oatmeal stout on tap. Perlick 650ss (flow control). I have no problem at all serving out of it. I'll try to take a video.

 

[passedpawn]

I have an oatmeal stout on tap. Perlick 650ss (flow control). I have no problem at all serving out of it. I'll try to take a video.

Not the easiest thing to do one-handed.

 

[passedpawn]

My tap is glycol chilled, so that probably helps.

 

[day_trippr]

Not sure comparing a CO2-pushed stout pour through a conventional faucet with one being blasted through an actual stout faucet by beer gas at 30-something PSI is meaningful...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

I really can't see putting a flat keg in the keezer and doing without stout for days while it carbonates.

Yeah, I don't do that. I have the infrastructure and a pipeline that allows me to carbonate everything outside of the keezer. Only properly carbonated kegs go in the keezer and the pipeline provides sufficient overlap so taps never go unused...

Cheers!

 

[SkyPie4321]

First, what's the recipe? I am always on the hunt for a good oatmeal stout.

I have a nukatap with the stout adapter. That works well, but any stout faucet should be fine.

The pic looks over-carbonated. It's a delicate balance to carb for nitro. 1.2 volumes of co2 at 36F is minus 3psig. Bump the temp up to 60, and it turns into a measurable 4.5 psig. Force carbing warm makes it easier to hit without going over. I take the lazy way and hit it with 20psi of co2 while it is cooling down for 12 hours. Then on the nitro and let it sit cold for a week or so. It usually comes out ok. The difference between an almost flat stout and a properly carbed stout is not much, so it's better to work up to it then go over.

I run 75/25 beer gas at around 25psi. If I notice the carbonation level creeping up I will drop the pressure slightly and deal with a couple slow pours until it gets better.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I don't know if I'm a good person to recommend recipes. I think this stout is terrific, but there are so many people here who know much more than I do. A stout that seems fantastic to me might be a C to most people here.

 

[camonick]

There is a huge difference in the way a “nitro” stout (à la Guinness / Murphy’s / Left Hand) tastes, looks and feels compared to a more traditional CO2 carbonated stout like a RIS or a Guinness Foreign Extra. A nitro stout needs very little carbonation and will essentially be “flat” when it’s served. I assume from your description above that this is the faucet you bought… Amazon.com
That is a standard nitro faucet that will serve you well. The line length for a beer served through a nitro (stout) faucet is more or less a moot point because of how the system works. The lightly carbonated stout is forced at a relatively high pressure through the restrictor plate
that strips the small amount of CO2 out of solution, creating the cascading pour with the tight creamy head we are so familiar with. The beer gets it’s smooth creamy mouthfeel (along with certain ingredients) through this process, as opposed to the more harsh carbonic bite associated with the other more traditionally carbonated beers mentioned. Use whatever line length works best for your situation (2-4 feet) , as it really doesn’t matter. Fiddling with the proper regulator pressure is kind of tricky depending on the exact mixture of beer gas you have and a few other variables. I’ve heard a range of 25-35 psi from most people, again, depending on gas mixture and keg temperature.
TL/DR:
Too much carbonation through a stout faucet doesn’t work at all. The lower the initial carbonation, the better in my experience. I don’t even try to carbonate my nitro stouts and just leave them on serving pressure (30-32 psi with 75/25) for a couple weeks until I start pouring them.