Nitro Stout Carbonation - Need Help

[WolfieBrew]

I recently brewed an Oatmeal Stout (http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/654ae6b0/mystic-brewing-dwarven-warrior-oatmeal-stout) as a first beer for my stout faucet. My OG was 1.064 and I fermented at 70F - 72F. Racked to secondary today and the gravity is at 1.018. I was reading a BYO article about achieving the perfect nitrogen pour (http://***********/stories/techniques/article/indices/39-kegging/88-achieving-nitro-nirvana) and my question is about carbonating to 1.2 volumes.

The article says" For example, if a dry stout is fermented at 68 °F (20 °C), it will already have nearly 0.8 volumes of dissolved CO2. Increasing this to the recommended 1.2 volumes would require only a little force carbonation if the beer is chilled to the recommended serving temperature of 43 °F (6 °C)." How can I determine the expected carbonation during fermentation? When I set my desired CO2 level to 1.2 volumes in BeerSmith 2.0, it tells me to carb at 0.0 PSI.

Can anyone with past stout faucet experience steer me in the right direction to help me minimize mistakes and provide a decent stout pour at my party?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[glickmanii]

I ran into a similar problem when I hooked up my stout faucet and beer gas tank; I was never able to find a straightforward answer to "how do i set up a stout faucet?"...

So, after a long time of trial and error, this is what I normally do for anything I'm pouring through the Nitro tap:

First, force carb with regular CO2 to around 10-12psi with the beer already chilled to around 40-45F. I usually do the rock n' roll method of hooking up the CO2, laying the keg on it's side, and rolling it back and forth for 5ish minutes.

Then, put the keg back in the kegerator, hook up your beergas at whatever serving psi you are looking for (I normally use 25-30psi), purge the remaining CO2 from the headspace 2 or 3 times, and let it sit for about a week (ideally, I usually have several "test" pints before a week is up). Normally the first few pints are a little over-carbonated, but that settles out.

For me, with my keezer, a 25/75 beergas mixture, and my 8' length of serving line, this method results in a consistently even pour with a 1" head and a great cascade. That said, I'm sure that you'll need to tweak everything to your particular setup, but hopefully this gives you a starting point. Good Luck!

 

[WolfieBrew]

Glickmanii,

Thank you for the response. I would be interested to hear from a few others to get a few more view points. In reading that article, they make it seem like it would be next to impossible to dispense anything more than foam if the beer is carbed to 12 PSI. The only difference in my setup will be that my liquid line is about 4' in length but it is never exposed to temperatures outside of the keezer - my taps come straight through the collar. Thanks again for the information. I would really like to get close on the first try.

 

[joety]

I ran into a similar problem when I hooked up my stout faucet and beer gas tank; I was never able to find a straightforward answer to "how do i set up a stout faucet?"...

So, after a long time of trial and error, this is what I normally do for anything I'm pouring through the Nitro tap:

First, force carb with regular CO2 to around 10-12psi with the beer already chilled to around 40-45F. I usually do the rock n' roll method of hooking up the CO2, laying the keg on it's side, and rolling it back and forth for 5ish minutes.

Then, put the keg back in the kegerator, hook up your beergas at whatever serving psi you are looking for (I normally use 25-30psi), purge the remaining CO2 from the headspace 2 or 3 times, and let it sit for about a week (ideally, I usually have several "test" pints before a week is up). Normally the first few pints are a little over-carbonated, but that settles out.

For me, with my keezer, a 25/75 beergas mixture, and my 8' length of serving line, this method results in a consistently even pour with a 1" head and a great cascade. That said, I'm sure that you'll need to tweak everything to your particular setup, but hopefully this gives you a starting point. Good Luck!

Sorry for the necropost, but I read this that you are carbing at about 2.0-2.2 volumes. Does that sound about right?

I don't force carbonate as I heard that affects head retention. I can get to 2.0 in about 2 days at 25-30 psi.

 

[masonsjax]

Force carbing has no adverse affect on head retention. Co2 is co2.

2+ volumes is way too high for a nitro tap. It's very easy to overcarb a nitro beer. I usually hit the keg with 30psi straight co2 to seal the lid and give it a little gas to absorb, and connect it up to the beergas at around 30psi. I leave it there and start drinking it. The beer will begin cascading by the end of a week and will be perfect a few days later and stay that way. It's a real pain decarbing when you get full glasses of foam. I'd much rather be patient and do it right the first time.