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Hwk-I-St8

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Got a regulator, got the stout tip for the intertap, got my beer gas today. 12% RIS with vanilla, cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg is chilling and carbing now.
It's on 30 PSI CO2 now, will switch to beer gas Sunday. Think we can sample Monday, but these thick, viscous stouts always carb slowly....
 
I only carb at 35psi for 24hrs for my nitro beers. Mine are only normal strength though. Nitro is awesome

19C88253-330B-40E5-BC6D-952F66F0AAC5.jpeg
 
fwiw, I shoot for 1.2 volumes on straight CO2 before moving my stouts to the keezer and 35 psi 70/30 beer gas.
Anything above 1.4 volumes was way too foamy out of a stout faucet...

Cheers!
 
fwiw, I shoot for 1.2 volumes on straight CO2 before moving my stouts to the keezer and 35 psi 70/30 beer gas.
Anything above 1.4 volumes was way too foamy out of a stout faucet...

Cheers!
Question: Ive read the force carb charts and use them for all my kegged beers, but what I haven't seen is how you now you are at a particular volume of carbonation at "x" time period. So how do you know when you are at 1.2 volumes? Do you start with higher PSI on straight CO2 and just assume you are at 1.2 after "x" days? I feel like Ive missed something obvious here. Thanks.
 
So as our favorite carbonation table shows, it is actually a bit difficult to carbonate beer to that low a level - unless you do it at "room" temperature (say, 60-something degrees). Trying to do it colder means splitting that one tiny PSI smaller and smaller - and most gas regulators aren't all that precise when operated at the margins.

On the up side, most beers come out of fermentation with a "native" carbonation in the .6 to .8 volume range (aside from hot fermented beers) which means one only has to gain a handful of volume points to get to the goal.

So...I do 10 gallon batches, and park the pair of kegs in the basement on 4 psi for a couple of weeks. That has historically worked very well...

Cheers!
 
What i have found that works for me is holding 10psi for 10 to 12 days at 55f in my fv. Transfer to my keg and hook up to gas blend . The next day it pours perfectly.
 
i'm still being amazed that the point of all this nitro stuff, is to pour flat beer....lol....before HBT, i thought nitrogen just made smaller bubbles....
 
ok ok, i gotta jump in....

Just brewed an Irish Espresso Stout, it is in the fermentor and the wife is asking, "is it going to be a nitro". Hmmm, I would need a stout faucet, nitro tank and regulator....

But now reading this thread, i just need, BEER GAS and a stout spout from intertap <i have nukas>????? So if that is the case can I use a regular Co2 tank and a standard regulator? Also is it 70 Co2 and 30 nitro?
 
ok ok, i gotta jump in....

Just brewed an Irish Espresso Stout, it is in the fermentor and the wife is asking, "is it going to be a nitro". Hmmm, I would need a stout faucet, nitro tank and regulator....

But now reading this thread, i just need, BEER GAS and a stout spout from intertap <i have nukas>????? So if that is the case can I use a regular Co2 tank and a standard regulator? Also is it 70 Co2 and 30 nitro?

If you have intertap faucets , then yes you can buy the stout tip. Beer gas comes in a different tank then co2. I have 75% 25%. I have a specific regulator for that tank as well. I think its different then the regular co2 tanks .
 
I use disposable nitrogen bottles to dispense. Carb with c02, then switch to nitrogen to serve through the stout nozzle of my nukatap
 
If you can find the right " gas man " then they will fill a CO2 cylinder with beer gas and then you can use a good CO2 regulator on it. The Kegland MK IV is suitable for this and I use it this way.
If you can't get a CO2 cylinder filled with beer gas then you need a beer gas cylinder and they have a different attachment on them so you need a different regulator or a stem swap on your regulator. I tried the stem swap but couldn't manage it for my Oxygen cylinder and had to get a new regulator.

You can't really use just nitrogen except very short term and then go back on CO2

Suggest this thread

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...kegerator-for-any-beer-instead-of-co2.691772/
 
Can you elaborate on the “disposable bottles” what do we need to do that?

It’s a relatively cheap way of nitro serving. I’m not sure where you are, but here in Oz the smallest nitrogen bottle to rent is massive, so lots of people will carb up ( lightly ) with C02. Once carbed, change over to a disposable nitrogen bottle ( around 1.5kg ) and use that to serve through the stout nozzle. When you’ve finished for the day, take the nitrogen off, bleed the keg, and put the C02 back on so the beer stays carbed.

keg land sells disposable nitrogen bottles here in Oz.
 
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You need a regulator but you can buy them too.
For me, the convenience of this setup is better than renting a huge bottle of mixed nitro/C02, though if I drank only nitro beer, it’d probably be worth it.
 
It uses a lot of nitrogen that method as you keep throwing away the nitrogen in the head space. Why not just force some CO2 in at higher pressure once the nitro session is over. You'd use less Nitrogen that way after all beer gas is a mix of Nitrogen and CO2. If you leave just nitrogen above, the CO2 would come out of solution to balance in the headspace. Why not just add some CO2 into your Nitrogen head space.
@TsunamiMike appears to be in a place called Cleveland Ohio. It's small town USA!!
 
It uses a lot of nitrogen that method as you keep throwing away the nitrogen in the head space. Why not just force some CO2 in at higher pressure once the nitro session is over. You'd use less Nitrogen that way after all beer gas is a mix of Nitrogen and CO2. If you leave just nitrogen above, the CO2 would come out of solution to balance in the headspace. Why not just add some CO2 into your Nitrogen head space.
@TsunamiMike appears to be in a place called Cleveland Ohio. It's small town USA!!

You waste the head space nitrogen definitely, though I get a couple of kegs out of the small bottles. I’m more than happy with that, it’s much cheaper than a big beer gas tank, and its pretty easy to switch back to CO2 when I’ve had my last pint of beer.

If I know I’ll be drinking more pints the next day, I just leave the nitro on, it takes a few days for the carb to drop.
 
So beergas, I assume I can use that on any style and my stouts? I have a Taprite dual pressure Co2 regulator and only a co2 tank. Just trying to do this the most cost effective way
 
Interesting question. I keep a wheat beer, an imperial nitro stout, and four other beers which of late (the last three years really) have been dominated by New England IPAs and WCIPAs, 3:1 respectively. Only the stout is dispensed on 70/30 beer gas. But I have read of folks using beer gas on IPAs, for instance. My concern is frequency of refilling my 10 pound beer gas cylinder if I use it for more than the imperial chocolate stout I keep on tap. For that, I get a couple of years out of a fill....

Cheers!
 
@TsunamiMike You could dispense with beer gas all the way I suppose and some pubs do. But it changes the character of the beverage. Even the same stout if you had one tap running on CO2 and another set up with beer gas for the same stout ( different keg of course) they really would be a different experience. I've had some IPA on beer gas and was underwhelmed, blanketing the beer in thick foam doesn't let flavour or aroma flood out and the beer is much flatter. Those little bubbles of CO2 coming to the surface bring aroma as well as CO2 and they change the beer pH a bit.
The most cost effective way is to use CO2 for all the beers. As one regulator and then a manifold ( splitting the gas lines) to the kegs will work for all.
New Gas means new separate regulator, new cylinder separate lines, new tap. That's the budget.
You get more pours per CO2 cylinder than you do with beer gas.

@Twinkeelfool What pressure do you run in the Nitrogen at when you use it to serve?
 
@TsunamiMike
The cheapest way to get the headed stout effect is to use the ultrasonic jewellery cleaner method and a low carbed CO2 pour.
Plenty of videos of how to do this on the web. After all the Nitrogen adds nothing to the product you drink it just gets it there in style!

Guinness did make these gadgets ( surgers ) for a while but they are a rarity and expensive now. Aliexpress has them quite cheap, apparently a big tall head on the beer is something the Japanese really like. I prefer beer in my glass. But they do have these surger units and they are reasonably priced, if you don't want to get a jewellery cleaner!
It's like those Side taps that some people are raving about. It's just a Stout adapter on tap that is controlled with a ball valve rather than the on off that the normal beer taps have. I fail to see why 3 different types of head on my Czech lager makes it better ( Svetle, Polotmavy, or Tmavy).
But horses for courses.
 
@TsunamiMike You could dispense with beer gas all the way I suppose and some pubs do. But it changes the character of the beverage. Even the same stout if you had one tap running on CO2 and another set up with beer gas for the same stout ( different keg of course) they really would be a different experience. I've had some IPA on beer gas and was underwhelmed, blanketing the beer in thick foam doesn't let flavour or aroma flood out and the beer is much flatter. Those little bubbles of CO2 coming to the surface bring aroma as well as CO2 and they change the beer pH a bit.
The most cost effective way is to use CO2 for all the beers. As one regulator and then a manifold ( splitting the gas lines) to the kegs will work for all.
New Gas means new separate regulator, new cylinder separate lines, new tap. That's the budget.
You get more pours per CO2 cylinder than you do with beer gas.

@Twinkeelfool What pressure do you run in the Nitrogen at when you use it to serve?
20-25 psi depending on the carb of the beer
 
@TsunamiMike
The Kegland MK IV is suitable for this and I use it this way.
If you can't get a CO2 cylinder filled with beer gas then you need a beer gas cylinder and they have a different attachment on them so you need a different regulator or a stem swap on your regulator. I tried the stem swap but couldn't manage it for my Oxygen cylinder and had to get a new regulator.
It is the same gauge so yes they do work the same but will read a bit higher as there is more pressure in the cylinder.
 
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