Nitrogenating Beer.

[Mosa]

Hey guys. Does anyone here have a nitro setup? I've got the gear, but I've had little luck finding resources on how to nitrogenate my beer. I've seen the guide on BYO's site, but I was wondering if anyone has different methods.

Thanks.

 

[Brett0424]

What kind of nitrogen setup do you have? Are you using beer gas or blending nitrogen? Are you using a stout faucet?

 

[Mosa]

yup, i've got a stout faucet. i'm using the only beer gas i could find locally, which was 70% nitrogen and 30% co2. when i usually read about it, the mix is 75% and 25%. Does the 5% make a big difference?

i've tried nitrogenating it kind of the same way i force carb, except i've got it at 30 psi instead of ~ 10psi. i tried using a diffusion stone that was attached to a hose, that was attached to the gas-in tube inside my keg. but i guess the pressure was too great and the hose blew off of the gas-in outlet. (that'll teach me to use clamps )

my main problem is after 2 days carbing like this, i get no cascading head with the beers. the mouthfeel feels about right though.

 

[Brett0424]

Use hose clamps always! The 70% will make a slight difference but not much. Beer gas ratios vary all over the place. Set the regulator to the same level you would if you were just using c02 when you carb it. The whole point of this is to replace 70% of the carbonation with nitrogen while keeping the beer moving at the higher pressure, in order to push it through the sparkler in the faucet and create that nice head.

 

[Jonnio]

Its very difficult to force carb with beer gas. You need to do that on standard CO2 and then put it on nitrogen to serve. The point behind beer gas is for situations where you need high serving pressure (very long runs in bars, stout handles etc...) you can't just put CO2 on your keg at 30+ psi. You will quickly have overcarbed beer. Replace most of the CO2 with nitrogen, which doesn't go into suspension, and your good to go.

 

[david_42]

Give it a week to carb, because the partial pressure of the CO2 is only 9 psi. It should be fine by then.

 

[Ryan_PA]

Nitrogen is not very soluble in the beer. What I do, and works very well for me, is every day or so for like 10 days, I purge the keg of pressure. This allows more beer gas into the solution through the carb stone, and makes for more contact time.

 

[david_42]

Good idea Ryan, that would speed things up.

 

[olllllo]

This explains it all including 2 methods of carbonation.

Deluxe Homebrew Nitrogen System

 

[Mosa]

thanks for the help guys! i'll give it a shot and see how it goes. i didn't realize it when i put the keg away for the night, but i must have loosened the pressure relief valve accidentally. so i had a bit of a surprise, and lots of cleanup work this morning. that'll teach me.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/data/1/medium/photo2.jpg

 

[Moonshae]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but does the 5' of 3/16" beer line work properly (as described by the "deluxe" instructions posted above)? I have my "normal" lines at 10' and am wondering if 5' is necessary or if 10' is ok without jacking the pressure above 25 psi to compensate. I'll be carbing with CO2 then dispensing with beer gas though a stout faucet.

 

[farmbrewernw]

+1 for force carbing with CO2 and them pushing with beer gas.