Stout Faucet Newb Question

[microbusbrewery]

I just ordered a Stainless Steel Stout faucet from adventures in homebrewing (http://www.homebrewing.org/SS-Stout-Faucet_p_805.html). It's a stainless steel stout faucet on sale for 30% off, so I figured it was too good a deal to pass up.

I currently have a three tap kegerator with Perlick faucets. My question is, do you need different lengths of beverage tube for use with the stout faucet or does the restrictor disc compensate for the higher serving pressures used with nitro beers. I'm hoping I can simply swap out one of the Perlicks for the stout faucet whenever I have a nitro beer ready to go.

 

[Peter_h]

Do you have a beer gas tank and regulator?

Line length does not matter for a nitro setup as long as you have a stout faucet with the restrictor plate and are pushing with the correct PSI via beer gas.

 

[Ricand]

You are correct in that the plate compensates for balancing the lines.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Awesome, thanks for the info guys. I don't have a beergas tank or regulator yet. I'm checking with some of the local suppliers to see if they have good deals on bottles and/or if they have an exchange program. I have my own CO2 bottle but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check into an exchange program for the beergas.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

I don't have a stout tap or have any personal experience with nitro/beergas, but I've read a lot of posts on here saying that the plate is what gives the beer that creamy pour, not the gas. Not sure how much truth there is to that, but seems like it might be worth looking into in case it's true. I'm sure there's at least a slight difference in using beergas, but I'm not sure how big of a difference it is and if that's worth having a whole other tank, regulator, line, etc.

 

[Peter_h]

I don't have a stout tap or have any personal experience with nitro/beergas, but I've read a lot of posts on here saying that the plate is what gives the beer that creamy pour, not the gas. Not sure how much truth there is to that, but seems like it might be worth looking into in case it's true. I'm sure there's at least a slight difference in using beergas, but I'm not sure how big of a difference it is and if that's worth having a whole other tank, regulator, line, etc.

I have a stout tap and I have a beer gas setup.

It's a combination of the stout faucet and beer gas that makes it work. You can not have one without the other.

The restrictor plate is what gives it the creamy cascading pour but you need high pressure (25-35psi) to be able to force the beer through it or it just dribbles at the faucet and creates a glass of slow pouring foam.

You also can't just hook up the CO2 to the stout faucet and bump up the psi or you will overcarb the beer.

That's why you run beer gas. So you can run high pressure but the C02 is blended at a much lower percentage (10-25%) to keep the beer from over carbing. The nitrogen is not solubable in the beer, it is simply there to push the beer through.

 

[Lost]

I have a stout tap and I have a beer gas setup.

It's a combination of the stout faucet and beer gas that makes it work. You can not have one without the other.

The restrictor plate is what gives it the creamy cascading pour but you need high pressure (25-35psi) to be able to force the beer through it or it just dribbles at the faucet and creates a glass of slow pouring foam.

You also can't just hook up the CO2 to the stout faucet and bump up the psi or you will overcarb the beer.

That's why you run beer gas. So you can run high pressure but the C02 is blended at a much lower percentage (10-25%) to keep the beer from over carbing. The nitrogen is not solubable in the beer, it is simply there to push the beer through.

+1

You can swap the stout faucet in as necessary. Pressure should be around 30psi on the beer gas but could be less if a shorter line were used.

In my experience it is trial and error getting the beergas pressure right given your particular setup.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Again, great info so thank you all for the replies. Ok, so a follow-up question. Just out of curiosity, if you have a stout faucet/beergas setup at home, how often do you guys have a nitro beer on tap...most of the time or is it more seasonal for you?

 

[Peter_h]

I have 5 taps. 1 tap is dedicated to the nitro setup. So far, i have always had a stout on tap that i push through the nitro setup.

 

[beaksnbeer]

Two keg mini fridge dual stout tap set up Russian Imp. and Milk stout.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

I have a stout tap and I have a beer gas setup.

It's a combination of the stout faucet and beer gas that makes it work. You can not have one without the other.

The restrictor plate is what gives it the creamy cascading pour but you need high pressure (25-35psi) to be able to force the beer through it or it just dribbles at the faucet and creates a glass of slow pouring foam.

You also can't just hook up the CO2 to the stout faucet and bump up the psi or you will overcarb the beer.

That's why you run beer gas. So you can run high pressure but the C02 is blended at a much lower percentage (10-25%) to keep the beer from over carbing. The nitrogen is not solubable in the beer, it is simply there to push the beer through.

Good to know. So basically, if I were to add a stout tap, in addition to the actual faucet, all I'd need would be a separate tank/regulator for the beer gas?

 

[Lost]

Good to know. So basically, if I were to add a stout tap, in addition to the actual faucet, all I'd need would be a separate tank/regulator for the beer gas?

Most places use co2 tanks for the beer gas so you could just have your empty co2 tank filled with beer gas and be good to go. You just couldn't have a co2 served beer on tap at the same time if you only have one tank and regulator.

This would be a cheap way to try it out and see if it is worth investing in another tank and regulator.

 

[Peter_h]

Most places use co2 tanks for the beer gas so you could just have your empty co2 tank filled with beer gas and be good to go. You just couldn't have a co2 served beer on tap at the same time if you only have one tank and regulator.

This would be a cheap way to try it out and see if it is worth investing in another tank and regulator.

I don't recommend this. Almost every place in my town will not fill a tank with straight CO2 once your CO2 tank has been filled with beer gas.

It was explained to me like this, you can take a CO2 tank and fill it with beer gas and use it for beer gas. However, once a tank has been filled with beer gas, you can't go back to straight CO2.

 

[Peter_h]

Good to know. So basically, if I were to add a stout tap, in addition to the actual faucet, all I'd need would be a separate tank/regulator for the beer gas?

I think you are confusing a tap and faucet for two different things when they are the same thing in this thread.

To answer your question, if you have a stout faucet, you will need a beer gas tank and regulator to push the beer. So, that's basically it. You might also need another ball/pin lock disconnect for the keg.

 

[day_trippr]

I don't recommend this. Almost every place in my town will not fill a tank with straight CO2 once your CO2 tank has been filled with beer gas.

It was explained to me like this, you can take a CO2 tank and fill it with beer gas and use it for beer gas. However, once a tank has been filled with beer gas, you can't go back to straight CO2.

That's not an explanation, it's just a restatement. Is there some actual reasoning behind it?

Surely a couple of CO2 purge cycles would flush virtually all of the nitro out of the tank?

Cheers!

 

[beerinasippicup]

That's not an explanation, it's just a restatement. Is there some actual reasoning behind it?

Surely a couple of CO2 purge cycles would flush virtually all of the nitro out of the tank?

Cheers!

Aluminum is porous, so it actually absorbes the gas that it is pressurized with. This is why switching gases in an aluminum c02 cylinder is not done. The absorbed gasses in the aluminum would leach back into the new (different) gas, causing purity issues. This is more important for medical grade gasses but is a practice done by all in the industry.

 

[day_trippr]

[3 years later...]

Awesome, though nobody ever mentioned "aluminum" in the thread.

How about steel tanks?

Cheers!

 

[jphalabuk]

I have 5 faucets, and two are nitro. I always have two beers on nitro. For reasons already mentioned, I find my nitro faucets require less adjustment.

 

[ajdelange]

You don't actually need beer gas to draw stout if you are willing to fiddle with your setup a bit before and after each time you draw a glass. If you are going for stout every day then that would be too much trouble but if you only, for example, have it at weekends you might want to consider this.

Think about how a stout faucet works. The beer is carbonated to a bit less than one volume with CO2. The partial pressure of CO2 at the output of a properly adjusted beer gas regulator is a little less than 1 bar (absolute) which guarantees this. The total pressure is, IIRC, around 3 (absolute - again relying on memory) so you have 2 bar partial pressure of nitrogen plus 1 of CO2 to push the beer through the sparkler plate thus giving rise to the 'show'. You can get the same effect by storing the beer under 1 atm CO2 but serving at 3. Do this by purging the headspace of the the keg, filling with CO2, bleeding back to 0 on the gauge and then adjusting the regulator screw so the needle just comes off the pin. This is slightly more than 1 atm (bar) CO2 and the beer will equilibrate at about 1 vol (assuming proper temp.). When it is time to serve, crank the regulator up to 30 psi (2 bar g, 3 bar a) and pour. When finished, bleed back to 0 and again adjust regulator for slightest movement of needle.

You don't have to do this for each glass. If you are having a party you can leave the pressure up as the beer will not take on that much CO2 in a hour or so.