Switching to beer gas - what pressure ?

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Bru

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When kegging I force carb at 30psi (shake method) for 48hrs and then maintain 8psi.
Im switching to beer gas which is 60% CO2 and 40% N (called Suremix 60).
Will my current methods and pressures work with the beer gas ?
Several kegs are already carbed with CO2 will get connected to beer gas - how will this affect the beer ?
Any suggestions appreciated.
 
if you normally carbonate and serve your beer at 8psi on regular CO2, you would use 20psi of 60/40 beergas. you would need 75psi to burst carbonate at the same rate as before. i dont suggest using beergas to force carbonate, especially to burst carb like that.

Several kegs are already carbed with CO2 will get connected to beer gas - how will this affect the beer ?
as long as the partial CO2 pressure in the beergas was the same as the total pressure of the CO2 before, then it will be the same. after a couple weeks, you will also have a very small amount of nitrogen dissolved in the beer as well.

so out of 100psi of beergas, you will have 60psi of nitrogen and 40psi of CO2. if you are looking at a carbonation chart and you decide you want, say, 14psi of CO2- then you would divide 14psi by 40 (percent of the beergas) and multiply that number by 100 to get the pressure to set your beergas regulator to (35psi in this example).

you will also need to legnthen your beer lines to match the required pressure. 3/16" ID lines provide around 3psi of resistance per foot. so if you want to serve at 20psi, you would generally need 7 or 8 feet of 3/16" hose. or 25 feet of 1/4" hose (at .8psi/foot of resistance). or 50 feet of 5/16" hose (at .4psi/foot of resistance).
 
Thanks.
I didn't realise I needed to maintain a much higher pressure and hence lengthen the beer lines. Im wondering if its worth the effort.
 
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