What gives Guinness that fluffy cloud head?

[cannman]

What in a Guinness recipe gives the beer that fluffy cloud-9 head?

I LOVE how you can see the beer separate and finally culminate at the top like something you'd swear was a marshmallow.

Thank you!

 

[dannypo]

Guinness uses a blend of nitrogen and CO2 instead of straight CO2 to dispense the beer. It is the extremely low solubility of the nitrogen that causes the cascade effect.

 

[cannman]

Guinness uses a blend of nitrogen and CO2 instead of straight CO2 to dispense the beer. It is the extremely low solubility of the nitrogen that causes the cascade effect.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

I wish more brewpubs would offer a beer on nitro. I love that creaminess it gives. Victory has Hop Devil on nitro at their main brewpub and it makes that beer insanely great

 

[masonsjax]

I tried Hop Devil on nitro at Victory and it was so good I went straight home and bought a nitro setup. I have served lots of different styles from that tap and just about everything is good on nitro.

The fluffy creamy head comes from having a low carbonated beer (~1.2 volumes of CO2) served at a high pressure (30-40 psi) through a stout faucet with a restrictor plate, which has tiny holes that break the little bit of CO2 out of solution and into a very fine froth. The blended gas lets you keep the high pressure without overcarbing the beer, since nitrogen wont dissolve into beer at our temperatures/pressure levels.

The cascade effect is from the fine CO2 bubbles rising rapidly in middle of the glass, creating a current flow of settling beer down the outer edges of the glass.

Nitro is so cool!

 

[ajdelange]

Nitrogen is less soluble in beer than CO2 so when a bubble forms after the beer is forced through the sparkler plate (or aperture in the widget) while the CO2 can fairly quickly re-dissolve but the N2 can't and the bubble (tiny now because there isn't much nitrogen) tends to persist. A bubble is a bubble so they try to rise. At the walls of the glass they are subject to friction and so most of them rise in the center of the glass (adding to the head) but they also carry some fluid with them. What goes up must come down and so there is a downward current along the sides. This is responsible for the negative cascade.

 

[FarmerTed]

Dry stouts have around 20% flaked barley in their grist. I think that boosts the head retention.

 

[JKaranka]

Flaked barley is there to cut costs. The money is on the nitro keg. Btw, in Britain nitro keg is a derisory term (e.g., nitro keg bitter is almost universally hated and carried by pubs that don't get through a cask).

 

[dannypo]

Flaked barley is there to cut costs. The money is on the nitro keg. Btw, in Britain nitro keg is a derisory term (e.g., nitro keg bitter is almost universally hated and carried by pubs that don't get through a cask).

Lots of reason to dislike nitro in my mind. It really is just a way to fake a handpull. And not very well. Nitro always seems to make the beer less bright and fresh, with far less hop aroma.

 

[eastoak]

i plunked 300 bones down on a nitro system for my tap fridge and i love it, so does everybody else. i heard that it knocks down the aroma on hoppy beer and it does a little bit but it doesn't keep people from hovering around the tap trying to be next in line for a beer. it took me a long time to decide on pulling the trigger but now i wish i would have done it sooner. one tip for those considering this purchase, check with your local gas supplier to see if they will exchange the odd size cylinders offered with the kits. i found out that the 40 cubic foot size was the easiest to find and anything smaller was special order. found my 40 on ebay for $100 shipped then walked out of airgas with a 60 because they didn't have a 40 handy, same price.

 

[ajdelange]

Flaked barley is there to cut costs. The money is on the nitro keg. Btw, in Britain nitro keg is a derisory term (e.g., nitro keg bitter is almost universally hated and carried by pubs that don't get through a cask).

Flaked barley is there to provide protein for the head and to lend a sort of 'silky' quality to the mouthfeel.

Many establishments that pour on nitro invest in a blender and molecular sieve system to feed it. Yes there are capital costs associated with this but thereafter the nitrogen at least is free (other than amortization and maintenance).