Kegging with Nitrogen

The ins and outs of putting your beer into kegs.

Kegging with Nitrogen

Postby Shaun » Monday Nov 08, 2004 8:51 pm

I have been kegging for 12 months now and I am looking at moving up to using nitrogen in my stouts instead of CO2. I have a gun capable of pouring beer with nitrogen and I am aware I will need a regulator for nitrogen.

What I do not know is how to gas with nitrogen! Do you gas and dispense with the nitrogen like you would with CO2? or do you gas with CO2 and dispense with nitrogen? What pressures do you use?

Any advice welcomed.

Shaun
Shaun
 

Postby Evo » Monday Nov 08, 2004 9:45 pm

Yeah, I've wondered about this one too Shaun. My mate had a bottle of nitrogen at a keg party we had (which he was using to fix my beer fridge - long story) and we were thinking of dispensing his Kilkenny copy brew with it.

From running my eye over this article http://www.yeastbank.com/features/mainbar2nd2000.htm I'm glad we didn't. Oh, that and the fact it wasn't food grade might have been a worry.

So from the article it seems it can be done, but it's a bit of a mission. If you find a simpler way of doing it, I'm all ears. There'd be nothing better than pouring a nitrogen gassed beer and watching it "pull up". I could do that all night.
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Postby Guest » Monday Nov 08, 2004 10:22 pm

You can't dissolve nitrogen the same way as CO2, it isn't soluble so you have tyo jack up the pressure if you are going that route. Truthfully, I would use CO2 and top up with nitrogen as I understand a little goes a long way. ie, add 7 psi nitrogen then pressurize with 15 percent CO2. Due to the nature of gases, this will only give you 15 psi in the keg.

Of course option two is to buy a nitrogen tap which will introduce the nitrogen at the tap rather than at the keg.

Dogger
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Postby wombat » Monday Nov 08, 2004 10:53 pm

i hear that a device called a tap-a-draft makes it easy to use nitrogen. it's powered by those soda bulbs. the deal with it, says the hb store dude, is you can fill it up with your kegged beer and then pressurise and dispense your beer with two soda bulbs installed to produce the pressure - one co2 and one n2. he is the only distributor in nsw but the aussie distributor's website for the tap-a-draft system is:
http://www.ibrew.com.au/html/equipment/ ... draft.html

sounds interesting to me but i don't know about the cost... seems a bit too expensive...

-wombat
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Kegging with nitrogen

Postby Shaun » Tuesday Nov 09, 2004 8:57 pm

Wombat I have seen the tap -a-draft system a lot of extra gear and expences just to have nitrogen gassed/dispensed beer.

I know it can be done with normal kegs (I have seen it at demonstrations)as long as you have a nitrogen capable reg and a gun/tap that is capable of being fitted with a diffuser (allows you to pour the beer with out it going to foam) it is just the specifics on how to gas that seem to be allusive.

Also only certain types of beer can be gas/dispensed with nitrogen.

Shaun
Shaun
 

Postby Dogger Dan » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 3:49 am

Shaun,

20-25 psi should do it. Watch it though it will be a flying out if you don't have a counter pressure tap. (I assume that is the purpose of the diffuser although I must admit I am not sure what that is)

Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
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