Different types of gas

The ins and outs of putting your beer into kegs.
Post Reply
jnr
Posts: 18
Joined: Friday Oct 08, 2004 12:42 pm
Location: Werribee, Victoria

Different types of gas

Post by jnr »

I was looking at the gas bottles at the local footy club and noticed two different types of gas bottles "Aligal 2' & "Aligal 15". Does anyone know the difference and what that would do to the beer :shock:
Oliver
Administrator
Posts: 3424
Joined: Thursday Jul 22, 2004 1:22 am
Location: West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Post by Oliver »

Just Googled it.

Aligal 2 is carbon dioxide. Aligal 1 is nitrogen. From what I can work out, Aligal 15 is a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mix.

Aligal is just a brand name of Air Liquide (formerly Liquid Air). http://www.airliquide.com.au

I would think that Aligal 15 would give a creamier pour, a bit like Guinness on tap.

Cheers,

Oliver
The Brown Hornet
Posts: 25
Joined: Friday Feb 11, 2005 12:43 pm
Location: Perth & Kalgoorlie

Post by The Brown Hornet »

I'm having a play with the whole keg setup at the moment.

A local "Beer delivery system engineer" (have no idea what his job title actually is, but he fits all the tap systems in the local pubs for one of the major groups) has been kind enough to give us a bit of his time and expertise.

If I understood him correctly, most of the pubs use a mix of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. If you were to use only carbon dioxide, and don't pour a lot from your kegs, they can become over charged resulting in way too much head. He recommended that we simply use carbon dioxide because it is considerably cheaper, but make sure we turm the cylinder off over night to prevent the over gassing that can occur. The avarage publican doesn't want to have to put any more effort than necessary into maintaining his system, so uses this mix of carbon dioxide and nitrogen so that the kegs can be left pressurised all the time.

Please feel free to correct me if I've grabbed the wrong end of the stick.

Cheers
When One's Too Many and a Thousand Not Enough
jnr
Posts: 18
Joined: Friday Oct 08, 2004 12:42 pm
Location: Werribee, Victoria

Post by jnr »

Makes sense- thanks
Post Reply