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Nitrogen to dispense

biergarden

Brewer
Joined
Jan 30, 2013
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Location
Ketchikan, Alaska
I've been toying with the idea of dispensing and "carbonating" with nitrogen.  Which means buying another regulator to do the job. I was wondering if any one else out here has done that and what you think of it. I'll be doing a cream stout soon but I also have other beers that aren't stouts that might be interesting as well. 
 
One time when exchanging my CO2 the guy tried sell me on nitrogen. He was trying to sell some expensive mixing apparatus that allows you to have the keg under enough pressure to send beer through the ceiling, but without over-carbonating it. You set how much CO2 you want in the beer for the carbonation level you want to keep, then you add N to it until it gets where you want it to go and with enough pressure to dispense.  At least that's what I remember. It was like five or six years ago or something. Looked cool. And expensive.
 
I use CO2 to carbonate to a low pressure and then dispense using beer gas.  The visual effects are very cool and the creamy mouthfeel is nice in some styles.  I've served stout and bitter on beer gas.  I personally wouldn't serve many other styles on beer gas, because of the low carbonation level. 

In addition to a new regulator, you'll need a different cylinder that is designed for nitrogen (regulator connects differently) and a stout faucet to compensate for the high serving pressure and produce the cascading effect in the glass.  I had a local fire extinguisher shop build a 40 cu. ft. nitrogen tank (equivalent to a 10 lb CO2 tank) for ~$60 and I picked up a nitrogen regulator for ~$60 online.  I highly recommend this faucet.
 
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