Can you dispense nitro simply by swapping out your CO2 for a Nitro tank? What would the beer out of a standard party tapper look like? Still creamy and nice without the "cascading" head or is that nitro tap a necessity to the whole operation?
No. If only it were so easy. Nitro dispense requires the CO2 vols to be rather low, less than 2.0 usually. That comes from the brewery and can't be changed with ease. Nor should it. Next, the nitro faucet is required. The restrictor plate causes the gas to become fine grained bubbles. Lastly, the nitrogen is required to push the beer through the restrictor plate. If you attempt to use CO2 at the required psi, typically 28 to 33 psi, you will quickly overcarb the beer and increase the vols. Guinness requires 75% N and 25% CO2 blend. The blend, the pressure, the vols and the faucet must all be used in conjunction, and everything must be set up correctly. Lastly, you have temperature and line resistance to consider. And gravity too. So. Not a weekend warrior project. But not rocket science either. If you mess around with this finely balanced set up you will have quite a mess of a beer. The next few posts will be from some tired old people, mostly from England but also elsewhere, who will gladly tell you that Nitro dispense is terrible and you are doing it wrong. Nothing else to say really, just that you are wrong. I wanted to get it out there for you to consider. Third rail. Cheers.
I just got into kegging, and had been wondering this as well. This answers it... Damn - wish it were that easy!
it can be done, and it isn't all that difficult. but like anything that requires a specific set of unknown rules, it can seem complicated. remember, every other half ass bar in this country has Guinness on tap. if they can do it then the process isn't all that difficult. the biggest challenge is the gas. a bottle of mix gas is sold by volume, not weight. there isn't any liquid co2 in the bottle. a small bottle the equivalent of the 5# size we are familiar with, if you can get it, runs out rather quickly. and you will also want 100% CO2 available. so your system just got a whole bunch of new equipment. all for some fancy bubbles. that, and nitro beer does get tiring rather quickly imo. If you do want to set it up, ask away over in the home bar forum. Cheers.
The good articles never seemed to be linked…but @OldSock had an informative article on nitro faucets and gas in the November BYO (or at least I learned a lot). Billandsuz does a good job, but if you want to read more into it, try and find a copy.
most people, professional brewers included, have little understanding of how draft beer works. they get the idea somewhat but it's still a big blank in the industry. pressure, cold, maybe some resistance , maybe... foamy beer. oh well. Nitro dispense is really misunderstood. if there are any in depth or technical questions ask away, because the subject can quickly go from interesting to mind numbing
Thanks! Always nice when they let me write about stuff I have real experience with (that always makes for the most informative articles). They posted a couple from me online last year when I started doing Advanced Brewing, I assume so I could get it out there and generate some buzz, but nothing since.
