Serving stout with Nitrogen

[Adrian Tayler]

Hello

 

Does anyone use Nitrogen to serve their stout with? I understand you carb with Co2 as usual but for serving you use Nitrogen?

 

Cheers

[Reviled]

Whered you get the nitrogen? Is it a blend of nitro and co2 or just pure nitro? From what ive read yes carb with Co2 and then serve with a blend of Co2 and Nitro, but sorry cant really help you further than that as I havnt done it...

Theres quite a few detailed threads on AHB on the topic if that helps...

[Adrian Tayler]

I am just tossing up whether to keg it or bottle it.. I have a hand held keg charger and would love to get my hands on a Nitro bulb for it.. I am not going to shell out for a Nitro reg and cylinder.

[Reviled]

Hmm, I wonder what it would be like served with pure nitro?? Probably worth a shot, but not sure if you can get little nitro bulbs tho? Ive only seen Co2 and No2 lol, you could try the latter? haha

[Jonathan Musther]

I'm pretty sure the only way you'll get some nitrogen is with a cylinder (not the bulbs for your hand charger). But if you can, go for it. The commercial way is typically to use a blend, or, on a smaller scale, to apply the nitrogen first to dissolve a certain amount, then finish carbonating with CO2. Guess it depends who you ask, but I don't think carbonating with CO2 to dissolve it, then applying a nitrogen head to dispense will get enough nitrogen into the beer to have any effect, at least not until you're part way down the keg. That's why it would make sense to do some nitro first, because you're only after a small(ish) percentage nitrogen in the total dissolved gas.

I've not tried it yet, because I haven't got a spare cylinder to fill with nitro, but assuming a temp of about 8 degrees I would apply nitrogen to a pressure of maybe 3 psi. After that's dissolved, I'd change to CO2 and put up to 10 psi. Total carbonation, 2vols, of which 30% nitrogen (ish) :)

[Adrian Tayler]

Thanks for that mate.. I ended up bottling the entire batch and using the carb drops... it came out pretty good in the end.

[Jonathan Musther]

Yeah, I just carb mine, perfectly happy with it, just don't over-carbonate - you can always let it sit for a while anyway!