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Has anyone used an inline carbonator (Wittemann or others) to add nitrogen to a "nitro" beer like a stout? Our engineers are insisting on a high pressure rated tank if we want to inject nitrogen into beer ($$$). If it would work, it would be cheaper and quicker to do this with an inline carbonation system.
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There is no reason why you should need an especially high-pressure rated tank for holding nitrogenated beers. At typical cold serving temperatures (>3 deg C, or 37 deg F), it takes only 1.5 bar absolute, ie. about 7 psi gauge, to hold 40ppm of nitrogen in solution.
40ppm is the sort of level you'd be looking at for a good, creamy, stout.
However, I do recall the N2 injection pipework we used did have a high pressure rating as it was injected into quite a tight venturi section.
Hope that helps! -
For what it is worth, you have the dubious distinction of being the recipient of my 1000th response!
Don't go with a tank - go with in-line injection, as previously noted.
See comments I made about suppliers of gas injection kit for CO2, also in this section (not familiar with TL services even though we must only be a few miles away from each other). The suppliers such as Esau & Hueber, Centec, GEA, and undoubtedly Witteman (and TL services!!) should be able to provide suitable injection kit. Monitoring is a little more awkward, but Anton Paar can measure both CO2 and N2 (by deduction somhow), so I guess other firms such as Haffmans and Centec should also be able to. Nitrogen is more difficult to get into complete solution than CO2.
If you want to create a creamy stout in keg (40 to 55 ppm N2), you really need to inject immediately prior to filling the keg. The nitrogen will come out of solution in a bright beer tank fairly rapidly at these levels, unfortunately dragging some of the CO2 with it. Up to about 10ppm nitrogen is stable in BBT, but much above that has been proven to need to be injected just prior to keg filling. Where the beer is pasteurised, the gas injection is normally at this point.
CheersdickComment
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Dick - Anton Paar uses their 'double expansion' method to produce CO2 and N2 data from the same sample; something that other pressure/temperature methods can't do. The other known option is Orbisphere, as their TC systems for either CO2 or N2 automatically void any influence of the 'other' gas.
This is why I've often been known to bang on about the potential analytical errors when producing a carbonated AND nitrogenated beer...at around 0 deg C, 2.5v/v of CO2 and 40ppm of N2 have the same partial pressure, hence a P/T CO2 meter would give 100% error when analysing a beer, (eg. a stout) with those gas levels!
All it would 'see' is the total pressure, from which it would give a CO2 level of ~5v/v...
Turning to keeping N2 in solution in a BBT, this isn't difficult so long as the correct CO2:N2 gas mix at the right pressure is used...all thanks to Henry's Law!Comment
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contactor membrane.
You may wish to think about this. Works well at lower pressures. Helps lower O2 readings as well. lesVery gentle process. Probably price competitive with pinpoint. What size is your brewlength?
There is some good technical data on the site.
We have been using one for a while now. Mind you, our brite is rated for 2 bar. I think it would work at 1 as well.
Pax.
LiamLiam McKenna
www.yellowbellybrewery.comComment
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Liam - yes, these will work exactly as you have found!
I'm very familiar with the technology as both Trace Measurement and Headmaster use similar modules in their calibration units for dissolved gases instruments/sensors. In this application the units are smaller and run with ordinary cold water plus gas supplies to produce a constant stream of water with a known gas content.
Sorry to take this slightly off-topic, but if anyone is looking to a robust system to validate DO2, CO2 or N2 systems, these are excellent!
(And no, I'm not a salesman for them - just that in a previous life I did the beta-testing on the original units!)
Getting back to the subject of beer nitrogenation, they will indeed lower the oxygen levels as well as add nitrogen in a controlled way.Comment
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