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Nitrogen "carbonation" for stouts etc

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  • Nitrogen "carbonation" for stouts etc

    Hi, this has been talked about before but I'm in the process of starting a new brewery. Is there a simple (ish) solution? We will have a nitrogen capture system. I would love to serve true Nitro stouts and porters... Any thoughts?

  • #2
    Assuming that this is draft stout...

    Spund carb the stout to about 5 psi and complete fermentation. Crash cool to 34F and maintain 5 psi and allow to settle yeast and drop out. Rack to bright tank with a sock screen and allow to settle again; hold at 5 psi and 34F until ready to keg. Bring pressure to 15 psi head pressure and keg off.

    Serve at 45-50F under nitrogen/CO2 blended gas 70/30 at 20-22 psi through a nitro faucet.

    There isn't any actual nitrogen dissolved in the beer. The Nitrogen blend keeps the stout at the right low carbonation level and at higher pressure to allow a creamy breakout of CO2 and foam.

    Adjust temp and pressure until a perfect pour.
    Todd G Hicks
    BeerDenizen Brewing Services

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Todd Hicks View Post
      Assuming that this is draft stout...

      Spund carb the stout to about 5 psi and complete fermentation. Crash cool to 34F and maintain 5 psi and allow to settle yeast and drop out. Rack to bright tank with a sock screen and allow to settle again; hold at 5 psi and 34F until ready to keg. Bring pressure to 15 psi head pressure and keg off.

      Serve at 45-50F under nitrogen/CO2 blended gas 70/30 at 20-22 psi through a nitro faucet.

      There isn't any actual nitrogen dissolved in the beer. The Nitrogen blend keeps the stout at the right low carbonation level and at higher pressure to allow a creamy breakout of CO2 and foam.

      Adjust temp and pressure until a perfect pour.
      This is the poor mans "nitro", there are a number of systems available to nitrogenate your beer. Most are inline while you're filling the keg, some are inline while you are serving. The other way to do it is get a pressure rated brite tank, at least 30 psi, then you nitrogenate the same way you carbonate. I forget what the name of one of the systems is, but its the same people that make nitro coffee at all the coffee shops now.

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      • #4
        Nitrogen is inert and does not remain in solution for long. If injected inline on the way to the faucet, I suppose you can get some tiny bubbles and foam.

        The poor man's nitro works every time.
        Todd G Hicks
        BeerDenizen Brewing Services

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        • #5
          Injecting nitrogen or blended gas into bright tank or keg is a good way to scrub overcarbonated beers of excess CO2.
          Todd G Hicks
          BeerDenizen Brewing Services

          Comment


          • #6
            Many ways to do this.

            Basically start with a beer/stout about 1.3-1.5 vol CO2 and then nitrogenate to saturation.

            That can happen a number of ways: a custom nitrogenation plant (basically creates an extremely high pressure environment by a multi stage centrifugal in a narrow tube matrix that drives N2 into solution - classic solution) or you could use a contactor membrane (a bit pricey but works at the molecular level at low pressure), you could also use a cellarstream (to nitrogenate on the way from the keg to tap), using it inline if you have 2 bar+ rated systems.

            I have done it all ways. COntactor membrane is easiest and best.

            Any way you do it, remember that the solubility of N2 is miniscule. Also remember PV=nRT.

            Pax.

            Liam
            Liam McKenna
            www.yellowbellybrewery.com

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            • #7
              Carbonate the beer with regular old CO2 to 1.8 Volumes. Over the next 2 days degass the tank and use straight food grade nitrogen and bump it through the carb stone to whatever max pressure your tank can handle. (6-8 times over 2 days works fine). If you can connect a nitro tap to the tank it makes it that much easier to know when its done. TC Barb to tubing (6ish feet) to a nitro tap. Push the beer at 25 or so PSI. You know its ready when you get that perfect Guiness style pour. Package the beer by using nitorogen on the tank and serve it with a good 70/30 beergas blend to keep the remaining co2 in the beer and keep it from going flat.

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              • #8
                Have you considered NitroBrew? Simply connect the beer (flat, non-carbonated) and N2 to the NitroBrew module. The system infuses N2 and sends the product to serving tap. N2 infusion happens on the fly, and only in the beer that is served in the glass. More information here;
                Mechanical Engineer, QuantiPerm
                www.quantiperm.com

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by vinaykumar27 View Post
                  Have you considered NitroBrew? Simply connect the beer (flat, non-carbonated) and N2 to the NitroBrew module. The system infuses N2 and sends the product to serving tap. N2 infusion happens on the fly, and only in the beer that is served in the glass. More information here;
                  https://nitrobrew.com/product/nitrob...fusion-module/
                  If you inject flat beer with nitrogen at the serving time, you will have flat/dead beer. You need to have about 1.7 volumes of CO2.

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                  • #10
                    Nitrobrew can be great in a brewpub scenario. Not so useful in a production brewery. Take abundant care. Pax. Liam
                    Liam McKenna
                    www.yellowbellybrewery.com

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Thirsty_Monk View Post

                      If you inject flat beer with nitrogen at the serving time, you will have flat/dead beer. You need to have about 1.7 volumes of CO2.
                      Not true. Nitro style beers typically have between 1 and 1.25 volumes of CO2 and about 40 ppm of N2 (e.g., Guinness).
                      Mechanical Engineer, QuantiPerm
                      www.quantiperm.com

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by liammckenna View Post
                        Nitrobrew can be great in a brewpub scenario. Not so useful in a production brewery. Take abundant care. Pax. Liam
                        Not necessarily true. Beer at the end of fermentation has about 1-1.1 vol carbonation. So an Inline NitroBrew system is actually just perfect to infuse nitrogen and send it straight to a tap. You can just rack off a few kegs after fermentation and send it through the NitroBrew system for serving. Really simple because you don't even have to carbonate that set of keg beer (or the whole beer if all the beer is going to be served on nitro).
                        If you want to nitro in the brewery tanks, then depending on the batch sizes there are various options on the xFlow product line that can do Nitrogenation, carbonation, or even de-oxygenation.
                        More information here:
                        https://quantiperm.com/quantiperm-products/carbonation-frementation-brewing/
                        Mechanical Engineer, QuantiPerm
                        www.quantiperm.com

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