I am new to kegging and have started to explore sources of recharging my CO2 tank. I found a local fire extinguisher place that advertises home brew recharge services. They offer what they call a Guinness mix which is a cylinder of 75% nitrogen and 25% CO2. Now that sounds cool but potentially restrictive. What do you think if I just used that mix for all of my beers? Would it be bad for my pale ales and lighter beers? Should I stick to all CO2?
There’s a great write up in the November 2014 issue of BYO. Article is called Nitro Beers: Tips from the Pros. For some reason I can find it online but no text comes up. Basically the article says its hit and miss. Some beers that you would never think bout benefit and others don’t. It DOES change the beer so that might be something you consider. I would go with straight CO2 since your new to kegging, and then go from there.
Can you run that mix through a regular CO2 reg? Wouldn’t you need a nitrogen regulator?
Danny, as far as I know a regulator is not specific to the type of gas. That’s something I would have to ask the experts at the place about to confirm.
Beer gas (Nitrogen, CO2 mix) is used to dispense, you’re still going to need CO2 to carbonate.
Danny I believe this to be true as well.
This is true. One thing the article said was to remember to take into acoount that CO2 is dissolved in the beer through fermentation.
I re-read the article and to no surprise it said that nitro reduces perceived bitterness and aroma while accenting malts. This makes sense as it is often used on stout/ porter. It could work on an IPA/DIPA if you want to bring out the malt a little more.
CO2 and nitrogen cylinders have different threading for the regulator connection. You can use the same regulator but the connection stem will have to be swapped out. Also, as someone already mentioned, you still need CO2 to carbonate so you may as well buy a separate regulator anyhow.
Oh. If I have to buy more gear then I think I will stick with the CO2 alone. I make beer as a hobby, and I play guitar as a hobby. Gotta make decisions as to how to split up the available funds so that one hobby does not feel neglected.
There are a lot of different opinions on this subject, but IMO beer gas (nitro/CO2) rarely improves a beer and I would go so far as to say it makes some worse, such as hoppy beers that benefit from higher carbonation to carry the hop aroma forward.
Beer gas is little more than the poor man’s method of emulating the texture of traditional cask ales.
I use it to serve homebrewed dry stout for my annual St Patrick’s day party. That’s pretty much it.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”]There are a lot of different opinions on this subject, but IMO beer gas (nitro/CO2) rarely improves a beer and I would go so far as to say it makes some worse, such as hoppy beers that benefit from higher carbonation to carry the hop aroma forward.
Beer gas is little more than the poor man’s method of emulating the texture of traditional cask ales.
I use it to serve homebrewed dry stout for my annual St Patrick’s day party. That’s pretty much it.[/quote]
All of this^^^^^!!!
If you want to emulate a nitro pour, you can do what Guinness did before they used nitro. They’d package a syringe with the beer. You suck some beer up into the syringe and shoot it back into your glass. That helps decarbonate the beer and give it the smooth mouthfeel. That’s exactly what nitro is doing, too.