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Author Topic: Carbing Guinness clone with nitro  (Read 1979 times)

Offline son_of_buncrana

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Carbing Guinness clone with nitro
« on: March 12, 2015, 09:06:19 pm »
Just brewed a Guinness clone. I'd like to have it on nitro but not sure about the carbing process. I've heard that nitro doesn't absorb into beer easily so wondering if I should carb with CO2 first and then put on nitro to serve, or should I carb with the nitro for a longer period of time. Planning to keg this weekend as I need it for a March 28 event. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I always get good advice from this forum - thanks in advance for your help. Slainte!

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Carbing Guinness clone with nitro
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2015, 08:23:34 am »
I've never done it, but Northern Brewer has carbonation steps in their nitrogen system instructions.
 
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/Nitro-System.pdf
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Offline AmandaK

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Re: Carbing Guinness clone with nitro
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2015, 08:31:22 am »
1) Do you know what mix your nitrogen cylinder is at? Or do you have all nitrogen?

2) If you have 100% nitrogen, then just carb with CO2 to 2 volumes, then push it with nitrogen for serving.

3) If it's a mix, then you'll have to do a bit of math to figure out what pressure to carbonate at.
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Offline rjharper

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Re: Carbing Guinness clone with nitro
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2015, 12:45:23 pm »
1) Do you know what mix your nitrogen cylinder is at? Or do you have all nitrogen?

2) If you have 100% nitrogen, then just carb with CO2 to 2 volumes, then push it with nitrogen for serving.

3) If it's a mix, then you'll have to do a bit of math to figure out what pressure to carbonate at.

If using 100% CO2 first, carb to half the typical volume you would for straight CO2. If you overcarb (to regular volumes) then push on nitro you'll get too much foamy head with big gnarly bubbles trapped. You want that silky crema on top, so carb to 1-1.2 vol max then switch to beer blend.

If connecting straight to beer blend just set and forget at 25-30 psi. This will take longer to carb even to the lower volume since the CO2 is only partial headspace.