FOAM!

[chris mewhinney]

Before you do nitrogen, you need to at least get a nitrogen specific regulator. The co2 regulators won't handle nitrogen. Also, I don't think you actually carbonate with nitrogen...you use co2 for carbonating, then push it out with nitrogen. I also think a special tap is required. Clearly, I know very little about this, but I strongly suggest you read up on this before buying a nitrogen cylinder. You might also want to get accustomed to the plain old co2 setup before branching off too far. Walk before you run...

Just a suggestion.

Chris

[Bill Lawrence]

I have casually checked into Nitrogen and have not found any place that would refill the tanks with the mixed gas (but I was not really serious so I didn't look real hard). My understanding is that a nitrogen system is very difficult to balance as they are very temperature sensitive. I think Chris is correct though, you need a special faucet, effectively a complete second system. The other thing about serving beer with nitrogen is that it tends to mellow out the hop bitterness and flavor which means all your formulations need to be adjusted to take this into consideration. The thing about nitrogen that is somewhat attractive to me however is that it makes a small beer seem much bigger than it really is. At the end of the day though, I would not even consider setting up a system like that unless I planned on drinking a whole lot of dry stout. A nice dry stout, served correctly on nitrogen is a great beer however given the choice, I would go for a porter over stout every time. A good porter is to me almost a religous and at the same time sexual experience but I am getting myself all worked up so I guess I will log off now.

By the way, have you every thought about setting up a beer engine?

[ClayMahone]

thanks guys, good info.

[ClayMahone]

Bill, what's a "beer engine"?

[Thors Brother]

A beautiful device!