Beer Foamies, Or Very Expensive Icecreams

[Eugene]

UPDATE:

No more Foamies for me, a Huge thanks to Tony, who nailed the pour to carb pressure issue, along with other who mentioned it too, I didnd even give it a though.

Second thanks to whoever suggested (maybe tony) that the 1.8 meter of 6mm id line from a keg with a huge spear/coupler setup was not enough restriction in the line to slow it down to a resonable pour rate.

Solution: 3.5 meters of 4mm line, coiled up nice and neat, in a container of water at the rear of the fridge to help with thermal conductivity, a washe with a 4mm id hole at the keg couple to hose fitting instead of a 12mm ID washer.

So far so good, 3 perfect beers, one pour, at 100kpa.

Keg beer rocks.

Next question:

I have a very robust Guiness Clone down ATM, will it keg OK, or should I bottle, store for several months, and enjoy then, I really want that thick creamy head you get on REAL guiness, I had gut loads of it in Ireland years ago and Love it.

help please

 

[Doogiechap]

Good to hear you are pouring nice beers now Eugene.
With the Stout the nice creamy head is in part produced by using Nitrogen instead of CO2. SO in your case either Kegging or bottling will come up with the same results. Now Is it time to get another dedicated bottle and reg for your Stouts .
Cheers
Doug

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Sqyre..

P.S try force carbing it soooo much easier and quicker once you know the tricks.
and you can monitor how carbed up it is by turning off your reg and monitoring your stablized pressure.

I could not resist another reply. I am with you. Force carb is all I have done from day dot. Around 12mths. Do it a little at a time, taste a little, carb a bit more, taste a little and how presto all over bah the shouting. Don't touch it for around 24 hrs so it settles and then I have near clear beer. Whilst I trust my gas line has no leaks, I am not keen on the slow carb method if by accident it does start to leak.

BYB

 

[lexx_fan]

Next question:

I have a very robust Guiness Clone down ATM, will it keg OK, or should I bottle, store for several months, and enjoy then, I really want that thick creamy head you get on REAL guiness, I had gut loads of it in Ireland years ago and Love it.

help please

In addition to the mixed gas you'll also want a tap with a restrictor plate (preferably also with a backpour). One of the simplest ways to acheive this is to use something like a Floryte tap with a threaded nozzle, then you can get a screw-on restrictor for when you want to use the tap to serve stout.

Of course if you set up your dispensing fridge with snaplock fronts, you can change taps in a few seconds, and keep a proper backpour tap handy for just such an occasion.

 

[Wortgames]

Air is mostly nitrogen of course, so you can 'fake' a Guinness head by simply aerating a stout during the pour - even if you're only using normal CO2 - for example by using a 'sparkler' attachment (or restrictor plate, as mentioned above) on your tap. The trick is to keep the carbonation level really low so that you can do this without getting excessive foaming.

Guinness put a lot of effort into 'recreating' the creamy head when they first went over to pressurised kegs in the early 60s. Before that it was produced naturally, by drawing the beer up with a beer engine and forcing it through a sparkler to introduce the air. The beer would have contained a small amount of CO2 but it certainly wasn't under much pressure.

 

[rough60]

I've been kegging for a few years now and it took a while to get it right.
I run 40 psi for gassing and 10 for pouring, the main reg is set to 40 and in the fridge I have a T peice, one outlet for gassing at 40 the other goes into a mini reg set at 10 psi then into the kegs I'm using.
Sometimes if I gas a keg then leave it on the floor for a while it does lose some carbonation, but not enough that 6hrs at 40 psi won't fix.