I just kegged a Guinness clone. I bought a nitrogen kit that included a 5lb gas bottle and a stout tap. When I set the pressure to 38 psi, How long should I expect before I will see the rolling bubbles like Guinness? Is there a lag time like a week? A little new to the beergas.
Is the beer carbed?
No. Not sure the procedure to carb it. I do have a 10lb tank of CO2. Not sure if I carb it for a couple of days, then put it back on the nitrogen / co2 mix.
I’ve been following this basic method and it’s worked well so far. I don’t personally like the C02 then switch approach.
The beer needs to be carbed first. You can let it sit at 30psi on beergas for a couple of weeks, or carb it part way with co2 first and then connect to beergas for a couple of days.
The nitrogen isn’t magic. While some will get dissolve it primarily adds extra pressure so the beer can be pushed at over 30psi through the restrictor plate knocking the co2 out of solution and into tasty foam.
I normally carb my beers at 40psi for a day and then switch back to 11psi. I have it on 40psi now since I am carbing an Irish Red also. On the CO2 last night after gaming, I had a glass. It almost looked like the rolling foam coming out the stout head on CO2. I will put it back on Nitrogen this afternoon and see what it looks like.
After force carbing on 40psi on CO2 and putting back on mix, it is now coming out in the rolling bubbles that you expect from Guinness.