Thread: Pros & Cons
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Old 07-06-2008, 10:18 PM
Scott Zuhse Scott Zuhse is offline
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Flexibility is advantageous as long as the end result is dispensing a quality product. A gas blend does allow you to dispense beer at a higher pressure (20 - 25 PSIG) thus compensating for temperature issues and long remote runs.

Unfortunately, the 25% CO2 / 75% N which is designed specifically for nitrogenated beers will not maintain product integrity of ales and lagers. The beer will go flat with in two to three days. Many retailers do not realize that they are presenting flat beer since their customers generally do not complain. They simply switch to bottle beer or worse, go somewhere else to drink.

The correct blend would be 60% CO2 / 40% N. Since C02 liquefies under high pressure, this is not readily available in cylinders due to limitations of how much overall pressure that can be placed in the bottle. So little that keg yield would be disastrous. On a side note, CO2 gas in a cylinder yields three times as much as a bottle of blend.

The easiest but expensive method for home dispense would be to use a gas blender to acquire the correct ratio. Most certainly you could use 100% CO2 to dispense your products. Simply heed the advice of the other forum members. By the way, do not ask brewers what pressure to dispense their products. Always ask what carbonation level in volumes the beer has. This will tell you exactly what PSIG to dispense the particular beer at based on temperature and elevation.
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Scott Zuhse, Instructor Micro Matic Dispense Institute
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