Nitro Beers pouring flat

[baII23]

We have a draft system with a micromatic blender and powerpac... Recently, we've been experiencing problems with one or two of our 4 nitro based beers pouring extremely flat and without head, almost as if there isn't an aerator in the creamer. Normally, I would think it may have something to do with the tavern head, since it involves just one of the beers, but it changes from beer to beer and the gas levels read normal.

Has anyone experienced this? Could this be a blender problem? Beer techs haven't been able to help, and serving flat guinness doesn't seem to work too well

Thank you,

Sean
shmeehan@ameritech.net

[Scott Zuhse]

Normally the blenders are very reliable and quite accurate. You may want to inquire as to availability of a gas analyzer which can test the blend ratios applied to these products. Possibly your stout distributors have access to this device.

Other areas to check would be line cleaning practices, brewer's carbonation spec. tolerances, gas leaks, gas vendor quality, product age, and others. Keep us posted as to your findings.

Scott Zuhse, Instructor Micro Matic Dispense Institute

[baII23]

quote:Originally posted by Jeff Stanley

How long do these kegs remain online?

Is this a new event on a system that did not have the problem in the past?

Probably a dumb question, but: are operating pressures in the normal range for these products (around 30psi)?

Are you sure that the line cleaner didn't remove the restrictor disc at the last cleaning?

Does the flow rate seem right (not faster or slower than expected)?

Any other bers taste a little off?

Beers are pouring at 30PSI, and the only thing that I hesitate on as far as line cleaning goes is that the beers that are affected change. For example, this past weekend our Guinness was extremely flat and settled in about 10 seconds Friday night. The same keg the next day poured fine with no problems what so ever. It seems almost as if there are some stablization problems???? Today, the Guinness pours fine, but another nitrogen beer is pouring bad.

Now, I will say, that it didn't pose a problem until we added Boddingtons to our draft line. Since then, we've pulled Boddingtons and are running it off it's own cylinder (75-25 blend). We had hoped that it would fix the problem. Could Boddingtons, the time it was hooked up to the blender, have affected the blender in some way?

I can't seem to figure it out. As far as keg dates and frequency, we never keep a keg online for more than 3-4 days, especially Guinness (usually 5-7 a week), and the dates are fine.

I initially thought that Boddingtons did something to the system when it was hooked up, and I still seem to think that, but my beer techs say otherwise. I have them coming out again tomorrow. My other problem is that it changes from beer to beer, day to day, so it never stays consistant.

Does any of this info help?

Thanks in advance,

Sean

[baII23]

The only other thing I can think of is inconsistant cooler or line temperature, but again it doesn't affect all of the beers at the same time.

I dunno.

Sean

[baII23]

Okay, so we've changed regulators on each cylinder, increased pressures, and switched out the old blender with a new one. Each seemed to help a bit, but it still was a noticeable problem. On one side of our cooler we have 3 nitro beers that were all sharing the same regulator. After about 20 minutes of pulling out t fittings and hooking each nitro beer up to its own regulator, the problem seemed to be eliminated. whew! I'm not out of the woods yet, since the problem would come and go, but I think that since the beer that was pouring bad today did a complete 180 after putting it on its own regulator, I think I may have found the culprit. I'll give it a couple of days and if the problem doesn't resurface, I know that it is solved.

So, I ask: Could the problem have been the regulator in that it couldn't keep up with all three of the nitro beers that were running together?

Thanks for your replies, and hopefully we won't have this problem again. It was pretty frustrating to serve Guinness, what we are known for, and have it come out like crap. But, I think we're past that.

Sean

[Scott Zuhse]

Normally a regulator can allow three faucets to open at one time. Is this a glycol system? If so, have you evaluated the bath temperature? Is the bath circulating properly? Have you checked your system for pressure leaks?

Scott Zuhse, Instructor Micro Matic Dispense Institute