Commercial vs Homebrew – Fight!

In March, I took a trip to the UK, and was back again for 3 weeks this month. I had great time with friends and family and took the opportunity to sample beer where I found it.

At the local pub, they had Bass, Buttcombe, and some other one that I didn’t like much. The Bass was Ok, but not as good as I remembered. (They say, “the older you get, the better you were” – maybe the opposite is true for beer?) My wife tasted some, and she said “I think yours is better.” Isn’t that what every homebrewer wants to hear from their significant other?

The Buttcombe was excellent – assertive hop bitterness but not overly so and nicely offset by the fruitiness and maltiness. Ok, I’m no BJCP judge, but I thought it was really good. Strangely though, a pint in a pub-restaurant some 30 miles down the road produced a much less pleasing variation – the the hop bitterness aggressively so, making it more like an IPA to my taste. There may have even been some strong bitterness from the grain, though I don’t recall exactly. I drank both our pints, with a mental note not to have another pint.

When I started homebrewing, the mantra I heard was “brew beer as good or better than commercial beer”. I never really believed it, thinking rather that it was just a way of reeling in prospective homebrewers. Yet, I came back from both visits to the UK with the feeling that my beer was on par with most the commercial offerings I tasted. In fact, with gall, I’d say most pub beer now tastes bland in comparison to what I usually drink.

This might be old hat to seasoned homebrewers, but it was a surprise to me…and also disspointment, as some of my old favorites are not so favoured any more.

First hit of Nitro

I just got a nitrogen tank from Branntekknikk in Skien. They got me a filled pressure tested nitro tank for the same price as my CO2 tank, ca 1350kr. Unlike the CO2 tank, this one was a converted extinguisher.

I understood that beer gas is circa 30/70 percent CO2/N2, but what are these percentages, weight, volume, pressure? I didn’t know, and I had a hard time working out either of them. (PV=nRT….)

I’ve been told that that the mixed gasses behave inconsistently in the canister, so you start out getting more nitrogen, and then torwards the end, you get more CO2. (Anyone have experience of this?) The final blow for getting mixed gas was when I heard they charged quite a bit more for the work of filling the mixed gasses.

I went for straight N2, due to the uncertainties of getting mixed gas. This allows me to mix my gasses myself in the headspace of the keg. (I don’t have a kegerator yet, and just one regulator, so I disconnect the gas once the dispensing pressure has been reached.)

To mix the gasses, I use relative pressure. To serve at 12 psi, with a 25-75 mix CO2/N2, I’d fill first with CO2 to 3 psi, and then fill with nitrogen up to 12 psi. Initial results are pleasing, with reduced bitterness, thicker mouthfeel and a dense head. I need to try with a fresh batch, as these results are inconclusive due to the beer being already carbonated to 1.7 volumes of CO2 before adding the nitrogen, and at the current cellar temperature of 15C, that was 22 PSI.)

I also got a used restrictor faucet and Guinness handle on ebay for $20. It works a treat, but looks out of place, being stuck on the beer QD of the keg, but I don’t mind, it’s what comes out that’s important!