

Nitrogen is the preferred method for serving coffee on draft. That being said, CO2 is highly soluble and WILL begin to dissolve into the liquid. The lower the pressure, the longer it will take the liquid to absorb CO2 (carbonate). The higher the pressure, the faster CO2 will be absorbed by the liquid. So to answer the question: Will CO2 make it fizzy?Īny liquid that remains under pressure from CO2 for too long will eventually begin to carbonate. As a result, we will not need a very high pressure to serve the coffee – only 3-6psi. We are only using the keg and the tap as a delivery system. So which gas is recommended for serving coffee on tap?įirstly, lets keep in mind that when dealing with coffee, we are not trying to carbonate it. Serving coffee on draft and what type of gas is recommended. Now, after that long aside about gasses, lets get back to the question at hand.

Since Guinness needs to be served at a high pressure, keeping the keg pressurized with only CO2 would quickly over-carbonate the beer. Beers served with Nitrogen are actually carbonated with CO2, however, when they are served, they are forced through a “restrictor” which causes the thick, frothy head that you’re familiar with on beers like Guinness and Bodingtons.Ī beer gas blend of 70-75% N / 25-30% CO2 will be used to pressurize and serve beers like Guinness. Nitrogen is used to serve beers under high pressures, like Guinness. Nitrogen (N) is another naturally occurring gas, however it is far less soluble than CO2.

CO2 is a naturally occurring gas (it is actually produced during the fermentation process) and it is highly soluble, meaning it is easily absorbed by liquids such as beer, soda, water, etc.
How do you do no2 on chemdoodle full#
So here, we aim to answer the following question:ĭo you recommend CO2 or Nitrogen for serving coffee on tap? And will CO2 make it fizzy?īoth were great questions so I figured why not dedicate a full post to this topic, but before answering the question, lets give a little background on the two gasses.Ĭarbon Dioxide (CO2) is the gas used to carbonate beers, sodas, sparkling waters. It happened to be a question that we hadn’t addressed the issue of which type of gas to use in any of our previous posts about serving coffee on tap. We recently received a question from a reader about serving coffee on tap.
