An acquaintance of mine is interested in maybe building a kegerator to dispense cold coffee through a stout tap. I'm assuming you'd want to use beergas for this? Anyone else done it?
Coffee on tap
- Thread starter Newsman
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
OP
OP
Thanks, Luis. Shows what I know. 
OP
OP
Nitro, unlike CO2, doesn't go into solution, so it just pushes it out. Gravity can't push coffee out of a keg. The liquid has to go UP the dip tube, and then out the tap.
OP
OP
Well, brewed coffee exposed to oxygen goes stale, pretty quick so that's another nice thing about kegging.
But maybe try Polypins? That way you have coffee in a bag much like boxed wine comes.
OP
OP
That would work. OTOH, if you want to have a tap, it's probably easier to have it kegged and have a tower.
Easier? Probably. Cheaper? Nah. But if going off gravity, the pins should be sufficient. If you want it pretty and off a tap, I would stick with the keg.
On second though though, you could probably gravity feed from a keg if you had the physical keg above the tap. You would have to come up with a way to fill the headspace as the coffee is poured with something that wouldn't stale the coffee though.
On second though though, you could probably gravity feed from a keg if you had the physical keg above the tap. You would have to come up with a way to fill the headspace as the coffee is poured with something that wouldn't stale the coffee though.
I'm a pretty hard core coffee drinker.
That being said, do any of you have a KEG of coffee at any given time?
I don't even know how to address this concept.
That being said, do any of you have a KEG of coffee at any given time?
I don't even know how to address this concept.
OP
OP
You don't have to use a 5 gallon keg. There are 2.5 gallon kegs.
Okay, does anyone have a keg (of any size) of coffee on tap?
I'm just finding it hard to believe is the only reason I ask. Now my keezer holds four kegs and I have three taps at some point I may add a fourth I suppose but I have never even considered using one for coffee.
Maybe it's just because I didn't even know you could do that. I really don't know the reason but in any case it just doesn't seem like something that is done. so, I suppose that's the reason for the question.
I know a guy who owns a coffee shop that only sells cold brew and handmade pourovers.
He has the cold brew on tap with pure nitrogen out of a standard beer faucet. Initially, he had one tap with beergas and a nitro tap. He said it was a fun novelty initially, but that it staled too quickly. Even in a commercial setting, he couldn't finish the 5gal keg before it went bad
He has the cold brew on tap with pure nitrogen out of a standard beer faucet. Initially, he had one tap with beergas and a nitro tap. He said it was a fun novelty initially, but that it staled too quickly. Even in a commercial setting, he couldn't finish the 5gal keg before it went bad
sputnam
Well-Known Member
do i need a stout tap using nitro?
i have a 2 tap kegerater i was thinking about a stout on one and coffee on the other
i have a 2 tap kegerater i was thinking about a stout on one and coffee on the other
OP
OP
I am by no means an expert...however I think the function of the stout tap is to help with the head formation.
Yes, as Newsman said, you need it in order to have the proper head formation.
OP
OP
And if you just want to have cold coffee on tap (say for a latte or something) there's no need for a stout tap.
burninator
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2014
- Messages
- 992
- Reaction score
- 351
Is there some reason you wouldn't just put it in one of those lathe drink serving containers with a spout at the bottom? I don't get why this needs to be kept under pressure.
OP
OP
Don't necessarily need a LOT of pressure... just enough to push it out of the keg and keep oxygen away from the coffee.
lbond2
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2013
- Messages
- 96
- Reaction score
- 10
Very good thread here...my go to coffee shop has a nitro tap with coffee being pushed through it. That being said here is what I want to try:
I have noticed there is no head on the coffee in which I expected to be there when it was first poured. I was hoping it would be like an espresso coffee stout type combo. It was very tasty and smooth although, very refreshing.
I want to make a batch, carbonate it, and push it through a nitro tap to get a thick creamy head. Remember, nitro taps are designed to knock the Co2 out of solution and put it in the head. That's the point of a nitro tap. Nitrogen is just used to push it because it is inert gas...try it on co2 and you will see what I am talking about.
Anyway, in order to maintain/create a head of foam I was thinking about brewing the coffee with naked oats or rolled oats....
Any thoughts, suggestions, arguments, debates???
I have noticed there is no head on the coffee in which I expected to be there when it was first poured. I was hoping it would be like an espresso coffee stout type combo. It was very tasty and smooth although, very refreshing.
I want to make a batch, carbonate it, and push it through a nitro tap to get a thick creamy head. Remember, nitro taps are designed to knock the Co2 out of solution and put it in the head. That's the point of a nitro tap. Nitrogen is just used to push it because it is inert gas...try it on co2 and you will see what I am talking about.
Anyway, in order to maintain/create a head of foam I was thinking about brewing the coffee with naked oats or rolled oats....
Any thoughts, suggestions, arguments, debates???
don't forget the yeast :smack:
I think you may end up with a coffee cup of foam,unless you keep the pressure REALLY low, like a couple/3 psi. IMO, The carbonic acid introduced by carbing it would alter the flavor of the coffee, pretty drastically. It would require more sweetening as well, unless you like cold acidic coffee.
OP
OP
I'd say, depending on what you want, you could just use beer gas / nitrogen. OTOH, if you want a frothy drink, you could mix up some oatmeal with extra water and then put that through a cheesecloth to help get the liquid out and use that liquid to make your coffee, or make super-strong coffee and use this liquid to dilute it.
For frothy coffee, you'd probably want to carbonate on CO2 and then push using beer gas at a low pressure so you don't get all foam.Me and my wife tried this recently with co2, in hopes for a "beer like" coffe with a creamy head, instead we got a carbonated, very bitter cold glass of coffee. I would highly recommend not
Carbonating as it alters the flavor tremendously and quickly. If anyone has any advice on how to achieve this without purchase a nitro set up im all ears!
Carbonating as it alters the flavor tremendously and quickly. If anyone has any advice on how to achieve this without purchase a nitro set up im all ears!
You don't need a stout tap using Nitrogen. If all you want is to pour cold coffee, you can use a standard faucet and just push it with a few psi of Nitrogen. You will need a different regulator, however, since they are female thread, and CO2 regs use male thread.
Adding to what has already been posted...
The stout tap is used in conjunction with beergas to create the head and cascading effect in coffee similar to a proper nitro stout.
When it comes to the acidity of the product...remember that could brewed coffee is already much lower in acidity than hot brewed.
You can push cold brew with pure nitro, but you won't get the head and cascading effect that you get with beergas and a stout tap.
I think using straight CO2 with coffee is probably a pretty bad idea any way you slice it unless very short term and near 0 psi...
The stout tap is used in conjunction with beergas to create the head and cascading effect in coffee similar to a proper nitro stout.
When it comes to the acidity of the product...remember that could brewed coffee is already much lower in acidity than hot brewed.
You can push cold brew with pure nitro, but you won't get the head and cascading effect that you get with beergas and a stout tap.
I think using straight CO2 with coffee is probably a pretty bad idea any way you slice it unless very short term and near 0 psi...
Wonder if a low psi coupled with a creamer faucet could get close
HarpoonColdBrewNZ
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2015
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
So our experience with pouring is that the cascade and also the delicious fine-textured head are attainable using pure nitrogen and a stout tap. After reading about enough people being unimpressed with the carbonic acid formation that made their coffee too bitter, we decided not to bother trying beer gas blends and instead just ramped up the nitro pressure on our keg for 24 hours at a low temp. Lots of people will try and tell you that nitrogen is insoluble, that's not true - but rather it's way less soluble than CO2, so you need higher pressure and lower temperature to encourage it into solution in the coffee.
We pressurise our 20L kegs at 3 bar and 1 degree C for 24 hours, and then pour at the same pressure through a stout tap and get the cascade effect along with about 10mm of creamy head on top that lasts for ages in the glass. All on pure nitrogen.
We pressurise our 20L kegs at 3 bar and 1 degree C for 24 hours, and then pour at the same pressure through a stout tap and get the cascade effect along with about 10mm of creamy head on top that lasts for ages in the glass. All on pure nitrogen.
I don't think anyone is making the claim that N2 won't dissolve in water based solutions; it's that it dissolves in negligible amounts in draught settings. Nitrogen was chosen for the stout draught design because of it's ability to push water based solutions at high pressure without a significant change in total dissolved gas.
I won't argue with your results. Just keep in mind that there were probably several types of dissolved gasses in your coffee when it went into the keg. Any of which could easily nucleate under the pressure and shear forces incurred by the stout tap, yielding a cascading effect.
Hey, if you found something that works for you, keep doing it.
Hi everyone, I saw this today what do you all think?
http://www.nitrocoldpress.com/?icn=NBHomepage&NitroColdPress
I have a small 2.5 gallon keg for cider could be good for nitro coffee!
John
http://www.nitrocoldpress.com/?icn=NBHomepage&NitroColdPress
I have a small 2.5 gallon keg for cider could be good for nitro coffee!
John
I used to use this brew method and do two gallons at a time: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/perfect-iced-coffee/
Then pour in a corny at 10 psi on nitro...and I got basically what you're talking about here. It's just cold coffee that lasts a little longer. Kind of fun but whoopity do.
But now...
-Prep (new seals) and sanitize 2.5 corny.
-Pour in 2lbs of a dark roast coffee of choice...I like something with chocolate notes.
-Add 2 gallons of distilled water
-pressurize with nitro at 20psi (over bleed off the air to get all o2 out)
-Shake like a mother, add more nitro, shake, and more shake till you get to 50psi
-Drop in your keezer for a while
After 4-6 days: prep/sanitize new 2.5 corny, keg to keg line with filter in the middle. I prime my filter (and as much to my lines that I can) with room temp coffee from the Keurig. We're trying to keep o2 out! Pressurize new keg, over bleed air out make all connections.
-Bleed pressure out of brew keg
-Attach nitro and set regulator to 3-5psi on brew keg
-transfer to serving keg slowly releasing nitro in the serving keg to fill with filtered coffee
-Once the coffee is transferred to the serving keg attach the nitro, crank it up to 30psi and just shake the crap out of it. You'll hear additional gas go in like force carbing, but you're not really carbing.
Grab a chilled (from the fridge not freezer) tulip glass, put a spoonful of sweet condensed milk in the bottom add a dash of vanilla to bring out the chocolate flavors and open the stout tap dead center. Or take it black...which might be the strongest coffee you've ever had. Whatever floats your boat. It pours like Guinness and stays fresh for a loooong time.
Then pour in a corny at 10 psi on nitro...and I got basically what you're talking about here. It's just cold coffee that lasts a little longer. Kind of fun but whoopity do.
But now...
-Prep (new seals) and sanitize 2.5 corny.
-Pour in 2lbs of a dark roast coffee of choice...I like something with chocolate notes.
-Add 2 gallons of distilled water
-pressurize with nitro at 20psi (over bleed off the air to get all o2 out)
-Shake like a mother, add more nitro, shake, and more shake till you get to 50psi
-Drop in your keezer for a while
After 4-6 days: prep/sanitize new 2.5 corny, keg to keg line with filter in the middle. I prime my filter (and as much to my lines that I can) with room temp coffee from the Keurig. We're trying to keep o2 out! Pressurize new keg, over bleed air out make all connections.
-Bleed pressure out of brew keg
-Attach nitro and set regulator to 3-5psi on brew keg
-transfer to serving keg slowly releasing nitro in the serving keg to fill with filtered coffee
-Once the coffee is transferred to the serving keg attach the nitro, crank it up to 30psi and just shake the crap out of it. You'll hear additional gas go in like force carbing, but you're not really carbing.
Grab a chilled (from the fridge not freezer) tulip glass, put a spoonful of sweet condensed milk in the bottom add a dash of vanilla to bring out the chocolate flavors and open the stout tap dead center. Or take it black...which might be the strongest coffee you've ever had. Whatever floats your boat. It pours like Guinness and stays fresh for a loooong time.
Excellent BlackInk! I might have to try this!
John
John
I recently did a cold-brew coffee on nitro setup. I found it very difficult to find solid info on it and have been figuring it out over the last few weeks.
I used my brew kettle to make the actual cold brew coffee. I put 2lbs of good French roast coffee(Willougyby's Columbia Supremo) that was course ground for French press. I put the coffee into a 5gal paint strainer bag from Home Depot and tied up the top with plain dental floss, both of which I dipped in my StarSan bucket first. I added 3gal of Poland Spring water to the kettle, then dunked the bag a few times. I used a sanitized metal spatula to push it fully under the water and hold it there for a minute to get air out. I then purged the kettle with CO2 to try to remove oxygen and strapped the lid on tight with a bungie cord. I put in the garage overnight where is was probably about 55° and left it for 24 hours or so. I brought it into the kitchen, pulled the paint strainer coffee bag and dumped it(it smelled so good.) I then drained from my kettle via siphon to a santized and CO2 purged keg(I didn't have my Nitrogen tank filled yet.) It left a lot of coffee sludge in the bottom of the kettle that had settled out. I put in in my kegerator to cool for 24 hours, but not hooked up to anything.
I put the coffee keg on pure nitro, not beer-gass. Purged the CO2 off with nitro, then jacked up the pressure to 20lbs and left on for 24 hours and hooked up my stout tap. Cold coffee with no Guinness like head, which left me disappointed. Purged again and upped the pressure to 25lbs. Next day, same "flat" coffee. It's really good, but flat. Jacked up the pressure to 30lbs. Next day, same "flat" coffee, took apart restrictor and flow control on stout faucet to make sure those weren't the problem. They weren't. I jacked up the pressure to 40lbs... after 3 or 4 more days of samples, still pretty flat until 7-8 days and low and behold, now it's almost over-"nitro'd", but it's got that creamy head I was looking for. I enjoyed a delicious cold coffee this morning on my way to work. My next step is going to bleed the pressure on the keg and bring the pressure back to 30-35lbs. I'll try to post a pic of the results.
So I'm finally starting to get to where I want, but it's taken over a week. From the little I could find on the Internet, I thought the nitro charging would only take 24 hours or so, but that clearly wasn't the case. I think a lot of people are just pushing it with nitro and not infusing it like Guinness. So if you are trying, keep my experience in mind and don't get disappointed after a day or 2. I'll also probably use some of @BlackInk's procedure like shaking the keg. I'll have to look into the filtering like he did too.
I used my brew kettle to make the actual cold brew coffee. I put 2lbs of good French roast coffee(Willougyby's Columbia Supremo) that was course ground for French press. I put the coffee into a 5gal paint strainer bag from Home Depot and tied up the top with plain dental floss, both of which I dipped in my StarSan bucket first. I added 3gal of Poland Spring water to the kettle, then dunked the bag a few times. I used a sanitized metal spatula to push it fully under the water and hold it there for a minute to get air out. I then purged the kettle with CO2 to try to remove oxygen and strapped the lid on tight with a bungie cord. I put in the garage overnight where is was probably about 55° and left it for 24 hours or so. I brought it into the kitchen, pulled the paint strainer coffee bag and dumped it(it smelled so good.) I then drained from my kettle via siphon to a santized and CO2 purged keg(I didn't have my Nitrogen tank filled yet.) It left a lot of coffee sludge in the bottom of the kettle that had settled out. I put in in my kegerator to cool for 24 hours, but not hooked up to anything.
I put the coffee keg on pure nitro, not beer-gass. Purged the CO2 off with nitro, then jacked up the pressure to 20lbs and left on for 24 hours and hooked up my stout tap. Cold coffee with no Guinness like head, which left me disappointed. Purged again and upped the pressure to 25lbs. Next day, same "flat" coffee. It's really good, but flat. Jacked up the pressure to 30lbs. Next day, same "flat" coffee, took apart restrictor and flow control on stout faucet to make sure those weren't the problem. They weren't. I jacked up the pressure to 40lbs... after 3 or 4 more days of samples, still pretty flat until 7-8 days and low and behold, now it's almost over-"nitro'd", but it's got that creamy head I was looking for. I enjoyed a delicious cold coffee this morning on my way to work. My next step is going to bleed the pressure on the keg and bring the pressure back to 30-35lbs. I'll try to post a pic of the results.
So I'm finally starting to get to where I want, but it's taken over a week. From the little I could find on the Internet, I thought the nitro charging would only take 24 hours or so, but that clearly wasn't the case. I think a lot of people are just pushing it with nitro and not infusing it like Guinness. So if you are trying, keep my experience in mind and don't get disappointed after a day or 2. I'll also probably use some of @BlackInk's procedure like shaking the keg. I'll have to look into the filtering like he did too.
