Whats the best serving pressure for stout.

[mancer62]

I have just made a coopers irish stout and am wondering what is the correct psi to serve it at. I know I will not get the Guinness cream effect as this would require a nitrogen mix and a sparkler style tap neither of which I have. Am I also right in thinking that Guinness is served between 36/38psi? Obviously I don't think this would be the case if using solely C02. I am looking to drink a nicely carbonated Stout which is not overly gassy and is as close to a Stout (Guinness Original not draught) taste and mouthfeel as possible looking forward to psi suggestions.
PS I know the purest will say that a Stout improves with age but I'm afraid it is the only thing I have on tap at moment. I forced carbonated it at 30psi 24 hours ago and have purged and reduced to 12psi and would like to be drinking it asap. Looking forward to replies

 

[Graz]

I'd suggest not 36/38 psi unless you want to serve a pint of very fizzy and frothy stout.

I currently have a Munton's Milk Stout in the kegerator, didn't really give it any thought as to what pressure to serve it at and just went for what I'd usually use for ales of around 8psi. It pours with a creamy head and has a decent mouthfeel. Only thing I would say is the head tends to diminish a bit quicker than I'd like and doesn't stay to the bottom of the glass, unless you drink it quick anyway. That might be down to the kit though rather than the pressure.

 

[Caramel Ox]

You need to put the desired carbonation volume eg 2.3 into a carbonation calculator along with the storage/dispense temperature. That will give you a psi to set. Give it time to settle then test and adjust to taste.

 

[mancer62]

Ty for your inpute caramel but that somehow seems beyond me...carbonation volume etc I am just looking for a general psi based on peoples experiences in kegging stout.....regards your stouts head not being the best Graz I too seem to have same problem..Good at first but not so half way down. I made my stout with recommended brew enhancer 2 and was expecting a better head. In future any simple tips out there for good head retention. Would even adding a few drops of liquid head retention fluid help or would this be seen as home brew sacrilege?

 

[peebee]

"Carbonation" and stout is an interesting subject. Stout is the only beer where most people couldn't be converted to fizzy keg. Even moderately carbonated stout was unpleasant.

Guinness tackled this conundrum in the 1950s and replaced much of the CO2 with nitrogen. It solved the "acid" problem of too much CO2, but also solved the variable "head" that appeared on much of Guinness's Stout due to some barkeepers having an indifferent attitude to keeping the Stout. There was a minor headache in persuading the public to drink their Stout at frigid temperatures (needed, along with high pressure, to get enough nitrogen to dissolve in the Stout) but Guinness are good at "persuading" (just get the right marketing folk in and ...).

But we don't need that nitrogen prattle. Just keep the carbonation of Stout low (we're home-brewers, we don't need to push the Stout very far to the tap). I find up to 5PSI creates volumes of head. And 7PSI I don't find too fizzy in stout (most secondary regulators won't hold the pressure to less than 7PSI). In "volumes": 1.1-1.2 (yeap, they're "Real Ale" levels!) though you can get away with 1.5. Wind the gas up too high and you get a glass of froth, or ironically a truly pathetic head! And too much CO2 brings back an acidic stout (i.e. not "smooth").

 

[foxy]

Ty for your inpute caramel but that somehow seems beyond me...carbonation volume etc I am just looking for a general psi based on peoples experiences in kegging stout.....regards your stouts head not being the best Graz I too seem to have same problem..Good at first but not so half way down. I made my stout with recommended brew enhancer 2 and was expecting a better head. In future any simple tips out there for good head retention. Would even adding a few drops of liquid head retention fluid help or would this be seen as home brew sacrilege?

Depends on you ingredients, flaked oats will give poor head retention due to the high fat content, more than double than that of flaked barley. Also the alcohol content will play a part on head retention, the higher the alcohol the poorer the head retention.

 

[clib]

"Carbonation" and stout is an interesting subject. Stout is the only beer where most people couldn't be converted to fizzy keg. Even moderately carbonated stout was unpleasant.

Guinness tackled this conundrum in the 1950s and replaced much of the CO2 with nitrogen. It solved the "acid" problem of too much CO2, but also solved the variable "head" that appeared on much of Guinness's Stout due to some barkeepers having an indifferent attitude to keeping the Stout. There was a minor headache in persuading the public to drink their Stout at frigid temperatures (needed, along with high pressure, to get enough nitrogen to dissolve in the Stout) but Guinness are good at "persuading" (just get the right marketing folk in and ...).

But we don't need that nitrogen prattle. Just keep the carbonation of Stout low (we're home-brewers, we don't need to push the Stout very far to the tap). I find up to 5PSI creates volumes of head. And 7PSI I don't find too fizzy in stout (most secondary regulators won't hold the pressure to less than 7PSI). In "volumes": 1.1-1.2 (yeap, they're "Real Ale" levels!) though you can get away with 1.5. Wind the gas up too high and you get a glass of froth, or ironically a truly pathetic head! And too much CO2 brings back an acidic stout (i.e. not "smooth").

I'm not sure Guinness solved a problem with nitrogen? Just found a different way to serve stout, I think, which had ben a very popular beer for a long time previously. Maybe you mean it solved the problem of how to serve from the keg, and kegs can't have been around very long back then.

Bottle conditioned Guinness was a great thing. We can choose our carbonation level to suit our tastes. I've had excellent stouts from kegs and from bottles. In fact it's one of very few styles I prefer from keg rather than cask. I'm in the minority there probably. It doesn't want to be fizzy like coke or lager though. Your 5 to 7 psi suggestion sounds about right to me based on my limited experience of kegs.

 

[peebee]

I'm not sure Guinness solved a problem with nitrogen? ...

I try to maintain a "neutral" tone in my answers these days. If you really want to know what I think about "nitro" keg, keg generally, and Guinness, then ...

 

[clib]

I try to maintain a "neutral" tone in my answers these days. If you really want to know what I think about "nitro" keg, keg generally, and Guinness, then ...

Well that's good but we are allowed to express opinions I think. More a case of how we do that.