To make up for the lack of carbon dioxide, Dorchester Brewing uses nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide in some cases.
“We were able to transfer a lot of the operational functions to nitrogen,” McKenna continued. “Some of the most effective of these are purge tanks and shielding gases in canning and capping processes. These are our biggest achievements to date because these processes require so much carbon dioxide. For a long time we also have a special nitro. Beer Hall Beer Production Line We use a dedicated nitrogen generator to produce all the nitrogen for the brewhouse – both for the dedicated nitro line and for our beer gas mixture.”
N2 is the most economical inert gas to produce and can find use in the basements, packaging rooms and brew rooms of craft breweries. Nitrogen is cheaper than beverage-grade carbon dioxide and is often more affordable, depending on its availability in your area.
N2 can be purchased as a gas in a high-pressure cylinder or as a liquid in a Dewar or large storage tank. Nitrogen can also be produced on site using a nitrogen generator. Nitrogen generators work by removing oxygen molecules from the air.
Nitrogen is the most abundant element in the Earth’s atmosphere (78%), with the remainder being oxygen and trace gases. This also makes it more environmentally friendly as you emit less carbon dioxide.
In brewing and packaging, N2 is used to prevent oxygen from entering beer. When used correctly (most people mix carbon dioxide with nitrogen when handling carbonated beer), nitrogen can be used to clean tanks, pump beer from tank to tank, pressurize kegs before storage, and aerate tank lids. The tanks are cleaned and nitro is injected. instead of carbon dioxide as a flavoring component. In bars, nitro can be used in nitro beer dispensing lines, as well as in high-pressure, long-distance systems where nitrogen is mixed with a certain percentage of carbon dioxide to prevent beer from foaming on the tap. Nitrogen can even be used as a stripping gas to degas water (if this is part of your production).