Nitro Beer – A Quirky Nitrogen Fad

Introduction

Quirky, remarkable and out of the ordinary things tend to attract customers these days. One of the new additions to this trend is the nitro beer or nitrogen beer. Brewers know the importance of the ‘mouth feel’ of the beer. When a beer has a better mouth feel, it is more enjoyable to drink and provides a more immersive experience. Mouth feel, then, is everything. This article is all about nitro beer, nitro brew, nitro pour, or any other terms that are being used to sell this strange concoction. 

So… What Exactly Is Nitro Beer?

The usual traditional beer uses carbon dioxide to achieve the fizzy effect that beer is famous for. In Nitro Beer, a 70-30 ratio is used: 70% nitrogen to 30% carbon dioxide. This results in:

• A smoother, fuller mouth feel. Many describe the feel more like a milkshake than a beer.
• A larger, longer-lasting head. Instead of quickly dissolving after the beer is poured, a nitro brew will retain its impressive head.
• A different appearance in the bubbles. Instead of the bubbles looking like they are rising, they look like they are falling, which is just fun to look at.

Instead of getting nitrogen gas delivered to their brewery every time they need it, brewers and bars now install nitrogen generators or nitrogen plants on site to save money as well as time. An on-site nitrogen generator saves the hassle of storing cylinders and calling up suppliers every time one runs out of nitrogen gas. This trend is relatively new in India, but brewers and nitrogengas plant manufactures in India already have a good working relationship. This relationship is only going to move forward with time.

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How Does PSA Nitrogen Generator Work?

The generators that produce Nitrogen gas from atmospheric air by using Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology are known as PSA Nitrogen generators. This is a reliable and simple technique that separates Nitrogen from the compressed atomic air through adsorption of oxygen over Carbon Molecular Sieves (CMS) bed. This bed has infinite number of small pores. When CMS is used in the process of PSA, the Oxygen molecule gets trapped in the pore and hence, the Oxygen gets adsorbed and Nitrogen gets recovered to a high degree. 

The entire process is fully automatic and controlled by a combination of quick change over valves and sequence programmer. A PSA Nitrogen generator is most suitable for applications that require medium to high purity of 99.9% or more. The generator guarantees the purity of Nitrogen gas and there are no fluctuations during the process.

ADVANTAGES

Some of the advantages are:

1.        The maintenance cost is extremely low.

2.        The minimum life span of CMS is 10-12 years.

3.        The supply of Nitrogen is always under the user’s control.

4.        These generators are highly reliable for running un-attended for months.

USAGE

These generators are often used in,

A.        Military Application

B.        Nitrogen Tire Inflation

C.        Jewelry Manufacturing

D.       Cold Storage

E.        Food Packaging Industry

F.         Oil Extraction

G.       Cement Plants

H.        Aircraft Fuel Tank Inerting

Nitrogen Generator vs Nitrogen Cylinders

The basic differences between the two are listed below:

1.        Nitrogen Generators are more economical as compared to Nitrogen Cylinders.

2.        There are no hidden costs with Nitrogen Generators while there are many in the later one, such as labor cost, cylinder cost and so on.

3.        The gas purity is very reliable and steady in case of generators while this is not with Nitrogen cylinders.

4.        The gas supply is continuous and hence the production doesn’t suffer due to the fluctuating demand of Nitrogen. On the other hand, the dependency increases in the case of Nitrogen cylinders.

It is hence evident that Nitrogen Generators are more useful and economical than Nitrogen Cylinders.