I have a dry Irish stout cranking along in the fermenter for a party we're having on St Patty's day. I have a restrictor faucet and nitro regulator already, and want to revive my nitro draft system (need to pick up a tank of beer gas). However, I have read two basic schools of thought on the forum here and elsewhere:
1) Carb the beer to about 8 psi with straight CO2. When ready to dispense, hook that bitch up with the beer gas at 35 psi and pour.
2) Carb and dispense with beer gas at 35 psi. No messing about.
Seeing as I'm starting off with a blank slate, carb wise, what do people who have nitro systems recommend? For reference, I'm currently using a beer fridge at about 38 degrees, 6.5 ft of 3/16" line and 12.5 psi. This is what I use for all my beers. Obviously I'd have to replumb one of the 5 taps to take the nitro. I'd like to make it a permanent fixture of the bar, so I'd like to do this once and get it right. Last time I tried to do a nitro tap was about 10 years ago and I screwed it all up; glass after glass full of foam, and I said fuck it.
I've read a lot of the posts by AJ DeLange, and he really seems to know what he's talking about, but he makes my head hurt, so please try to dumb it down for me when talking about atmospheric this and partial pressures that...
Thx all,