I was inspired by an article in Craft Beer & Brewing and the need for a stout on tap to brew a irish dry stout and build a faux nitro setup.  I will follow up with a post about the faux nitro build.  It will be running a stout faucet with some valving that allows for 25-30psi pouring pressure and 3-6psi resting pressure, using only CO2 no nitro or beer gas.

I need something to pour out of it and for that a low ABV Irish dry stout was selected.  I used Ó Flannagáin Standard from homebrewtalk.  The only modification I made was to double it for an 11 gallon batch and when I saw how low the IBU’s were I added an extra ounce of challenger I had sitting in my fridge.  I mashed high at 155° for 60 minutes. OG came in at 1.048, ABV should be 4.5% to 4.7% depending on where it finishes.

Update: Finished product with creamy stout head.  The fake nitro setup works but I need to figure out the right balance of holding pressure and serving pressure.  As of now the initial pour is very frothy and you must wait for it to settle out.  You still get the cascading you would with nitro but it is slower so instead of a minute or two its more like four of five before it settles out nicely.

Heating strike water.

Milling.

Crush @ .045″.

Dark grains seperate to be added during mash-out.

Campden tablet and gypsum for HLT.

Chalk for the mash to get closer to Dublin water. 

Mashing.

HLT during mash.

Panel near end of mash.

Starting boil.

Almost there.

Boil achieved.

Cooling.

Cooled, letting whirlpool settle.

Ten gallons waiting for oxygen and yeast.  WLP004 starter still finishing up.

 

Update:  Fermentation underway