A Brief History of N2 Seperation/Generation Part II

In 1989 Calor Gas a large, and old company that specialized in Propane, and Butane was a very cash-rich company with a slow and steadily declining business. With business declining the company sought out efforts to divest and find new avenues of revenue. Two employees of Calor, an engineer by the name of Ken Page, and Calor’s Sales Representative Bob Davies found an advertisement in a Gas publication for the Monsanto Permea Membrane, and the two began developing the Calor Air separation division.

Their initial product line consisted of five different systems that ranged in size from 30" in Height to roughly over 7 feet! The volume outputs would range from as little as 1.41 CFH to 3,178 CFH. Calor targeted several industries from pharmaceuticals and food packaging, to the oil and gas industry for blanketing fuel and chemical containers.

Later that year the Calor team met a gentleman by the name of Ron Wentz at a Pub and Leisure trade show. Ron had many contacts in the beer world as he worked for a company named APV. APV had many products that ranged from valves, and components for beer keg's, as well as keg racking systems. Ron was interested in the Calor air seperation system and noticed that it had a large component alongside it which was explained to Ron by Bob Davies that it was a gas blender. Besides being large in size, the gas blender required power in order to operate...

This introduction would ultimately lead the Calor Group into an Industry that was in need of their new product line...More to come!

#Nitrogengenerator #N2U #milcarb #milcarbbevlab #Nitrocoffee #craftbeer #guinness #diageo

*A fun fact about Calor Gas is that the building they occupied was the building where Radar was perfected back in WW2.

A Brief History of Blended Gas For Draft Beer: Part III

By the Year 2000 Gas blenders started to become more prevalent in beer system design due to their accuracy of blend percentages. The pre-mix HP cylinder had flaws of not delivering accurate blend percentages, and were costly to the end user. The quality of draft beer in the US was beginning to improve substantially. With the rise of Bulk Co2 in the US since the 1980’s and the influx of McDantim gas blenders now coming to the market, there was now a bigger need for Nitrogen supply to complete the beverage package in most Bar and Restaurant applications.

Over the next two decades there were numerous advancements in technology as well as food standards that would demand a higher quality in the beer dispensing industry. Education through equipment manufacturers, and Breweries, as well as the Food Modernization act brought the industry together to strive to deliver a better end product to the consumer. This in itself began to pave the way for Beverage grade gases, and inadvertently raised a demand for on-site Nitrogen generation.

Blended gas as it pertains to beer has had quite the history. So the next time you take a sip from your favorite IPA, or bourbon barrel aged stout, or you are finding yourself admiring the fireworks in a glass as your Nitro beer cascades, raise your glass and send a cheers to the science that made it so!

#Nitrogengenerators #milcarb #milcarbbevlab #n2u

A Brief History of Blended Gas For Draft Beer: Part II

In 1988 a company from California named Draft Systems owned at the time by Mert Fallon sold all of the company's assets to a large company from Denmark with exception of a few products. The company that acquired Mert's business had no interest in these products as they did not see any value in them at the time. However, Mert saw the potential integrity of one of these products which happened to be a gas blender that he had a hand in designing for Guinness. With the blender portion of the acquisition being thrown to the wayside, McDantim was established along with another company called Beverage Systems Limited. There were several gas blenders on the market at that time but lacked efficient performance, required electricity, and had a heavy price tag. Beverage Systems Limited the entity of McDantim in the UK first found a demand for their blending technology working with a company named Calor Gas. Calor Gas at the time had developed a N2 Generator/Seperator, and ended up stumbling upon a brewery application that called for a gas blender. This story in itself has more detail, and will be revisited in Part IV.

In the US Prior to blended gas, Bars and restaurants would use straight CO2, or compressed air mixed with CO2 to push beer in long draw systems to alleviate over carbonation. The downside was delivering flat beer, as well as introducing oxygen causing the beer to spoil faster and dispense with off flavors and creating “wild” beer.

In 1991 McDantim Came to market in the US with their blender to efficiently blend N2/CO2 to help solve the issue of over carbonated, and under carbonated beer regardless of the length of the system, as well as to support Guinness Draught. At that time Guinness was making a big sales push in the United States that demanded the proper gas to dispense their product. They would visit Gas distributors in their selected markets in attempts to develop a partnership in hopes the distributors would partner with McDantim or alternatively make a custom 25% CO2 75% N2 Premix gas that would be filled in a cylinder for the dispense of their product anywhere Guinness was to be on draft.

#Nitrogengenerators #milcarb #milcarbbevlab #n2u