I want to show you what is basically a beer magic trick. I’m gonna take this beer, uh, Munich Helles that was carbonated with CO2, and I’m gonna turn it into a nitro pour, and the trick is I’m gonna do it without any nitro canisters.
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So I’ve got an air compressor, a nitro brew box, and then this jug.
And that is the nitro cascade effect. Yeah. I have made a CO2 beer into a nitro pour. So question is where did the nitro come from?
Well, before we get to that, I’ve got Norm coming over so I need to find some other drinks to, uh, to nitrate. Norm, are you a fan of nitro drinks?
Love nitro and beer. Haven’t nitro-d much of anything else.
Well, maybe now is the time. We certainly seem to have the gear for it.
Yeah. So what we do have this thing is called nitro brew. It basically just an air compressor. You put the compressed air through this plunger here into this. You give it a shake and then you pour it out.
Where does the nitrogen come from?
It’s not coming from a nitrogen tank.
I’m guessing it’s being filtered outta the air. That’s right. Our air is mostly nitrogen. So that makes sense. The air is mostly nitrogen. This is crazy. Yeah. My sixth grade chemistry class is paying off right now. There we go.
Go something like 80% of the air is actually nitrogen rather than oxygen. So it’s literally just using the nitrogen in the air.
That’s that’s kind of amazing.
So I made some cold brew coffee. One thing to keep in mind when using this is the beverage needs to be cold. I mean, just like when you make beer and then you force carbonate, it, it needs to be cold first.
Right? Um, that way it’s gonna be more soluble into the drink.
So we’ll do 16 ounces of coffee. Lid goes on like that and then this is going to add in the compressed air. So it’s just pulling the air in.
Charged to around 40 PSI season. Okay. Pushing this plunger. Now you just give it a shake, right?
Yeah. And that’s essentially just infusing the nitrogen in the, in the beer similar to the way the widget does inside of a Guinness.
Exactly. Yeah. This is metal is just balanced, I mean it’s super cold.
Oh wow. It is so really chilly. Okay. So gimme a glass and let’s see if this has worked.
It’s beginning to set up. You can already see it separating at the bottom.
See the cascades? Yeah.
Yeah. I am. I am, uh, I am really curious to see what this taste looks because, uh, I, I don’t drink a lot of nitro coffee. I drink I’m a coffee drinker, but not the nitro of the cold brew stuff.
How good it smells. Mm Oh, that’s that’s really great. You’re definitely getting that, that sort of creamy, smooth. Oh yeah. Smooth mouth feel.
Yeah. No bitterness at all. Mm. None.
Nitrogen Iced Tea?
That makes a difference. I, that, so have you ever in your life tried nitrogen iced tea?
No. Absolutely not. In fact, I’ve never even heard of nitrogen iced tea.
Tell you what do you wanna do the honors this time? Sure. And set the nozzle into that. Yep. And then just push on that to let it out.
All right. So that goes in with that, you know, that it’s charged because now it’s sort of rocks on the table. Right.
So now we just give it swirl or a shake?
Shake, give it of shake. Okay. Recommendation is not hold the handle. Okay. Just hold the base and then yeah.
It’s getting pretty cold. Give a try, give it a try. Okay. Okay. Oh, my shot up pretty fast. Now that doesn’t look as nitrogenated as the coffee.
Well, I mean, if we look at the difference.
Yeah. Oh yeah. There’s, there’s a world. I mean, you could tell that it’s definitely in there, not as discernible a difference. No, with the tea.
I think we need more shaking.
That’s uh, yeah, that, that looks like it. Um, it’s a different treatment.
Yeah. And now you can see the, the cascades, right? Starting to form. Yeah.
It’s like sipping on tea flavored air.
If I was a tea drinker, um, I would prefer to drink it this way.
All right. Look, we’ve done,… coffee. We’ve done tea. Yep. Did we do some beer?
That’s what I really came here for was the beer.
Brian sent me this from short circuited brews. It’s a chocolate coffee imperial stout of Brians. Thank you. Now what makes this a little different is compared to the coffee and the tea, this is already carbonated. Sure. So we’re gonna be kind of shaking out the CO2 okay. From the beer and replacing it with nitrogen.
Oh, right. So we’re gonna flatten the beer and then infuse the beer. That’s right. Very cool.
Now, actually, this brings me on to a point that I was concerned about initially, which was aren’t we just oxidizing the beer by doing this? Which is the last thing you want to do with beer. Yeah.
Well, I mean, we definitely are oxidizing it because when we put the compressed air in, although most of it’s nitrogen that is still oxygen. Oh, I see. But at the same time we are drinking it right now, as opposed to letting the oxygen sit in the beer for like days and then it would start to spoil. Right. Right.
So I think that’s what makes it okay. Is that the oxygen does not have time to do it sort of thing where it makes stuff taste like cardboard.
Right, right. But yeah, I think you’re right. I think that requires a good bit of time for that oxidation chemistry to work.
Yeah. I mean, if you think when you pour a beer into a glass, you are oxidizing it then as well. Right. Of course. So, okay. So I have given us a few shakes.
Oh, that looks gorgeous. Wow. Both of ’em just cascading like crazy.
That is a thing of beauty.
It is it’s gorgeous. And that’s gonna take a while set up. So, uh, not really something that we can sip right away. We’re gonna have to let that set up before we take a sip.
I normally have to go out and buy nitrogen, put it in a can, servie it under pressure. Right. Put it through a special force it and all that sort of stuff. I mean, and it looks exactly it comes out looking like that. Yeah.
Uh, I mean, look at that. It’s got, it’s still got that much to set up. Yeah. Before you really have the beer.
Again, the head on this beer. Yeah. You know that creamy foamy head. Should we give this a go?
Do you think it’s time? Yeah. Okay. The taste is fabulous. I mean, it’s really amazing.
When I put a beer on nitrogen, I have to decide right up front, is this gonna be a nitro pour or is it gonna be a CO2 pour? Right.
But now I can take any beer that’s already fully carbonated with CO2. Right. And then see what it tastes like on nitrogen as well. Right. So that’s, to me, that’s the big advantage is I think going forward every beer that I have now, I’ll probably try on nitro.
Why wouldn’t you? You are right.
Yeah, Absolutely.
See which ones work best. I think all our tasting sessions now need to have two versions of the beer. Right. I’m up for that. I, I, I, I am fully committed to, uh, to doing that if needed.
I appreciate your service. For the art! Absolutely.
Cheers!
Lead marketer, brewer, dad, and husband. Pretty much an all-round awesome guy. I’ve been homebrewing for +20 yrs, an aspiring pro-brewer and micro brewery owner!