ing the answer. It’ s an inert gas that won’ t spoil the beer, it’ s inexpensive, abundant, and readily available. His team designed a special keg, faucet, and pouring system. The new system was ready and implemented in 1959 for Guinness’ s 200th anniversary. They called it the“ Easy Serve” system and it helped make Guinness Draught the global phenomenon it is today.
It wasn’ t long before other breweries adopted the nitrogen method. First only UK brands but as the craft movement progressed, you started noticing American brands nitrogenating selected styles. The creamy flavor you get from nitro beers is caused by a few things. There’ s much less carbon dioxide, first of all, which makes the beer less bubbly and less acidic. That bite you get from carbonated drinks is an acidic one. Anyone here sensitive to carbonated beverages? Nitro’ s got you covered. Nitrogen also lowers hop bitterness making the beer sweeter and smoother. The number one reason though has to be the magical, dense, creamy foam at the top that tends to stick to everything it comes in contact with: your tongue, your upper lip, the sides of the glass, and the top of the beer! All the way to the last sip.
For decades this style of pour was only available on tap and not to be enjoyed at home. Until, that is, the late 80s when Guinness( of course!) invented the“ widget” can, allowing Guinness Draught to be enjoyed at home. Throughout the 90s other U. K. breweries adopted the widget can. American breweries were now jumping on the nitro bus by having nitro versions of their beers on draft. None of them tackled the widget cans, though. It wasn’ t until Left Hand Brewing in Colorado released a widget-less nitro bottle, using liquid nitrogen dosing, that we saw an American brewer release a nitro package.
The process for making nitro beer isn’ t in the brewing process. Nitro beers are brewed the same way as other beers. The magic happens in packaging and the preparation for packaging. Normal carbonated beer gets a dose of carbon dioxide either while in the packaging tank( known as a“ bright tank”) or on the way to the tank. For nitro beers that’ s done with nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide and it’ s a two-step process. Just pouring a beer with nitrogen dissolved in it won’ t get that milky cascade of bubbles. The nitrogen has to be forced out quickly, almost violently. That’ s what the widget does. The liquid nitrogen dosed bottles require the beer to be poured hard into a glass. In the keg version, the beer is under more than twice the pressure of the normal carbonated beers. When poured it is then forced under this high-pressure through a restrictor plate in the faucet, also called a“ jet disk,” where the beer is forced through five tiny holes after which the pressure is reduced and directed in the nozzle with a regulation cone. A properly nitrogenated keg should be able to pour directly nonstop into a pint glass and finish with a half inch to one inch head. Any more than that and the beer was kegged with too much carbonation. A little carbonation is good but too much and it’ ll be a constant struggle pouring from that keg. Guinness does recommend a time consuming two-part pour process which I believe, thanks to their excellent nitrogenation methods, is unnecessary. I welcome any of you to prove me wrong in a pour-off, but I find it interesting that Guinness would invent the“ Easy Serve” system to eliminate and simplify a lengthy two-part pour only to introduce another lengthy two-part pour.
We had a lot of fun nitrogenating several different styles on the liquid nitrogen doser. The packaging team dosed several cases of each so we had plenty of beer to take home and test. While it did magical things for a few of our styles, the majority of our beers were not as tasty on nitro. I was surprised at how our IPA Elissa fared. Elissa is amazingly delicious on cask but lackluster on nitro. The Saint Arnold Amber was great as a nitro, not necessarily better, and the Winter Stout was phenomenal. It seems to work best for stouts, porters and maltier ales. Hoppier and lighter beers taste like there’ s something missing. It was a neat experiment and when the test run was complete we sent it back. The only Saint Arnold beer that it really made better was the Winter Stout, a seasonal beer we only sold a few weeks out of the year( and is now discontinued). That was not enough to warrant incorporating it into our production line. Nitrogenating beer has proven to be a great technological advancement to beer. It’ s not for all styles but for the right beers it truly does something magical, or should I say mathematical?
Chris Keller has worked in beer sales for a distributor, as a brewer for Saint Arnold Brewing Co. in Houston, and is the owner of Pint and Barrel Drafthouse in Palestine, Texas.
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The process for making nitro beer isn’ t in the brewing process... The magic happens in packaging and the preperation for packaging.
Spring 2025 | Jacksonville Progress 27