Nitro options

[bbohanon]

So I am a huge fan of FWalkers Nitro Merlin and here in Charlotte, NC, Total Wine finally is starting to carry it which has my interest back into looking at how to nitro my own porters and stouts..

With that said and me just loving dark beers on nitro in general, I have always steered clear of a nitro setup as I have not found it easy to source nitrogen and just did not want the headache of a special tap/tank/setup/etc for it..

After googling a bit for other options, I came across Nitrobrew as a potential option..it only allows you to nitro a single beer/beverage at a time and involves charging/shaking the canister it comes with, but the fact you dont have to have a nitro tank and its pretty portable, I decided to spend some of my slush money and I have one on the way..

Anyone else have one of these and have any experience/issues with it? I get a 30-day return if its not what its billed to be, but I do like the fact you can nitro a beer, or cold brew coffee (which I also love) so I guess we shall see..At $355, it was a bit pricey, but if it works..

Will post some of my experiences with it here once it arrives..

 

[bbohanon]

So I got this system Friday..Let me be the first to say how impressed I am with this system. The thing that kept me away from Nitro was extra tank/refill/CO2 mix setup, stout taps, etc..Just was a bit more work than I wanted to deal with for a Nitro beer every now and again when I have that well made porter/stout on tap..
This setup really works..it will only nitro one beer at a time, but you only are drinking one at a time (well most of us anyways) so no worries.
If I had any concern, it would be around the kettle handle as it looks tack welded in, but so far, as long as you follow the instructions (only handling the kettle by the handle while charging and dispensing only) it may never be an issue.

We got quite lit on Sunday trying new things with this system but so far, I am not regretting this purchase at all. I can see myself using this quite a bit and for those "special" beers.
Some things we tried:

Budweiser Strawberry-Rita (wife loves these) - This sucked on Nitro..not because it was a AB beer, it just did not take the Nitro well and lost most of its carbonation and kept none of the nitro head. With this being more of a "liquor" based beverage, I dont think it worked. This one is best left in the can and drank as-is (even though it has a horrible aftertaste that I cannot place). On Nitro, this turned into a flat strawberry mess.

Nitro'ing my Orange Zested Blonde - This yielded a beer that has a very soft taste and smelled tasted more like an orange julius style of beer when Nitro'ed. Nitroing this made this a different beer which I enjoyed, but I like this beer on or off Nitro.

Nitro'ing my award winning chocolate milk stout - This really is where this system took one of my best beers to the next level..This beer on Nitro turns into heaven on earth..We even tried dropping in 3-4 drops of peppermint extract into the kettle prior to nitro charging it and it turned the beer into a thin mint milkshake style of beer. I think we consumed over 25 beers between the 2 of us trying new combos with Vanilla extract/no extract/peppermint extract and they were ALL outstanding.

After a heavy nitro beer drinking day, I am sold..if you are looking for a portable, easy to use, simple Nitro setup, Nitrobrew really fits well. Its a bit expensive at $350, but most Nitro Draft systems usually come in at over $300 (which will require Nitro tank refills), its actually not as expensive than it was at first glance.

The plus with this system is you can Nitro pretty much any drink on the fly (coffee/etc) which makes it more attractive to those who like nitro infused drinks other than just beer.

Some pics of my chocolate milk stout "Nitro Brewed" during cascade and post cascade..

 

[johnstod]

So how does this thing work? It's a kind of pump, from the looks of your pics, that takes nitrogen out of the air and pumps it in? No need for refills ever?

 

[bbohanon]

So how does this thing work? It's a kind of pump, from the looks of your pics, that takes nitrogen out of the air and pumps it in? No need for refills ever?

It comes with a kettle, charging station, and an air brush compressor and some hose to attach the charging station and compressor..It basically takes the nitrogen out of the air and charges the kettle with it. Air being 78% Nitrogen, it just pulls it from the air..

The kettle has a quasi-stout tap on the top where it takes the nitrogen charge and you dispense the beer when its ready.

Its genuis and will never need a tank/refills/etc.

The charging station (which is basically just a small black box) could be mounted under a cabinet for permanent positioning and the compressor could be put somewhere out of sight as it only comes on when its charging the kettle (or the compressor drops below the pre-set PSI). Its very quiet when it runs for the brief time needed to charge the kettle which is nice.

At some point I will probably permanently mount this thing in my brewery but I am reconfiguring a few things this month with the arrival of a new Spike CF10 Conical and a DIY A/C glycol buildout.

Again, the downside is it will only charge and serve one 12oz beer at a time which would be a problem in a bar situation when speed/volume is of the essence, but for home use, its perfect.

I have absolutely no skin in the game to promote these folks and I will be completely honest, I was skeptical about this whole deal and buying something "gadgetized" like this for the amount of money I dropped on it but I am shocked at just how well it works so far and have no buyers remorse about it.

Their site has some videos of the system: https://nitrobrew.com/ if you want to talk a closer look at just how it all works.

 

[johnstod]

It comes with a kettle, charging station, and an air brush compressor and some hose to attach the charging station and compressor..It basically takes the nitrogen out of the air and charges the kettle with it. Air being 78% Nitrogen, it just pulls it from the air..

The kettle has a quasi-stout tap on the top where it takes the nitrogen charge and you dispense the beer when its ready.

Its genuis and will never need a tank/refills/etc.

The charging station (which is basically just a small black box) could be mounted under a cabinet for permanent positioning and the compressor could be put somewhere out of sight as it only comes on when its charging the kettle (or the compressor drops below the pre-set PSI). Its very quiet when it runs for the brief time needed to charge the kettle which is nice.

At some point I will probably permanently mount this thing in my brewery but I am reconfiguring a few things this month with the arrival of a new Spike CF10 Conical and a DIY A/C glycol buildout.

Again, the downside is it will only charge and serve one 12oz beer at a time which would be a problem in a bar situation when speed/volume is of the essence, but for home use, its perfect.

I have absolutely no skin in the game to promote these folks and I will be completely honest, I was skeptical about this whole deal and buying something "gadgetized" like this for the amount of money I dropped on it but I am shocked at just how well it works so far and have no buyers remorse about it.

Their site has some videos of the system: https://nitrobrew.com/ if you want to talk a closer look at just how it all works.

This is definitely on my list but I'm still new so a keg system is first.

Did you get any of the flavour packs too?

 

[bbohanon]

This is definitely on my list but I'm still new so a keg system is first.

Did you get any of the flavour packs too?

If you are not kegging yet, that's definitely priority over something like this..I keg everything (bottle as needed with my blichmann beer gun for handouts) and I would never go back to bottle conditioning my beer..I could never get good consistency in the beer/carbonation until I moved to kegging and force carbing.
Now my problem is I have too many dang kegs and most of them sit empty of late..

On the flavor packs:
I did not get any of the flavor packs as I thought their pricing was a bit steep for those and I am not keen on alot of the flavors they have..
I used all natural 100% Peppermint Extract and Vanilla Extract I picked up on Amazon for my chocolate milk stout additions experiment..they worked great and were much cheaper than the NitroBrew flavor packs are priced.

Cheers!

 

[johnstod]

If you are not kegging yet, that's definitely priority over something like this..I keg everything (bottle as needed with my blichmann beer gun for handouts) and I would never go back to bottle conditioning my beer..I could never get good consistency in the beer/carbonation until I moved to kegging and force carbing.
Now my problem is I have too many dang kegs and most of them sit empty of late..

On the flavor packs:
I did not get any of the flavor packs as I thought their pricing was a bit steep for those and I am not keen on alot of the flavors they have..
I used all natural 100% Peppermint Extract and Vanilla Extract I picked up on Amazon for my chocolate milk stout additions experiment..they worked great and were much cheaper than the NitroBrew flavor packs are priced.

Cheers!

Luckily I have a spare freezer underneath my bottle fridge, it's just getting some kegs and drilling some holes at this point. Co2 I can get at the end of my street which is also nice.

Think this will be high on my list after as I love a good nitro stout.

 

[bbohanon]

Luckily I have a spare freezer underneath my bottle fridge, it's just getting some kegs and drilling some holes at this point. Co2 I can get at the end of my street which is also nice.

Think this will be high on my list after as I love a good nitro stout.

I wish I could get CO2 at the end of my street..
Its a 50 mile drive to swap out tanks when they die on me at this point.

I actually just "Nitrobrewed" another one of my chocolate milk stouts about 5 mins ago and am enjoying right now..lol..Sadly, I went from 40 bottles I had bottled up of this stout yesterday down to under 8 left now. Another downside of Nitro Brew is you drink more of it..lol

Thankfully I brewed 10 gallons of a caramel porter yesterday that is happily bubbling in the fermenter that I dropped 52oz Kraft Caramels into 15 mins before flame out. Think its going to track to about 8% ABV when it finished out and will be smooth as silk.