CANducting A Side-By-Side/Back-To-Back CANparison

Yes. If I remember correctly: Young's Double Chocolate, Bellhaven Scottish Ale, and Old Speckled Hen in cans vs bottles. I like canned nitro beer from big brewers (Guinness, Boddingtons... but I don't like buying it from American craft brewers). In the case of comparison tastings, all stuff from Greene King was preferable in the bottle than nitro in my opinion. The difference in the Young's branded beer wasn't as bad - that was more of a tradeoff between bolder flavor or smoother texture depending on one's preference.

I've also done comparison tastings on draught in brewer's taprooms (sometimes with cask as a third option). Nitro never came up as the favorite in that circumstance. The last time I did this, there wasn't even a noticeable difference in the two beers (despite the brewer's claims that the difference was huge). It had to have been either: a case of being served the wrong beer, a brewing or dispensing issue, or a case of a brewer making an exaggerated claim. I don't think craft brewers mix well with nitro.

 

FWIW this has been my consistent experience when packaging a given beer brand via regular CO2 vs. Nitro. Certain beer styles may benefit from having a smoother texture at the loss of flavor but needless to say this is subjective.

Cheers!

 

What was the beer?

 

I found that Old Chub Nitro was >CO2 but I reckon that it's been discontinued.

 

Nice experiment and great education.
I've found that Nitro beer may be initially softer and creamier, but the nitrogen must vaporize quickly out of the beer, because within a few minutes the beer becomes flat. The CO2 seems to maintain better solubility in the beer and remain in the beer once poured.
I'm a slow and steady drinker so I prefer the old standard carbonation.

 

The style that you CANchose does lend itself out to N2. I think you need to CANsample several more styles before you come to any CANclusions.