Thoughts on Nitro.

The feel of nitro generally doesn’t appeal to me, if anything it tends to detract from whatever style it’s being utilized for. But that’s just me.
I do like a Guinness pint on tap once in a while though, it’s like comfort food.

 

I had ABT 12 on Nitro once.

My favorite is Fremont Dark Star on Nitro.

 

I love nitro and I wish was more common for other styles of beer besides weak stouts. I’ve had a couple of DIPAs on nitro. They were interesting. The most interesting beer I’ve had on nitro (this was years back) was Tahoe Mountain Auld Bitch BBA Barleywine. It was absolutely sublime.

 

My favorite beer by local brewer R. Shea is Polymer, an espresso stout, and it is great on nitro. Gives that heavy, sweet beer just the right smoothness for a sublime mouthfeel.

 

A very memorable beer experience for me was nitro Rubæus. I think the issue for me is typically judging if the beer was better with or without the nitro. In this case, I found the beer on nitro to be much more enjoyable than the many regular versions of the beer I’ve had whether it was a can, bottle, or regular draft.

 

I'm not a big fan of nitro. It's not that it's bad. It's fine. It's just not as good as the beer when it's not on nitro.

But I love a good ESB and would probably order one if I saw it on nitro just out of curiosity.

 

I like it. I even liked the nitro that Budweiser did

 

In general, I rarely go for beers on nitro. Although, I had a Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald porter on nitro at the BBA Blackout Stout release last Wednesday and it was very good.

 

I avoid nitro beers, they come off as very watery to me. If I get a nitro beer its usually on accident.

 

I hate Nitro, I just seem to taste...GAS if that makes sense ha (honestly, I have never been able to figure out what it is, just that it is almost flavorless and gassy to me, and I have never found them "creamy" or whatever other people tend to say about it). I have always found it odd that brewers would intentionally add an additional gas to their product that isn't a real by product of fermentation. The only good quality is the cascading kind of look it provides. I tend to avoid it at all costs now, but thats just me and nobody else should listen ha. Though, give me a proper cask any day, which can be argued that is what Nitro is trying to replicate (at least the look of it). I'll also say, and this is just my own personal opinion. If Guinness wasn't the brewery to introduce Nitro, and it was Anheuser or some other mega brewery not so fondly "romanticized" by the craft beer community, it wouldn't be near as popular.

 

It's fun to look at.

I like the creaminess it provides in the body of the beer, but doesn't always equate to better tasting beer (sometimes).

That's all the thoughts I have on nitro.

 

My thoughts on nitro are similar to what @bubseymour expressed above.

Nitro is impactful to the mouthfeel/texture of the beer which may be a positive for certain beer styles (e.g., stouts). But it comes with the downside that is impacts the flavor profile of the beer, it tends to ‘dumb down’ the beers flavor. CO2 does a much better job carrying the aroma/flavor aspects of the beer to the palate.

I have enjoyed a handful of nitro poured beer brands but for the majority of the time it just negatively impacts the flavor profile too much.

Cheers!

 

I do like a beer on nitro. They remind me of cask ales. On our last visit to the UK I think I had cask ales every day. For me, I love the way they look and the mouthfeel works for me. But here I don't see many cask ales nor many nitro beers. This thread reminds me that I need to go get some Guiness.

 

I like nitro beers for the most part. While I'd rather have a well-cared for cask version of any particular beer I've had on nitro, the "cheater" version ain't bad.

 

Enjoy the Guinness coffee but overall not a nitro fan. On tap many beers feel thin and watery and the flavors are muted. By the end of the glass I feel like it’s a watery mess. I had a Founders pale ale on nitro once and it really seemed to lose the hops and was one of the worst beers I’ve had on tap. Felt like the nitro just ruined the beer.

Enjoy

 

While, I'll agree that the look of nitro and cask are similar, and they are both generally associated with UK and Irish "pub" beers, and I have also made that association before.

Though when I think about it, they are almost polar opposites. Cask beer has a ton of wide ranging flavors that varies on how old the cask is, how it is stored etc, which are easily detected within a day or two. Cask is as naturally conditioned as you can get (or at least trying to be). Unfiltered, carbonated in the vessel it is served in, without anything extra added (not getting into breathers here ha). At best it lasts about 4 or 5 days until its basically not something you want to drink. There has to be plenty of knowledge on how to care and serve it. It can be the best beer you have ever had, or the worst beer, depending on how old and how it was conditioned ha.

Nitro, at least to me, seems muted in every way. Though, even if you like it, It will never really change and is more similar to keg beer in that way. Also, it is an extra gas added that is not part of fermentation. Though it is easier to care for and serve, and has a much longer shelf life of coarse. A bartender doesn't really have to have any foreknowledge on nitro, just that it has to go on a specific line.

Anyway, just some more thoughts I had.

 

I like the texture, but it mutes the flavor and (especially) the nose. I don't know if I prefer anything on nitro vs. other dispensing methods, but it can occasionally be fun. Worth noting, I find that it makes almost anything excessively drinkable. That includes crazy strong beers that have no business going down that easy.

 

ABT 12 seems like a weird choice for nitro, no? Maybe not. I always equate nitrogen use with stouts or quads to amp up a “creamy” mouthful and mellow flatten hoppiness. In the end, the result always seems like a “flat” beer.

If nothing else, if done right, it’s a cool look in a clear glass for a minute.