To nitro, or not (tro)

[Slev]

Hi folks,

Am looking at a stout recipe, which looks interesting, but suggests serving with nitro.
In general, is nitro a nice to have feature, or is it essential for certain beers? As in, If a beer is good, will it be good with or without nitro?

[Gerryjo]

Hi folks,

Am looking at a stout recipe, which looks interesting, but suggests serving with nitro.
In general, is nitro a nice to have feature, or is it essential for certain beers? As in, If a beer is good, will it be good with or without nitro?

As far as I'm aware Nitrogen is only used to give the creaminess to the head when poured as in Guinness so would say go ahead and give it a whirl..

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[Shanna]

While nitro is not essential for stout it does give it a creamy texture like you said but its not just limited to stouts. Some people myself included will serve beers such as Irish reds or English bitters on nitro. If your going to use nitro gas you need to get a sparkler tap that has a restrictor plate in that will for the nitro gas and the liquid through tiny holes that will cause the nitro to expand and give that cream head,

Shanna

[Slev]

thanks for the replies.
A nitro set up is one of those long finger tasks (sounds very wrong)at the moment. 
So, i will probably do the usual :  give the stout a brew , and then imagine how it could be so much better by serving it with nitro, which would make any of those niggling flaws disappear - leading to an inevitable purchase and addition to the system, sooner than expected. The length of the finger varies! it would seem)

but,  brew the beer first regardless

[johnrm]

You could use a syringe.
https://goo.gl/fNZcXp

[molc]

The nitro makes it creamier and also sweet, bringing more malt to the fore, muting the hops. It takes a bit of tweaking to get your beer right for it, so I'd def put it on the long finger.

The key thing is any beer you'd normally server on nitro, make sure you carbonate it less, as that will give it more smoothness and be closer to what you expect. Also you can pump it with a syringe to get the creamy effect.

EDIT: John bet me too the syringe

[Bazza]

Is it a myth that nitro contributes to hangovers?

-Barry

[molc]

Is it a myth that nitro contributes to hangovers?

-Barry

I couldn't say - I've normally imbibed too many "samples" to judge objectively That said, most of the air we breath is nitrogen, so I can't image we would have an adverse reaction to some dissolved in liquid.

[Shanna]

You could use a syringe.
https://goo.gl/fNZcXp

Yep when I first brewed a stout I distributed bottles to friends and colleagues with a disposable syringe attached. It was met with a combination of derision and horror. However after the initial piss taking most people who tried it were amazed by how well it works. Before the advent of the widget in cans Guinness did exactly the same thing - http://publin.ie/2015/giving-guinness-a-head-with-a-syringe-how-it-used-to-be-done/.

My own club members continued in the vein of piss taking at a recent South Dublin meet when I insisted on dosing each sample of an under carbed oatmeal stout with a few syringe fulls of air 

Shanna

[Slev]

Good to know.

Is it permissible to include a syringe when submitting an entry to a competition? Would need at least 2 syringes. Would be pretty poor form to expect judges to share syringes. But, suppose most judges would have their own anyway!

[Shanna]

Good to know.

Is it permissible to include a syringe when submitting an entry to a competition? Would need at least 2 syringes. Would be pretty poor form to expect judges to share syringes. But, suppose most judges would have their own anyway!

Jaysus that made me chuckle 

Shanna

[DEMPSEY]

Did I hear judges are sharing needles

[auralabuse]

I have a nitro set up with 2 sparkler taps. Before I got a hold of the nitro I carbed low with co2 and pushed with the co2 and it actually worked quite well

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