Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

It's all about hard pours for San Diego nitro beers

Do not pour gentle into that good pint...

Screencap from Modern Times' video "tutorial on how to pour it like a champion"
Screencap from Modern Times' video "tutorial on how to pour it like a champion"

San Diego beer hit another packaging milestone in January, when a couple of local breweries released nitrogenized beer in bottles and cans for the first time. Modern Times kicked it off with a nitro version of its Black House coffee stout flavored with cocoa and coconut. A week later, Ballast Point delivered Red Velvet, a unique golden oatmeal stout flavored with chocolate and colored with beet juice to invoke the experience of its namesake cake.

Nitro beers are carbonated with nitrogen gas more than straight carbon dioxide. They benefit from tiny bubbles, which give their effervescence a creamier mouthfeel than the fizz of carbonation. In bars, such beers typically pour from a dedicated tap affixed with a restrictor plate that agitates the beer, releasing the bubbles to produce the creamy texture and foamy head.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Guinness famously inserted a plastic widget into nitro bottles and cans in the late '80s, to effectively package its stout with nitro and achieve the agitation of the bubbles in the beer when opened. Like Colorado's Left Hand Brewing, which became the first American craft brewery to package nitro beer in 2014, Modern Times and Ballast Point have packaged their nitrogenized beer without a widget.

But they do offer instructions. The Modern Times can advises, "For best results pour hard." Red Velvet's shrinkwrapped bottles suggest you "Pour with purpose," placing the bottle upside-down over your glass. Each of the breweries followed this up with video posts to social media, showing how a hard pour produces a foamy head and cascading effect, wherein bubbles fall down the sides of the glass, rather than up like regular carbonation.

Of course, if you poured a standard carbonated beer, say a pilsner or IPA this way, you would get bubbles and foam pouring out of your glass. So when you follow the pour hard instructions, there's an almost exhilarating moment when the foam threatens to overflow — but it never does.

Both nitro beers were characterized as a limited run by their respective breweries, so San Diego nitro beers on local shelves may not last long. However, Nitro Black House proved popular enough that Modern Times released a second run in February, and Belching Beaver has plans to release a nitro version of its Beavers Milk Stout.

That one's packaging instructs, "When pouring nitro, pour straight up!"

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
Next Article

San Diego's Uptown Planners challenged by renters from Vibrant Uptown

Two La Jolla planning groups fight for predominance
Screencap from Modern Times' video "tutorial on how to pour it like a champion"
Screencap from Modern Times' video "tutorial on how to pour it like a champion"

San Diego beer hit another packaging milestone in January, when a couple of local breweries released nitrogenized beer in bottles and cans for the first time. Modern Times kicked it off with a nitro version of its Black House coffee stout flavored with cocoa and coconut. A week later, Ballast Point delivered Red Velvet, a unique golden oatmeal stout flavored with chocolate and colored with beet juice to invoke the experience of its namesake cake.

Nitro beers are carbonated with nitrogen gas more than straight carbon dioxide. They benefit from tiny bubbles, which give their effervescence a creamier mouthfeel than the fizz of carbonation. In bars, such beers typically pour from a dedicated tap affixed with a restrictor plate that agitates the beer, releasing the bubbles to produce the creamy texture and foamy head.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Guinness famously inserted a plastic widget into nitro bottles and cans in the late '80s, to effectively package its stout with nitro and achieve the agitation of the bubbles in the beer when opened. Like Colorado's Left Hand Brewing, which became the first American craft brewery to package nitro beer in 2014, Modern Times and Ballast Point have packaged their nitrogenized beer without a widget.

But they do offer instructions. The Modern Times can advises, "For best results pour hard." Red Velvet's shrinkwrapped bottles suggest you "Pour with purpose," placing the bottle upside-down over your glass. Each of the breweries followed this up with video posts to social media, showing how a hard pour produces a foamy head and cascading effect, wherein bubbles fall down the sides of the glass, rather than up like regular carbonation.

Of course, if you poured a standard carbonated beer, say a pilsner or IPA this way, you would get bubbles and foam pouring out of your glass. So when you follow the pour hard instructions, there's an almost exhilarating moment when the foam threatens to overflow — but it never does.

Both nitro beers were characterized as a limited run by their respective breweries, so San Diego nitro beers on local shelves may not last long. However, Nitro Black House proved popular enough that Modern Times released a second run in February, and Belching Beaver has plans to release a nitro version of its Beavers Milk Stout.

That one's packaging instructs, "When pouring nitro, pour straight up!"

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Next Article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.