The History of Liquid Nitrogen in Beer

Before we look at modern applications, it’s important to understand where nitro beer developed. Chart Industries had been experimenting with liquid nitrogen dosing since the ’80s. But, it was Guinness that popularized and proliferated nitro stouts.

“Nitrogen was originally designed as a way to mimic hand-pulled beers,†says James Cain, Joy Can Solutions Founder. Traditional European brewpubs would serve beer from casks and on draft. Rather than being pushed out of a keg with CO2, the cask ale gets pumped out manually. Traditionally, cask ale has a smooth, full texture, and because there’s no interaction with CO2, the beer will go flat pretty quickly. While this method was prevalent and remains in use, it requires human interaction and on-site consumption. You can’t exactly bottle up cask ale and enjoy it at home.

So, to recreate this experience, Guinness began experimenting with nitrogenating their beers. And eventually, develop nitro-bottled and canned beer.

Cain looks to Guinness as the godfather of the nitro beer practice. Not only was Guinness interested in the flavor benefits of nitrogenated beer, but the brewery also sought a way to create consistency. Anectodally, serving cask ale required work of the pub. There were instances in the long history of cask ale where breweries would send “unfinished†beer to a pub, and on-site cellarmen would finish fermenting the beer before serving. Understandably, this could lead to instances of human error. Nitrogen could be an excellent way to prevent that.

“Breweries like Guinness have used nitrogen as a way of ensuring consistency from pint to pint,†Cain says.

Liquid nitrogen is commonly used in packaging, for instance, in the broader food and beverage industries, and its uses in craft beer have developed significantly over the past few years.