Elvenses: to nitro or not?

Kegging
1

Haven’t brewed it yet, but am thinking down the road and wondering if I should go CO2 or beer-gas with this when it’s ready to keg. Thoughts?

BTW, I’ll be swapping out the German Northern Brewer for an ounce of willamette 'cause I have a surplus in the freezer. Anyone want to weigh in on what a train wreck that decision will be?

2
  1. your hop choice won’t change the beer much
  2. I have brewed it, great beer
  3. I’ve never had this beer on nitro, but have had milds. Didn’t really like it. The beer doesn’t have as much “oppofff” as the usual DIS. Nitro tends to strip flavor away IMO.

Good thing is that if you don’t like it on nitro, just switch back to CO2 and a regular faucet.

3

Funny this question came up. I just tried the elevenses on beer gas this weekend. It’s perfect, smooth as silk with a creamy head that sticks to the glass all the way down. I carbed it up on CO2 for 5 days at about 9 psi, then swapped over to the beer gas with the stout faucet.

Give it a try, I think you will like it.

Paul

4

First - spelling errors kind of annoy me and I can’t believe I have an error in the title line - but it’s not so bad - maybe elvenses is the elven version of elevenses.

I worried about the nitro stripping the flavor, but it adds the silky feel that tastes so good with that bitterness that comes from dark roasts. Problem is I’m just so lazy - I’m a set it and forget it kind of guy in more ways than just kegging - I’m not going to want to bother swapping the faucets. I think I’ll go with CO2 and maybe I’ll have a day where I won’t be able to think of anything better to do. If I do, I’ll post back here with a little review.

Thanks for the affirmation on the hops. They’re homegrown - add a little terroir to this middle earth inspired brew. They clocked in a little low on the alpha acids and can’t see an extra .25 oz throwing things into a mess.