It seems that nitro is everywhere. Breweries are offering old favorites in nitro packaging, and beer bars are experimenting by throwing nitro taps on well-known beers. But nitro is much more than a marketing gimmick and a pretty (make that very pretty) pour.
Let’s look a little closer at what nitro and carbon dioxide do, and how they affect the beers you drink.
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the most commonly used carbonation method for beer. Brewers add priming sugar to the wort when they bottle, which produces the CO2 in the bottle. The other way to get carbonation is to keg the beer and attach a CO2 tank to force carbonate the beer. The advantage to kegging is being able to control the amount of carbonation and the ability to adjust it as needed, making it just right for the beer being served.