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I will tell you how you can make Nitro Cold Brew coffee at home step by step.

  • How can you make cold brew at home?
  • How can you change your cold brew into nitro cold brew?
  • How can you serve it?

Step 1. How Can You Make Cold Brew Coffee At Home

The first step to making nitro coffee is to make cold brew coffee at home. Then, buy the best coffee beans from the local market or online. Do you know what kind of beans you need for cold brew coffee? If you don’t know, you can select coffee beans from here.

Please buy single-origin coffee beans to avoid blends.

Please don’t buy pre-ground beans, but purchase whole coffee beans and grind them at home with a burr grinder.

To make cold brew coffee, you need the following things:

Tools:

  • Two mason jars with lids having a capacity of two liters of water in each.
  • A metal sieve
  • A paper filter
  • A pour-over

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of coarsely ground coffee beans.
  • 8 cups filtered water.

Follow the instructions to make a cold brew recipe.

Instructions:

  1. Combine 8 cups of filtered water with 2 cups of coffee grounds.
  2. Screw on the lid tightly and place it in a safe place at room temperature for 24 hours.
  3. You can steep your jar in your refrigerator but steep it at room temperature for better results.
  4. After 24 hours, strain your cold brew concentrate.
  5. You may strain your concentrate twice, first with a metal sieve and then with a paper filter.
  6. Place a pour-over on your mason jar and add a paper filter in pour over and pull back the coffee concentrate into the mason jar.

So at this point, your cold brew coffee is made. Technically this is your cold brew coffee concentrate at this stage. You could water it down a little bit or as per your taste preferences. Now here is the next step.

Step 2. How to Convert Your Cold Brew Coffee into Nitro Coffee

Now you have to package the cold brew coffee in a 3-gallon corny keg. You can use a different size of the corny keg as per your requirement. Here are some corny kegs for your choice.

NutriChef PKBRTP110 Mini Keg Detachable

AMCYL CKN3-SH 3 gal Keg New Ball Lock

Pressurized Beer Mini Keg System – 64oz Stainless Steel Growler Tap

Royal Brew Nitro Cold Brew Coffee Maker Home Keg Kit System

Now here you need a nitrogen tank to infuse your cold brew coffee with nitrogen.

If you already have it is ok; otherwise, you can buy it locally or online. I have a choice of nitrogen tank for you below; please check it:

Homebrewers Outpost D1054 Nitrogen Tank (22 cu ft)

Now here is the step to fill the tank with pure nitrogen.

Here is one thing to say, unlike draft bears, you should need pure nitrogen N2 gas for your nitro. Because when you draft beer, you will infuse the beer with a blend of gas in a ratio of 25% co2: 75% nitrogen gas, then you would serve it. And it is going to come out fizzy with cold brew nitro coffee. So you use pure nitrogen, not a blend gas.

So the first task for you is finding a local gas dealer that sells pure Nitrogen N2 rather than a mixture of Nitrogen N2 and co2. 

Now the exact challenge for you with using pure nitrogen is that it doesn’t really dissolve into a liquid very well, and you need it to do that to get that sort of foamy mouthfeel you expect from a nitro cold brew coffee. So here I have some technical solutions for you.

Infusing Nitrogen into Cold Brew Coffee for Making Nitro

There are two methods for mixing nitrogen in cold brew coffee:

  1. pre-infuse the kegs with high-pressure nitrogen
  2. Inline Nitro Infusion 

First of all, when pre-infusing your keg, be sure your cold brew is as cold as possible. Like other gasses, nitrogen tends to absorb better into your colder brew than room temp or warm.

Pre-Infusing Kegs with Nitrogen

It is a more affordable way of making nitro coffee. It involves pressurizing the kegs of cold brew coffee at high pressure of 35 PSI to 45 PSI for one time. Like any gas, nitrogen doesn’t dissolve into a liquid very well, and we need it to do that in different ways. First of all, when pre-infusing your keg, be sure your cold brew is as complex as possible. Like other gasses, nitrogen tends to absorb better into your colder brew than room temp or warm.

Tip: Shake the keg; it will help force more nitro into the keg and infusing it faster with cold brew coffee.

Using a Quick Cascade Keg Lid

It is better for you to use a Quick Cascade Keg Lid. It will allow you to serve nitro coffee in a matter of minutes and maintain rich and frothy pours to get that sort of foamy mouthfeel that you are expecting from a nitro cold brew.

Note: Quick Cascade Lid will only work with Cornelius Ball Lock Kegs, not Commercial Sanke D Kegs.

You will attach your nitrogen gas line to the “gas in a post” on top of the lid. By using this lid, you can start serving nitro coffee in minutes without shaking the keg constantly. You are consistently infusing your cold brew from the bottom up with every pour of nitro.

Inline Nitro Infusion 

Though this method is expensive but saves your time, effort, and steps for procuring nitro coffee, the Inline Nitro Infuser works inside your draft system and turns your cold brew coffee into nitro coffee as you pour. Without pre-infusing, you hook up your flat keg of cold brew and achieve a rich froth nitro pour. This method saves your nitro gas as well as your time.

After gaining the knowledge of all methods, now you better decide which method could better perform for your nitro operation.

Instructions:

  1. Sanitize the whole keg with some stars in
  2. Sanitize the combination stone by placing it in some boiling water for a couple of minutes.
  3. Add cold brew coffee into the keg stain and replace the lid.
  4. Now, plug in your nitrogen gas post into its usual place in the corny keg. The nitrogen will go entirely through the tube into the keg and then come out through the carbonating stone, which is immersed in the bottom of the keg, and this will spread the maximum amount of nitrogen throughout the keg. Thus nitrogen will be infused into the cold brew coffee.
  5. Now set the regulator connected to your nitrogen canister to about five PSI in the nitrogen regulator.
  6. First, you take the oxygen out of the keg.
  7. So connect your gas post to the keg and pull the relief valve only once or twice, and this way, you can get oxygen out of the keg through the gas post.
  8. You will now send nitrogen through the diffuser.
  9. You can dial pressure in the regulator.
  10. Set up just five PSIs in a couple of minutes so you can reach your goal, which is about thirty-five to forty-five PSIs.
  11. And when you reach the level of 36 PSI, leave it there to be tested.
  12. Now contact the liquid outpost in the kegerator.

How to Serve Nitro Coffee?

Now your nitro coffee is ready. You can serve it as a beer in a glass or cup through a stout faucet.

Bottom Line

Unlike regular coffees, nitro cold brew coffee is an unusual coffee. Just as the taste, texture, mouthfeel, and flavor of nitro are different from all coffees, so is the method it is made.

Further, the technical complications in making this are such that if they are slightly altered, there may be a chance of an accident where your requirements will not be met in the taste and texture of the coffee. So please be careful while working on a nitro project.

Stay safe!

FAQs

Where Can I find Nitro Gas for Nitro Coffee?

Find out where they get gas from local bars and restaurants serving nitro coffee. A little polite inquiry with a manager will help you find a good supplier of nitro gas.

What is the Difference Between a Nitrogen And a CO2 Cylinder?

There are two main differences between nitrogen and a CO2 cylinder.

The first difference is that nitrogen requires a more powerful cylinder than CO2 because nitrogen is stored at a much higher pressure.

The Second difference is unlike the CO2 cylinder’s male connection, and a nitrogen cylinder also has a female threaded connection.

Can I use the old regulator/Cylinder instead of buying a new one?

A failed cylinder, valve, or regulator can cause a severe problem that can injure passersby and certainly cause extensive damage. So, Please buy a new regulator that meets the safety requirements. Assumptions don’t require here. To save some money is not worth the risk of severe injury and damage to any property.

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