NOS, Dude.

I've decided to make the plunge into Nitrogen.

No, not for my car; I drive a Chevy Traverse.  NOS would be kinda a waste of time and effort, and quite frankly I am pleased enough with my junk that I don't need the ego boost.

No, not to make whippets for me to get high as shiiiit either.

No, it's time to introduce a nitrogen tap into my brewing repertoire.

I've not had to do much begging with Mrs. Smitty.  She enjoys a nitrogenated brew, especially a stout.  It enhances toasty-roasty flavors, and imparts a creamy taste and mouthfeel to an otherwise heavy beer.  Some of her favorite beers are more favorite with nitrogen.

However...it's an "investment."  Nitrogen requires its own special tank and its own special regulator and its own special tubing, given its molecular difference from good ol' CO2.  Heck, it even requires a special "stout faucet" to pour that perfect pint of cascading bubbles.

But look how pretty:

so shiny!

It's not pure nitrogen; that's really hard to force into a beer under homebrewer conditions.  It's a nitrogen/CO2 mix, available at my local gas supply store as "brewer's mix," or "G-mix."  But it is nitrogen-heavy, and given the smaller bubble size than CO2, gives the beer that creamy cask-aged mouthfeel you get from Guinness or Boddington's or a darn-good classic British Pub Ale.

And given that I'm now entering stout/pub ale season, with batches of Chocolate Milk Stout in the works, I figure it's time to amp-up my offerings and do a stout the way it's meant to be done:  through a stout faucet, maintained by nitrogen.

And worse comes to worse, I'll try that liquid nitrogen ping-pong-ball trick I saw on YouTube.