Nitro cold brew might sound like something that belongs in a tech-bro cafe or in a flashy can clutched in the hands of sleep-deprived college students. But behind the hype is a luxurious, velvety-smooth coffee that you can easily make right in your own kitchen.
By infusing regular cold brew with nitrogen gas, you get a creamy texture and natural sweetness that feels more like a craft beer than an iced coffee. The best bit? You don’t need expensive equipment or barista training to make it. With just a few simple tools (like a mason jar and a whipped cream dispenser), you can brew in batches and have cafe-quality nitro cold brew on hand for weeks.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to make nitro cold brew at home, review the equipment that makes the biggest difference, and compare your homemade version to what you’d get from the famous coffee giants. By the end, you’ll be pouring smooth, foamy nitro coffee that rivals anything fom the pros… for a fraction of the cost.
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Quick steps
- 1️⃣ Steep coarsely ground coffee for 12-24 hours
- 2️⃣ Strain your cold brew
- 3️⃣ Pour into a whipped cream dispenser (or mini keg) with N2O
- 4️⃣ Serve cold and creamy
What you’ll need
If you’re worried that making nitro cold brew at home sounds complex, we’re here to remove your fears. It’s actually really easy and requires very little equipment or investment.
Although, if you want to enjoy luxurious nitro coffee every day rather than as an occasional treat, then some good equipment would be a sound investment.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- 2 glass containers – mason jars work great
- Coarse ground coffee (grinding it yourself will give the best results so we’d recommend using a grinder and fresh beans)
- Filtered water
- A funnel and strainer
- Coffee filter
- Whipped cream dispenser (or a mini keg if you plan on making lots)
- Pressurized nitrous oxide cartridge
How to make nitro cold brew
Just follow this simple recipe…
Step 1: Make your cold brew
You can always just buy your favorite pre-made cold brew if you just need a quick fix. But it’s really easy to make at home and gives you way more control over the final flavor.
What you need
- Put your coffee grounds in a sealable glass container like a mason jar. You need coarse coffee grounds like rough sand or fine gravel. For best results, grind the beans yourself.
You have total flexibility over what beans to use and some coffee roasters sell a specific cold brew blend that’s been created with this brewing method in mind. Or, if you’re not sure where to start, you can use a rich, full-bodied coffee like a Colombian dark roast.
- The ideal cold brew ratio is 1 part coffee to 5 parts water. This means you need to use 1 measuring cup of coffee grounds to 5 measuring cups of water.
- Once you’ve added the water, give it a good stir.
- Seal the container and leave it in your fridge for 12-24 hours to steep.
The exact length of time will depend on the beans you use and how strong you like your coffee. Although not strictly necessary, we recommend giving it a stir after 12 hours.
- Strain your coffee by pouring it into a second glass container through a coffee filter. To avoid any spillages, we like using a funnel (learned that one the hard way!)
Your cold brew coffee concentrate is now ready to go. It just needs to be mixed in a 1:1 ratio with water when you’re ready to make your nitro homebrew coffee.
Step 2: Add nitrogen
When you want to drink your creamy, sweet coffee, simply pour your cold brew into the whipped cream dispenser. (Remember to dilute the concentrate first.)
Make sure you’ve inserted a nitrous oxide cartridge to your dispenser. Then just press the handle to pour it into a glass.
If you’re planning on making nitro cold brew frequently, then a mini keg might be a better option as it’s a little less awkward. Plus it really adds to that feeling of pouring a beer rather than a coffee.
It really is that simple to make nitro cold brew at home.
What you need
Mini keg vs whipped cream dispenser
They’re both easy to use but let’s break down which one’s best for you:
Depending on how into cooking you are, you may already have a whipped cream dispenser. If not, they’re not expensive to buy and the cartridges are relatively cheap too so it’s an easy way to get started.
If you’re a regular cold brew drinker and only looking to have the nitro version every so often, the whipped cream method is definitely the way to go.
However, if you plan to have fresh nitro coffee at home frequently then it’s worth investing in a dedicated nitro cold brew maker/ mini keg.
The main downside is that they’re quite expensive. But, when it comes to making nitro cold brew, they have a couple of big benefits over the simple glass jar and whipped cream dispenser:
Firstly, a nitro coffee maker is a sealed unit so it doesn’t add oxygen to the container between drinks. This makes the coffee taste brighter and fresher for much longer. The cheaper whipped cream dispenser can’t do this, and sometimes the flavor can suffer as a result.
When not in use, you can store your nitro coffee machine in the fridge. Great for having creamy, cool coffee quickly and easily on hand (especially if you batch make a week’s worth)… not so great for still being able to fit your other groceries in there.
They’re super easy to use too. Once you’ve made your cold brew, you simply fill the keg and place the whole thing in the fridge. To turn it into nitro coffee, make sure there is a nitrous oxide cartridge installed (same as you would use in the whipped cream dispenser), and pull the lever like a draught beer.
Best nitro coffee makers
Whilst the whipped cream dispenser is more accessible, the Nitro Mini Keg is definitely the superior option.
By reducing contact with oxygen, mini kegs preserve the rich coffee flavors. As they’re specifically designed for this purpose, they work much better than a random glass container and whipped cream dispenser.
However, they’re vastly more expensive. So they’re really only worth the investment if you plan on making a lot of nitro cold brew coffee at home.
Our recommended mini kegs
We like this as it’s an all-in-one system that means you can make the cold brew inside the keg too… but it comes at a high cost
Ease of use: 5/5
Drink quality: 4/5
Value for money: 2/5
This is a more rustic keg that maybe doesn’t look as nice, but is a heck of a lot cheaper. You’ll need to make your cold brew separately and pour it in
Ease of use: 3/5
Drink quality: 4/5
Value for money: 4/5
History of nitro cold brew
Cuvee Coffee in Austin, Texas pioneered nitro cold brew back in 2011.
The brewing process was kept as a closely guarded secret for a long time. People only knew that Cuvee Coffee used nitrogen to create that creamy texture – it’s pretty hard to ignore when you put Nitro in the name.
But their exact method was kept a secret for as long as they could.
Through trial and error, it turned out that brewing temperature wasn’t the only important factor in the perfect nitro cold brew recipe. You also had to remove the oxygen.
Making cold brew nitro coffee at home can be very hit and miss. This is because the amount of oxygen in your brewing container can really ruin the flavor (this is where the whipped cream dispenser struggles.)
The guys at Cuvee Coffee were working in factory conditions where they could pump all the air out of their brewing vessels. By using kegs and pouring their cold brew from a tap infused with nitrogen like a pint of Guinness, they created a rich, intense cold brew flavor with extra creaminess.
If you want to learn more about Cuvee Coffee’s process, check out this video:
How does Starbucks Make Nitro Cold Brew?
Starbucks uses this exact process to make their nitro cold brew coffee:
Their signature cold brew (which is steeped for 20 hours) is poured from a tap that adds the nitrogen. Commercial coffee shops and the major big chains don’t do anything special that you can’t recreate at home with a bit of equipment and practice.
Does nitro cold brew have more caffeine than regular coffee?
No, nitro coffee does not contain any more caffeine than regular coffee.
We’re relying on Starbucks data here as don’t have the science wizardry to measure caffeine at home. The amount of caffeine in their tall featured dark roast coffee is 215mg. This is exactly the same as a tall nitro brew coffee. Their “reserve nitro coffee” has a whopping 280mg of caffeine. But there are several other coffees in their Clover Roast range that also have the same amount.
Yes, it’s complicated. But just using nitrogen does not, by rule, cause there to be more caffeine than you find in regular coffee.
Read Next: 4 Reasons Why Caffeine Doesn’t Wake You Up
What coffee beans should I use for nitro coffee?
You can use basically whatever coffee beans you like to make cold brew. Although the best is usually darker roasts with big flavors.
Cold brewing softens the acidic tones of coffee making light roasts – which are more citrus flavor-driven – pretty bland and uninteresting. If you’re looking for the best coffee beans for cold brew, we wrote a whole article about our favorite options:
Read Next: The Best Coffee Beans for Cold Brew
Can I add milk, cream, or sugar?
You can add whatever you want to nitro homebrew coffee – milk, cream, sugar, syrup. Even alcohol if you’re feeling frisky. Although, it’s always best to taste your brew on its own first.
The cold brewing and addition of nitrogen make a sweeter and creamier drink than regular cold brew coffee. So you may find you don’t need the cream and sugar that you’d add to your regular brewed coffee, or less of it at least.
Just have fun with your nitro brew, the best thing about making it at home is how much cheaper it is to experiment.
The last word
Nitro coffee is a very specific style:
The rich chocolatey, nutty flavors and the creamy texture won’t be for everyone. Honestly, your first nitro cold brew is a fairly odd experience as it looks like a glass of stout but smells like a sweet coffee.
Once you get over the initial hesitation though, it is pretty spectacular. There really isn’t anything quite so smooth in the coffee world.
If you’re a nitro coffee enthusiast, the great thing is that it’s one of the easiest drinks to make at home and requires very little equipment. Even on a budget, you can easily learn how to make nitro cold brew coffee at home that tastes top-notch – just follow this guide. Perfect for those times you want a cold, creamy caffeine hit to add to your day.
FAQ’s
Nitro coffee is just a creamier, more flavorful cold brew thanks to an infusion of nitrogen. This can be done with a whipped cream dispenser or a specific nitro coffee maker.
If you’ve ever found yourself wishing your coffee was more like beer, nitro is the answer.
Cold brew concentrate is the basic building block for both drinks. But the main difference between the two is texture. Both offer a similarly subtle, sweet flavor but the use of nitrogen creates a super-smooth and rich experience. Plus, it comes topped with a foamy head similar to your favorite beer.
Nitro cold brew bears many resemblances to stout beer but is completley alcohol-free. You can drink as much as you like and, other than the caffeine jitters, be perfectly sober.
The smooth texture is often compared to drinking a pint of Guinness. And you can’t ignore the creamy foam on top. But this all just adds to the uniqueness of this coffee drink.
Nitro cold brew is no better or worse for you than any other type of coffee. In fact, the rich creaminess means that you can ditch the milk, cream, or sugar for a healthier experience (although they can definitely still be added to suit your tastes).
Texture, Texture, Texture.
Drinking cold brew nitro coffee is velvety smooth and packed full of flavor. It’s like the perfect marriage between coffee and beer. And that’s the kind of union we’re big fans of.
It is a specific experience that might take you a moment to get used to. But once you do, it’s pretty spectacular and soon you’ll be using this guide on how to make nitro cold brew at home to satisfy your cravings.
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