About Our Nitro Cold Brew
Our journey to cold brew began over a decade ago when we started brewing cold brew coffee in our cafes using Kyoto style drip towers. These beautiful artifices of glass and wood slowly drip ice water over a coffee grounds over a course of 12 hours. The result is syrupy, rich, sweet, and intense.
A few years later we began experimenting with putting our Kyoto style cold brew coffee on nitrogen draft. Our Kyoto brewers only brew 2 gallons/ 24 hours. So we visited the annual specialty coffee association conference on the hunt for a comparable large format cold brewing solution. What we found was the Brew Bomb! Fast forward a few months and we received our BrewBombx45 brewer, and installed it directly in our walk-in cooler. Now we could brew up to 50 gallons at a time all at temperatures below 40 degrees. Now that we had access to large volumes (up to 50 gallons at a time!) we moved on to storing it in kegs and serving it with nitrogen infusion and the era of Nitro Cold brew was upon us. In fact, out café was he first café in Ithaca to offer Nitro cold brew!
What is Nitro Cold Brew?
Nitro cold brew is coffee that has been cold brewed and is served infused with pure nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas infusion does a couple things for the coffee.
Benefits of nitrogen: by blanketing the cold brew coffee with pure nitrogen, we remove the oxygen, the source of oxidization. This allows our Nitrogen cold brew to maintain peak quality for 2 months.
But most importantly, Nitrogen infusion gives the cold brew a rich, silky mouthfeel. As it is poured it gives the cold brew a gorgeous cascading surge and settle, reminiscent of a well poured pint of Guinness. The infused nitrogen adds a slightly sweet note to the cold brew. So much so that we encourage people to try it unsweetened before adding anything, as it is often sweet enough straight from the tap.
Equipment Requirements
What is required to serve Nitro Cold brew in your café, bar, hotel, office, event space?
Your minimum requirements:
- stout tap (not your regular everyday draft spout. Stout taps slow down the pour and include a sparkler in the nozzle. This is what starts off the nitrogen cascading in your drink)
-ball lock gas and product connectors (we keg in 5Gallon Ball lock Corny kegs)
-Pure N2 gas cylinder (pure food grade nitrogen, not beer gas which is a blend of co2 and n2) available from your local gas / welding supply vendor
-Nitrogen regulator (as nitro cold brew requires different pressures than a typical draft system this should really have a dedicated regulator.)
-a way to keep your keg of cold brew cold (kegerator, walk in cooler, ice bath (for catering. Used with a jockey box, or keg connected stout tap)
Many Bars, restaurant, and cafes will have much of this already available. If you don’t, or are unsure we would be happy to help you with a facility evaluation.
If you are looking to add dedicated equipment, we do offer a turn key Kegerator option. This will allow you to serve up to two Nitrogen products at a time. The only thing you will have to source yourself will be nitrogen gas (though we can definitely point you in the right direction)
Kegerator: provides a way to store up to 3 6l kegs at a time and serve from two. $760
- https://www.kegerator.com/edgestar-full-size-dual-tap-kegerator-digital-display/KC3000TWIN.html
Stout tap: elegant and smooth pouring. A stout tap has an included sparkler in the nozzle. This is what starts off the nitrogen cascading in your drink. $140
- https://www.kegoutlet.com/nitro-tap-stainless-steel-stout-faucet-for-stouts-ales-nitro-coffee.html
Nitrogen infuser: for ultimate control of the nitrogenation of your products we recommend installing an inline infuser. This device will give you the ability to dial in the exact amount of head you would like from your nitro beverages. $780
- https://www.kegoutlet.com/nitro-infuser-dual-agm-edition-nitronow-inline-nitrogen-infuser.htmlnitrogen regulator
nitrogen regulator: to connect to N2 bottles you need a special regulator. They are a female vale and require a male regulator, the opposite of the regular CO2 regulator). Some pubs and bars do have niotrogen regularos for their beer gas (blend of co2 and n2) but as nitro cold brew requires different pressures than a typical draft system this should really have a dedicated bottle and regulator. $80
incedentals: gas lines, product lines, ball locks, hose clamps….$50
Cold Brew Options and Pricing
TURN KEY NITRO KEGERATOR PACKAGE:
Total price : (cost ($1810), with markup (25%)) $2265
Customizations to be quoted on a case by case at cost beyond base price… all terrain wheels (for a regularly moved kegerator, stainless front, full stainless kegerator… front vented (for undercounter install) for through counter installs with tower mounted to counter, etc…
Pricing:
Wholesale keg pricing $105.95 (Retail priced $165)
- Ithaca House Blend
-flavor notes:
- seasonal light cold brew
-flavor notes:
- seasonal non coffee tea
-current/ past offers
-flavor notes
* *redeemable wholesale keg deposit $25
Wholesale Profitability
- 12oz cost: $1.66 retail: $4.00
- 16oz cost: $2.15 retail: $5.25
- 20oz cost: $2.65 retail: $6.50
A 5g keg grosses you approximately $240 (45x16oz pints) . That is a 55% P.M. with close to zero labor.
Event nitro cold brew: wedding, large family gatherings, graduation party etc:
Keg skin $68
Bucket 22g rubbermade round ( $73)
Mini nitrogen reg, and direct draft faucet: $172
https://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/regulators/premium-mini-nitrogen-regulator-kit.html
threaded 18g nitrogen cylinders cost $22
“rental” equipment would cost us about $275
charge a $100 deposit, on return refund $75 to pay for nitrogen. Write contract, if not returned, balance of $175 will charge to card on file on x-date.
Or straight up Charge a $275 deposit, on return refund all but $25 for the nitrogen
Retail pricing $165 (wholesale price $105.95 available with a valid resale certificate)
Each keg can serve around 45 pints!
- Ithaca House Blend
-flavor notes:
- seasonal light cold brew
-flavor notes:
- seasonal non coffee tea
-current/ past offers
-flavor notes
*redeemable keg deposit: $50