27 Feb 2026
After 18 months of R&D, including bench trials, infrastructure upgrades, and a full retrofit of their Connecticut brewery, Athletic Brewing has launched Nitro Emerald Cliffs, their first nitrogen-infused non-alcoholic beer. The Irish dark brew delivers chocolate, coffee, and wood notes in a creamy, velvety pour at under 0.5% ABV. Co-founder and COO John Walker on what made it so hard to get right:
Striking the right balance and achieving those sensory elements in a way that also worked operationally was the primary technical hurdle.
Nitrogen infusion is notoriously difficult to pull off even with alcohol in the mix, and doing it without is a genuine technical milestone. Athletic just cleared it.