Have you ever noticed the clink of a tiny object inside an empty Guinness bottle or can?
That little gadget is called widget and you should be grateful for it. Makes your beer taste like it just came from the tap.
How the Guinness plastic ‘ball’ works
A widget It is a hollow, spherical piece of food-grade plastic with a small hole, according to Guinness representatives. Business Insider by email.
Basically it seems a small ping-pong ball.
During the canning process, brewers add liquid nitrogen to the beer immediately before sealing it. The liquid nitrogen evaporates quickly in the container. But because the can is sealed, pressure builds up inside it, causing gas and liquid to enter the can. widget through its tiny orifice, according to Guinness.
When you open the can, you hear a “pssshhh”. It’s the gas and liquid coming out of the can. widget and they are mixed with the beer, creating the foam so characteristic of Guinness beers on tap, the brand explains.
In the case of canned Guinness, the beer must be served in a glass after opening, but the widget bottle (which is shaped like a rocket) is designed to enjoy beer directly from the bottle.
Guinness launched its widget First generation in 1989
The Guinness brewers patented the idea of widget, or ‘plastic ball’, in 1969. But it was not until 1989 when they launched their first generation of widgetsas reported Popular Science.
This widget The first-generation canister was a flattened disk that sat at the bottom of the can. It worked well when the beer was served cold, but if it was warm it could overflow when the can was opened, according to Cool Material.
In 1997, Guinness launched the spherical, floating device that can be found in cans today—which they call “smoothifier” — to solve this problem.
Carbon dioxide vs. nitrogen in beer
Brewers typically use carbon dioxide to give a beer its quintessentially bitter fizz, but when a drink requires a sweeter, silkier experience — such as when drinking Guinness — brewers infuse the beer with nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide.
In fact, Guinness was the world’s first nitrogen-filled beerNitrogen bubbles are smaller than CO2 bubbles, so the resulting foam and flavor are smoother and more delicate.
Fergal Murray, head brewer at Dublin City Brewing Co., has explained to Forbes that There are 300 million bubbles in a pint of Guinnesscompared to the up to 2 million bubbles in a typical blonde beer.
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Also, because nitrogen bubbles are smaller, they are more stable. Therefore, when you open a beer, more bubbles will remain intact. This, along with the smaller bubbles, gives the beer a thicker, velvety mouthfeel, without the acidic bite of CO2 carbonation, according to Home Brew Advice.
Due to the fleeting nature of nitrogen gas in liquid, it is difficult to maintain palatable levels of the gas in packaged beers once they are opened. That’s where the plastic Guinness scoop comes in, because it is able to slowly release nitrogen into the beer upon opening.
The popularity of the widgets has become widespread since Guinness introduced them in the late 1980s. Other beers, such as Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, Murphy’s Stout and Boddingtons Pub Ale, have widgets or ‘little balls’ in their cans.
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Tags: Science, Drink, Curiosities