Guinness ball
Michael L Kankiewic
Hi all, first timer here. I'm sure this is well known here, but can
anyone tell me what the little plastic ball in the Guinness cans does?
Thanks,
MK
March
> Hi all, first timer here. I'm sure this is well known here, but can
> anyone tell me what the little plastic ball in the Guinness cans does?
here you are:
(from http://www.howstuffworks.com/ )
Question :
When I open a can of Guinness or some of the other upscale beers from
Europe, I notice that a plastic ball shaped widget inside the tin releases
gas to aerate the beer. How does this work?
Answer:
To answer this question first we need to know a little bit about what makes
beer fizzy and how a head forms.
Most beers are carbonated with carbon dioxide (CO2). When the beer is in the
can some of this CO2 is dissolved in the beer and some is at the top of the
can. The CO2 that is dissolved in the beer is what makes it fizzy. When the
can is closed the pressure inside is higher than the pressure outside, so
that when you open the can the sudden drop in pressure and the agitation of
pouring causes some of the CO2 to bubble out of solution, forming a head on
your beer.
A stout like Guinness has a creamier, longer lasting head than a canned
lager beer. In addition, Guinness is less fizzy than a regular lager beer.
Guinness is canned with a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Nitrogen
is not absorbed into the beer nearly as well as carbon dioxide, so even
though a can of Guinness may be at the same pressure as a can of lager, it
contains less CO2 (and is therefore less fizzy) because the nitrogen makes
up some of the pressure.
Because a beer like Guinness contains less dissolved CO2, if you poured it
from a can with no widget, the head not be very thick because most of the
CO2 would stay dissolved.
The purpose of the widget is to release the CO2 from some of the beer in the
can to create the head. The widget is a plastic, nitrogen-filled sphere with
a tiny hole in it. The sphere is added to the can before the can is sealed.
It floats in the beer, with the hole just slightly below the surface of the
beer.
Cheers,
--
Gunter Mertens
webmaster O.B.E.R.
www.ober.be
www.irishpubs.be.
The Submarine Captain
>(from http://www.howstuffworks.com/ )
>
Sorry I'm nitpicking a bit here, but although the general idea is
expressed rightly, some details are inaccurate.
If you want a complete and accurate description of the process, US
Patent 4 832 968 says it all from the source.
[access it free of charge under :
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=US4832968&CY=ch&LG=en&DB=EPD
-> just click on the "Requested Patent" link to see the document in .pdf
format]
>Question :
>When I open a can of Guinness or some of the other upscale beers from
>Europe, I notice that a plastic ball shaped widget inside the tin releases
>gas to aerate the beer. How does this work?
>
>Answer:
>To answer this question first we need to know a little bit about what makes
>beer fizzy and how a head forms.
>[...]
>Because a beer like Guinness contains less dissolved CO2, if you poured it
>from a can with no widget, the head not be very thick because most of the
>CO2 would stay dissolved.
>
Guinness and other nitrokeg beers are artificially saturated with N/CO2
mixed gas (70% / 30% or so..) only in order to make use of a specific
tap or a widget container.
In its "natural state", a stout does contain a lowish amount of
dissolved CO2 linked to its fermentation (ie very little nitrogen is
dissolved naturally). If this is pulled through a handpump with a
sparkler, you'll get a nice thick head too, with pretty little
technology involved.
If the beer has been properly conditioned in the cask by a competent
cellarman, you don't even need a sparkler to achieve that...
>The purpose of the widget is to release the CO2
>
mixed gas...
>from some of the beer in the can to create the head.
>
yup, as you open the can, a depression is caused, and the minute amount
of beer contained in the ball id forced though the tiny hole, which
"rips" the gas out of the beer, creating the first few bubbles of a
chain reaction.
>The widget is a plastic, nitrogen-filled
>
nope, the sphere is *empty* when added to the can, a bit of beer gets in
here during the pasteurisation process, as the heat increases the
pressure in the container.
>sphere with
>a tiny hole in it. The sphere is added to the can before the can is sealed.
>It floats in the beer, with the hole just slightly below the surface of the
>beer.
>
early forms of the system, back in the early nineties (as described in
the patent referred to above), had flat, round widgets attached to the
bottom of the can, and were prone to heavy gushing if not chilled when
you opened them
Chers !
Laurent
--
Warning : you may encounter French language beyond this point.
... et alors c'est chaque hiver la même chose, je blanchis, je blanchis ! Sauf le bout de la queue ! Y'a rien à faire... J'ai tout essayé, les décapants, l'eau de javel ! Reste plus que la cisaille, non ?
(F'murrr)
Laurent Mousson, Berne, Switzerland