# Guiness bubbles revisited

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 31, 2002, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079 "2002-03-31T18:27:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079/1 "2002-03-31T18:27:03Z")

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So the Guiness bubbles going down has always been a great bar conversation and Uncle Cecil did a great job explaining the why (N[sub]2[/sub] vs CO[sub]2[/sub] boyancy, and convection), as well as why the cans have the little plastic balls ( **LPBs** ) in them, but he left one mystery unanswered…

Why don’t then bottle have LPBs in them? Is that why they taste different?

Also, Guiness has been around since about 1759, but I didn’t think liquid N[sub]2[/sub] has been, so when/why did they start using nitrogen in their brew?

PC

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**Author:** ![choosybeggar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@choosybeggar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choosybeggar)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079/2 "2002-03-31T19:15:01Z")

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**PC,**

[This site](http://www.ivo.se/guinness/) has a good deal of interesting Guinness info. They say that the bottled Guinness (extra stout) is a different brew from the canned variety (Pub Draught Guinness) favored by techophile immunologists.

They do not comment on when LiqN2 was introduced (apparently it’s used only in the canned variety, though, explaining the absent LPBs in the bottles), but have a summary of the LPB patent application. Probably that’s enough info to find the patent date and estimate the date of the introduction of LiqN2 and LPBs.

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**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079/3 "2002-03-31T19:31:47Z")

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Link to Cecil’s Column:  
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000526.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000526.html)

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**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079/4 "2002-03-31T19:47:14Z")

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Ok I’m don’t know about any of the science but I can tell you one thing.

> [@](#):
>
> Why don’t then bottle have LPBs in them?

They do now. Don’t know about the rest of the world but draught Guinness bottles (with widgets in them have been available here for a while.

Draught Guinness and Guinness Stout are two different drinks by the way. You can still buy Stout in cans and bottles aswell but they are not draught and so do not have widgets.

Anyway I’m going back to reading and getting drunker by drinking by cool pint of Draught Guinness 🙂 I kid you not.

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**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guiness-bubbles-revisited/101079/5 "2002-03-31T20:49:52Z")

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Thanks **dqa**.

**yojimbo** , I’m quite jealous. There’s just not the same appreciation for Draught Guiness here (NY) as there. ☹

Thanks for the site **Choosy**. I guess the Immunoguinesstechnophiles are pretty much stuck with cans in NYC. 😉