Yes Yes I know it has been out for a while, but I went to a small pub last night with Mrs.Phlosphr in east podunk nowhere CT and had a Guiness in a can. Well after I poured mine in my pint my wife shook the can and wondered what was in it. I took out the handy dandy pocket knife, cut the can, and took out this small plastic spherical thing.
What the heck is that thing? What does it do? Is it full of CO2 or something? Whats the dope?
Read the can before you cut it apart.
It releases gas to give the drink head once poured. Allegedly.
It is meant to replicate the drink as provided on tap in bars.
I beleive it’s chock full of Nitrogen an CO[sub]2[/sub].
It’s the greatest invention of the 20th century and, quite possibly, in the history of mankind. I LOVE the draft cans!
The contents of the can are under pressure, but the widget is inserted before this pressure builds up, as a result, the pressure in the widget equalises and it (partially) fills up with beer (through the hole), when the can is opened, the pressure is released and the contents of the widget are ejected under pressure through the small hole, this creates a fine, foamy head.
Bottled Guinness used to be supplied with a small plastic syringe; you would pour the drink, then use the syringge to suck up a small amount of it, then squirt it back in through little nozzles.
Mangetout they used to put a syringe in the bottles? 
I don’t know how that would have made me feel…not good.
But back to the widget…what a novel idea. I don’t know about the whole “greatest invention of the 20th century” but cool just the same.
I was on the verge of double vison when I cut the can appart. That is why I did not read the side. Plus…whats more fun on a night off. Reading the side of a Guiness can or cutting into it to see what the widget looks like?
I remember when I first read about these widgets in an English newspaper. The journalist, who had written the article, wrote something about “Don’t you think it’s a very Irish idea to get the foam at the bottom of the cans?” :rolleyes:
hey, my physics lecturer was the guy who invented them!
and he’s german.
and very eccentric.
but he gave good lectures and easy exam questions.
he’s known as “the king of foam”.
he wore leather trousers,worn with tweed jackets and yellow bowties, had mad einstein hair and he rides into college on his motorbike every morning in this ensemble!
so i’m not at all surprised the bubbles are at the bottom!
The syringe wasn’t actually in the bottles; you would buy a pack of four bottles and the syringe was tucked into a cutout in the cardboard outer - it wasn’t like a hypodermic syringe or anything; it was a little brown plastic tube with plastic loops that you put your fingers through. I tried to find a picture of one, there are several sites out there that mention it, but nothing more.
This thread is making me thirsty. And it’s Friday:)
I’m thinking that a trip to the bottle shop (that’s liquor store to you), with a handful of tall black cans as a result, is on the way.
Behold the [protowidget syringe](www.breworld.com/the_brewer/ 9611/widget.html) in all its glory!
OK, screw Breworld; if you want to see the syringe, go to Google and type in “guinness syringe”; you will get a page full of useless links. Go to the top of the page and click the “images” tab; you will receive a little picture of a Guinness bottle and the syringe. Enjoy.
>> they used to put a syringe in the bottles?
That’s how I like my beer: injected directly into a vein. A catheter is even better.
Now that’s beer drinking, baby. Contraptions to make foam or inject it…anything to bring the pub feel home.
Meanwhile, I have to visit pubs with men who order “lite beers” in a bottle. How embarrassing. Beers on tap and 90% of the dolts are drinking “Advertised Lite”…everyone’s favorite ‘beer’.