# Pub Drought ... In a Can...Whats the widget inside? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653 "2002-06-06T12:40:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/1 "2002-06-06T12:40:34Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/2 "2002-06-06T12:45:14Z")
Read the can before you cut it apart. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/3 "2002-06-06T12:45:31Z")
It releases gas to give the drink head once poured. Allegedly. It is meant to replicate the drink as provided on tap in bars. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/4 "2002-06-06T12:48:54Z")
I beleive it’s chock full of Nitrogen an CO[sub]2[/sub]. [Link](http://usa.guinness.com/about2.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/5 "2002-06-06T12:53:04Z")
It’s the greatest invention of the 20th century and, quite possibly, in the history of mankind. I LOVE the draft cans! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/6 "2002-06-06T13:06:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/7 "2002-06-06T13:29:28Z")
**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? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/8 "2002-06-06T15:57:01Z")
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: ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/9 "2002-06-06T16:11:19Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/10 "2002-06-06T16:39:11Z")
[The master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000526.html). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/11 "2002-06-06T21:38:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/12 "2002-06-07T03:51:18Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/13 "2002-06-07T04:36:43Z")
Behold the [protowidget syringe]([www.breworld.com/the\_brewer/](http://www.breworld.com/the_brewer/) 9611/widget.html) in all its glory! ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/14 "2002-06-07T04:40:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/15 "2002-06-07T08:14:56Z")
\>\> 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. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/16 "2002-06-07T12:48:17Z")
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’. ---
**Author:** ![Mandarax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Mandarax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mandarax)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pub-drought-in-a-can-whats-the-widget-inside/112653/17 "2002-06-07T13:00:05Z")
[Why do the bubbles in Guinness Stout float down?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000526.html) > [@](#): > > From my on-line reading I learned that the secret of Guinness’s creamy mouthfeel, as the taste experts somewhat indelicately put it, is a mix of nitrogen and carbon dioxide rather than pure CO2 as the bubblizing ingredient. Nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than CO2 bubbles, a mere 50 microns in diameter, and produce a nice smooth head. But nitrogen doesn’t produce bubbles as spontaneously as CO2. At the corner tap they deal with this by using a special nozzle that aerates the stout with nitrogen as it’s poured. In packaged goods that’s not possible, so for a long time they were stuck with pure carbon dioxide. But science marches on. Using brain cells that might have solved the third-world debt crisis, a couple engineering types invented a little plastic device, known in brewing circles as a “widget,” that’s placed in each can (not bottle) of Guinness Draught. (See patent info at www.ivo.se/guinness/patent.html.) When you pop the top and pour, the pressure in the can drops to ambient, stout squirts out of the widget, and nitrogen is liberated from solution and aerates the exiting beverage. Result: nitrogen microbubbles galore, same as if the pouring were done by your local barkeep.