# What's this thing inside my can of Guinness beer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424 "2001-03-18T00:22:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jeremy\_s\_Evil\_Twin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Jeremy\_s\_Evil\_Twin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeremy_s_Evil_Twin)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/1 "2001-03-18T00:22:26Z")
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, last night I popped open a few tall cans of Guinness stout. Inside each can there was something white, hard, and too large to exit the hole on top. I took it to be a chunk of ice, which seemed odd because beer doesn’t normally freeze. Whatever, I was too drunk to care. This morning, to my surprise, the white chunks remained rattling inside the cans. Intrigued, I cut open one can (very nearly maiming myself in the process, don’t try this at home kids!!) and what do I find but what appears to be a plastic ping-pong ball, with a few symmetric indentations along the seam. No writing of any kind (I expected it to say something like, “DESSICANT: DO NOT EAT”, but no.) I checked out the can’s label but all I could find was this cryptic message: > [@](#): > > \*\*Hear something? That’s the Guinness floating draught system delivering you a perfect pint of guinness! \*\* Yeah, ok. I won’t argue with perfect pints. But my interest was piqued and I must know…what exactly IS this thing, and what does it DO?? J.E.T. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/2 "2001-03-18T00:32:04Z")
It’s the “widget”, found in “nitro-beers”. They’ve changed the design of these a few times. When they first came out and I dissected a can I found one that looks like a little gold-colored can, and a flat white plastic thingy. Boddington’s uses them too. Explanation: > **[How Does the Beer Can Widget Work?](https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question446.htm)** > > 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? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/3 "2001-03-18T00:33:25Z")
> [@](#): > > _Excerpted from the [Guinness website](http://www.guinness.com)_ > The new Floating Draught System works on pressure. A small plastic ball called a widget is filled with a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas, placed in the can where it floats and can be heard moving around until the can is opened, releasing the gas and creating the creamy, foamy GUINNESS Draught. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/4 "2001-03-18T00:36:17Z")
A search would have revealed [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=25751) to you. Some retard spelled Guinness wrong in the title of that thread and again in the OP. Dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/5 "2001-03-18T04:12:59Z")
So, to summarize, it makes it foamy like when it comes from a tap. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/6 "2001-03-18T05:44:49Z")
And Cecil on the topic: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000526.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000526.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jeremy\_s\_Evil\_Twin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Jeremy\_s\_Evil\_Twin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeremy_s_Evil_Twin)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-thing-inside-my-can-of-guinness-beer/58424/7 "2001-03-18T21:54:19Z")
And here I was thinking this question would be too obscure for the SDMB folk…silly me, I should know better by now… **Lance** , don’t be so hard on yourself, I thought it was one “N” too, right up until I wrote this post, when I looked at the can and saw it was TWO N’s…hey, you learn something every day, huh? J.E.T.