From: kyle@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Kyle Wohlmut)
Subject: Re: Black and Tan
Followup-To: alt.beer
Summary: You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.
Keywords: This article printed on 100% recycled electrons
Organization: Rocking Pig Enterprises
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 18:30:23 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.153704.7389@hubcap.clemson.edu> elwin@gamma.phys.clemson.edu (Lawrence "Doc" Brown) writes:
>
>Um, er,... aren't those the cans that have the little spinning
>"bobo" in them that emits NITROGEN bubbles to match the draught
>Guinness that you get in bars which is also dispensed using
>pressurized NITROGEN? One more time, Nitrogen weighs less than
>CO2 and has  very different surface chemsitry.
>That's why draught Guiness has those little tiny BUBBLES. So,
>now we need someone who can buy the canned Guiness (we don't get
>it here yet) and the bottled stuff to try them side by side and
>tell us if it really is the bubbles, I can't see how it would
>work myself but I've been wrong a couple of times before :).
>Any volunteers? 
>

I don't know where these funny ideas come from... this has been posted
before on this group, but I guess it bears repeating.  The following
is the US patent description for the Guinness draught can
whatsamahoogie, colloquially called a 'smoothifier.' (I don't think
there's an official name for it.) Note there is no mention of
nitrogen, no 'spinning "bobo,"' whatever that may be-- in fact no
moving parts whatsoever.  The device relies on action/reaction of two
differently pressurized chambers.  That's all.  Now, another alt.beer
reader recently told me that the Guinness in the cans is 'injected
with liquid nitrogen,' or something like that, to get the proper
Guinness head.  That's as may be, I'm not sure about that (wouldn't
that just give you an extremely cold beer?), but my point is it's not
nitrogen that gives you the head-- it's the effervescence.

Anyway, on to said patent: '1. A beverage package comprising a sealed,
non-resealable container having a primary chamber containing beverage
having gas in a solution therewith and forming a primary headspace
comprising gas at a pressure greater than atmospheric; enclosure means
defining a secondary chamber having a volume less than said primary
chamber; restrictor means defining a restricted orifice, said
secondary chamber communicating with the beverage in said primary
chamber through said restricted orifice; said secondary chamber
containing BEVERAGE SUPPLIED THERETO FROM THE BEVERAGE IN THE PRIMARY
CHAMBER AND HAVING A SECONDARY HEADSPACE THERIN COMPRISING A GAS AT A
PRESSURE GREATER THAN ATMOSPHERIC SO THAT THE PRESSURES WITHIN THE
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CHAMBERS ARE SUBSTANTIALLY AT EQUILIBRIUM; said
container is openable to expose the primary headspace to atmospheric
pressure, and wherein the secondary chamber is arranged so that upon
opening of the container the pressure differential caused by the
decrease in pressure at the primary headspace causes beverage in the
secondary chamber to be ejected by way of the restricted orifice into
the beverage of the primary chamber and said ejection causes gas in
the solution to be evolved and form, or assist in the formation of, a
head of froth on the beverage.'

The 'gas' it keeps referring to is, of course, air, since the
smoothifier works only on pressure change.  Go on, tear open one of
the cans, see for yourself! (If you can get one... I was told this
morning to my surprise that they are available only in about 5% of the
US market.)

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                       /               
/'''   Kyle Wohlmut    -  'Heute back ich, morgen brau ich, und       
c-OO                   /   uebermorgen hol ich mir der Koenigin ihr      
   \   Rocking Pig     -   Kind.  Ach, wie gut dass niemand weiss,
  -     Enterprises    /   dass ich kyle@csli.stanford.EDU heiss.'    
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