Why does stout need the widget and what’s it doing in there?
In: 3
Adds nitrogen bubbles to your beer. Most other beers have carbonated bubbles either from fermentation process or injected before or during the bottling process.
Nitrogen bubbles give a softer mouth feel, makes Guinness taste more creamier.
I don’t know the process of getting the widget into the can with the beer but the nitrogen gas in the widget would be under lower pressure that the beer in the can. When the can is opened the pressure in the beer can drops allowing the nitrogen gas from the widget to inject into the beer.
The widget is literally just a small plastic chamber with a small hole in it that floats in your beer (or is attached to the bottom).
When the can is sealed, a drop of liquid nitrogen is added. As this evaporates, it pressurises the can more than the CO2 in the beer alone. This forces some beer into the widget and compresses any trapped gas in the widget too. It also causes some nitrogen to dissolve in the beer.
When you open the can, the pressure drops in the can. The still high pressure beer/gas combo in the widget tries to escape, however there’s only a small hole through which to do so. A bubbly jet of gas and liquid gets forced out of the hole which foams up the beer creating a head.
Without the widget, you get a pint of Guinness with no foamy head.
Great explanation of the widget, not sure if you knew but the technical term actually is “widget”, that’s literally the things name.
I’ll only add that part of the reason why this works is because the beer is “nitrogenated” in lieu of carbonated, meaning they add nitrogen gas. The reason they do this is two fold, first nitrogen forms smaller bubbles in the liquid that carbon giving it a “creamy” feel in lieu of a “bubbly” feel.
Secondly, since the atmosphere contains so much nitrogen it’s really hard for the bubbles to escape the liquid (remember the atmosphere is like 60% Nitrogen vs. ~1% CO2). So the bubbles can’t escape and the beer stays bubbly, longer.
The Guinness cascade is this effect in practice. The bubbles rise up the middle of the beer but can’t escape. They get pushed out of the way but additional bubbles rising up behind them but still have no place to go. So they eventually make their way to the sides of the glass and then get forced back downwards causing the class “waterfall” of bubbles inside the beer glass.
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