Last night i bought a six-pack of Guinness for the first time in a long time.

I noticed that the bottles had a ceramic type piece in them that rattled around but were too big to come out the bottle's neck.

I've bought can of Guinness often in UK and Ireland and i never noticed these clanging pieces (when bottle empty) there - is this something for the yank market or do they have similar cans/bottles in UK and Eire?

And what is the purpose for this piece - to mix the beer up when drinking?

Thanks

You have enountered the Guinness widget - a plastic, nitrogen-filled sphere with a tiny hole in it. The purpose of which is to make the head thick.

Unfortuntately widgets are also added to some bitters - though I am pleased to say they haven't mucked about with Abbot.

For more information that you want to know on widgets see:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question446.htm

Hi PQ,

That thingy in the can or bottle is to keep the beer from wooshing out like a bottle of shaken champagne when you open it.

It has been a while since you bought some Guiness.

The point being that Guinness on draft is pressurized with nitrogen, not carbon dioxide like most other beers. Nitrogen, unlike CO2, doesn't dissolve in the beer, which is why Guinness isn't carbonated (which simply means "has lots of CO2 dissolved in it&quot.

The nitrogen pressure also gives Guinness that creamy head, and is the reason why it takes so long to let a proper pint settle into drinkability.

The can you have is trying to emulate the draft Guinness as closely as possible. It doesn't get there, of course, but is suprisingly close -- and is in fact quite a bit better than badly-kept, badly-poured Guinness, which is all too common here in the States.

Unlike Wombat, I think the widgets are terrific in most of the ale styles of the British Isles. It much more closely approximates the style of "real ale", which, like a widgeted can, is not pressurized under CO2, but with its natural carbonization from fermentation.

That's what's "real" about "real ale" -- it's under cask pressure only, and must be pumped from a beer engine, rather than a pressure tap like Budweiser or whatever. You'll never get that goodness from a can, but the widget is closer than a pumped-up, foamy can of CO2-pressurized beer.

Boddington's available in English-pint sized cans. Also with the widget. Very very nice head and it's smooth.

Like most things it is a matter of taste. I'll stick to my no widget Abbot (also means you get more in the can!)

kkwan - funny you should mention Boddington's as soon as the widget went in that I went off it. But then again I don't like Guinness either.

Sorry - rkkwan (BTW great Sicily trip report!)

The widget in the cans is designed for you to pour your beer into a glass and give you the same head that you would get from the tap. The widget in the bottle however is a "slow release" design so that you can drink it from the bottle and have the same head as you drink it. If you pour from the bottle into a glass you don't get much of a head and it definitely tastes different than if you poured from the can or from the tap. (That is what I was told when I e-mailed Guinness this year to ask why I didn't get a head from a bottle.)