Monday, October 14, 2013

The Science of the Perfect Pour

The Geek.com site ran an article recently, entitled Science reveals the secret to the perfect beer pour [link goes to that article].  The gist of the story is:

  • Guinness claims their beer loses quality the minute it leaves their brewery, and that pouring a perfect Guinness is something only an “authorized pouring expert” can do. 
  • The perfect pour achieves the perfect amount of head at the top of the beer when it’s finished pouring.
  • When beer leaves the bottle, it leaves a pocket of low-pressure air in the bottle.  If you don’t pour carefully, that low-pressure area will “glug” out to the atmosphere to equalize.  This will usually generate more head than you want in the pour.
  • One solution to this problem is to pour more slowly, keeping an area of air open between the mouth of the pouring vessel and the glass.  This will prevent a low-pressure pocket from forming and screwing up the pour. Combine this with a tilted glass, allow the beer to roll down the side of the glass, tilting it up near the finish so that you get the right amount of head.
  • Another solution is to add a second hole to the can (if you’re using a can, that is) which allows the air pressure to equalize without disturbing the liquid pouring out (something I’ve seen macro-breweries adding recently).

 

I thought this was pretty much intuitive to any beer drinker, but thought I’d share it in case someone out there is having trouble achieving the perfect pour.

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