We review the differences between bubble formation in champagne and other carbonated drinks, and stout beers which contain a mixture of dissolved nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The presence of dissolved nitrogen in stout beers gives them several properties of interest to connoisseurs and physicists. These remarkable properties come at a price: stout beers do not foam spontaneously and special technology, such as the widgets used in cans, is needed to promote foaming. Nevertheless, the same mechanism, nucleation by gas pockets trapped in cellulose fibers, responsible for foaming in carbonated drinks is active in stout beers, but at an impractically slow rate. This gentle rate of bubble nucleation makes stout beers an excellent model system for investigating the nucleation of gas bubbles. The equipment needed is modest, putting such experiments within reach of undergraduate laboratories. We also consider the suggestion that a widget could be constructed by coating the inside of a beer can with cellulose fibers.
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October 2011
PAPERS|
October 01 2011
Foaming in stout beers Available to Purchase
W. T. Lee;
W. T. Lee
a)
MACSI, Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Limerick
, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
M. G. Devereux
M. G. Devereux
MACSI, Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Limerick
, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
W. T. Lee
a)
MACSI, Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Limerick
, Ireland
M. G. Devereux
MACSI, Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Limerick
, Ireland
a)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Am. J. Phys. 79, 991–998 (2011)
Article history
Received:
May 12 2011
Accepted:
July 11 2011
Citation
W. T. Lee, M. G. Devereux; Foaming in stout beers. Am. J. Phys. 1 October 2011; 79 (10): 991–998. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3620416
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