Widget (beer)

The "floating widget" is found in cans of beer as a hollow plastic sphere, approximately 3 centimetres (1.2 in) in diameter (similar in appearance to a table tennis ball, but smaller) with two small holes and a seam.

Achieving this higher pressure would not be possible with just dissolved carbon dioxide, as the greater solubility of this gas compared to nitrogen would create an unacceptably large head.

The result, when the can's content is then poured, is a surging mixture in the glass of very small gas bubbles and liquid.

Technical difficulties led to this approach being put on hold, and Guinness instead concentrated on bottles using external initiators.

Subsequently, Guinness allowed this patent to lapse and it was not until Ernest Saunders centralised the company's research and development in 1984 that work restarted on this invention, under the direction of Alan Forage.

The design of an internal compartment that could be readily inserted during the canning process was devised by Alan Forage and William Byrne, and work started on the widget during the period 1984–85.

However, Tony Carey observed that this resulted in beer being forced into the widget during pressurisation, which reduced the quality of the head.

Another name that changed was "inserts"; the operators called them "widgets" almost immediately after they arrived on site, a name that has now stuck with the industry.

This was abandoned and instead it was decided to gas-exchange air for nitrogen on the filler,[2] and produce the inserts with a hole in place using straightforward and cheaper injection-moulding techniques.