In 1997, Guinness released the floating, spherical widget you can find in cans today — which they call the "smoothifier" — to fix this problem. Carbon dioxide vs. nitrogen in beer. Breweries ...

Guinness revolutionized both draft beer systems and how stouts are canned. The key? Nitrogen, and a modified ping pong ball.

You’re drinking a can of Guinness. As you near the bottom, something rattles around inside the can. You look inside and see, to your surprise, what looks like a ping pong ball. Was it a factory error?

“The Guinness widget, which is the white ball found in every can of Draught Guinness – is world famous and has been in use since 1988,” Mngadi told The Citizen. “It is fully food-safe, and ...

Guinness cans, containing a widget to control the pour, also have some nitrogen. Guinness is also dispensed through a special tap that uses a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

During canning, pressurized nitrogen is added to the brew, which trickles into a hole in the widget. Once opened, the widget's nitrogenated beer squirts into the rest of the beer giving it a velvety ...

The Guinness widget is a tiny, plastic ball inside beer cans. During canning, pressurized nitrogen is added to the brew, which trickles into a hole in the widget. Once opened, the widget's ...