In these cases, a widget can be anything, and were left to the student's imagination as to there shape, size, value, and use. That was until I had a can of John Smith's Extra Smooth.
Upon finishing a 16 oz tall boy, I was startled when I felt and heard something rolling around inside the empty can. At first, I thought it was the finger of some unfortunate line worker, and felt a wave of nausea. Then, I imagined a massive law suit and early retirement.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was a round plastic ball, and thought perhaps it was some kind of ball-bearing from a conveyor belt - not as traumatic as a severed finger, but it still had lawsuit potential.
After a little research, I was disappointed to discover that the little ball was purposely placed inside the can by the brewers to maintain a keg-like taste in a canned beer, and to also give it a little head when it was opened.
Finally, I learned that it's official name (and topic of many a MBA course), is a Widget.
2 comments:
Guinness introduced this many years ago. Name was accidental and stuck. They have also introduced a "rocket widgeet" in the bottles. The idea is basically that nitrogen saturated beer is both inside the ball (think ping pong ball with a pin hole) and outside. When the can is opened the nitrogen expands and is too big for the ball thus expelling beer out the hole like a jet and propelling the ball around in the beer disturbing the nitrogen in the rest of the can. Thus you must poor it out of the can quickly since this process cause a head to form. Just an FYI. ;)
we can make comments? sweet!
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