The mystery of the perfect pint of Guinness has been solved – it’s all to do with the shape of the glass.
Researchers at University of Limerick believe they have cracked how to serve the best pint of Ireland’s most famous beer.
They have concluded that the reason the bubbles sink is down to the shape of the glass – and they took their work to the pub in a bid to find out why.
Researcher Dr William Lee from the University of Limerick’s Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry told the Irish Times that the curious staff regularly drink Guinness on a Friday evening after maths seminars.
“Although we were aware of previous work in the area, my colleague Prof Eugene Benilov pointed out there was a gap in the bubbles theory,” he said.
“While it was understood that the sinking bubbles were due to the small size of the bubbles and a circulation in the glass, there was no explanation of the origin of the current.”
The Irish Times reports that to fill in the theoretical gaps, the researchers used computational fluid dynamics and insight from a field trip to the pub with a measuring cylinder to find out the density of a stout beer.
“One of our colleagues tilted the cylinder when it was full of settling stout and we saw that the bubbles went down on the lower face and up on the higher face,” added Dr Lee.
“That told us that the slope of the glass was the key factor.”
The findings have now been presented in a paper by Lee, Benilov and Cathal Cummins at arXiv.org.
They suggest the typical narrow-ended pint-glass shape has an important role to play in the sinking-bubbles phenomenon.
“We would be interested in seeing whether it is possible to redesign a pint glass to reduce the settling time. There could be wider implications for this,” said Lee.
“More generally, a lot of industrial processes involve bubbly flows so the research may find applications there.”
More details are available here.
Guinness Science - Sixty Symbols
12 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.irishpjk | May 31, 2012, 11:34 PM EDT
I thought you all knew that or I would have told meself. You don’t think that pint glass got that shape all by itself for no reason do you. Mr. Guinness knew what he was doing with the stout and the glass. I will continue to study my Guinness glass and bubbles as long as it doesn’t slow down me drinking.
mandrake | May 31, 2012, 07:00 PM EDT
These Limerick lads really need to get out in the fresh air more often.Who cares a Tinkers curse how the bubbles get there as long as they keep gettin there. I've got the thirst on me now so Slainte!
Aliciarose | May 31, 2012, 06:37 PM EDT
My brother-in-law and husband have been saying this for years. I cannot believe they have just found this out. It must have cost a fortune in this research. We have a couple of these glasses and it is quite true that it is the shape of the glass. By the way, husband and brother-in-law are Irish and have sunk quite a few Guinness.
fscarlson | May 31, 2012, 05:40 PM EDT
A couple of years ago I read a book 'In Search of the Perfect Guinness' written by a couple of Aussies. Utterly delightful reading and has made me want to visit Ireland and try some of the places mentioned therein. I sure hope they subscribe to Irish Central. I think they'd enjoy this article, and I'll be searching for the "perfect glass" when I finally make the trip.
Bythebay | May 31, 2012, 03:11 PM EDT
The canned stuff will never make a perfect pint.
dermotfastnet | May 31, 2012, 02:11 PM EDT
I could not understand how this fell'a could talk for 9 minutes and seventeen seconds and not drink a drop,until he admits to us at the end he doesn't drink Guinness.
torbreezy | May 31, 2012, 11:34 AM EDT
Mike Todd, legendary movie director and erstwhile husband of Elizabeth Taylor, was wont to say: "Never take 'em back stage." This "scientific" study has now taken away the "wonder of it all . . . ."
JBRAFTREE | May 31, 2012, 10:32 AM EDT
Didn't want to see the video, but found it interesting and informative. But.. I don't care. It's my drink of choice and if they mentioned Arthur's cat peed in the first batch, I wouldn't mind.
fmurray515 | May 31, 2012, 10:29 AM EDT
and what happens when a different kind of glass is used?
judiron | May 31, 2012, 10:17 AM EDT
who cares. My husband loves it no matter how the bubbles get to where they are going. Big waste of money for a poor country.
Murph46 | May 31, 2012, 09:49 AM EDT
Works for me!
carrickcourt | May 31, 2012, 09:38 AM EDT
Grand!