Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to short Stuff. I'm Josh and there's
Speaker 1: Chuck and we're talking short stuff today. We're talking widgets
Speaker 1: on short stuff. I should say widgets that were first
Speaker 1: introduced as a concept from a play, right, Chuck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there was the word. First of all,
Speaker 2: we need to think our old buddy Brian Didsbury. Oh right,
Speaker 2: the boom operator on the stuff. You should know a
Speaker 2: TV show so great, who comes to our live shows?
Speaker 2: Still a friend. He texted me all the time trying
Speaker 2: to get me to play Red Dead Redemption with him online.
Speaker 1: He texted me Simpson's quotes.
Speaker 2: Does he really? Oh? Did he text you about this too?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, he texted me a couple of days ago
Speaker 2: and it's like, hey man, how about one on the
Speaker 2: Guinness widget. I was like, done, buddy, it's a good idea,
Speaker 2: for sure it is, and said thanks to Guinness dot com.
Speaker 2: How stuff works, conservable, conversible, economist, petroleum service company? Where
Speaker 2: else YouTube?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Speaker 2: Okay, anyway, get widgets. Everybody thinks it's basically a spinoff
Speaker 2: of the word gadget, which is probably true. We don't
Speaker 2: know the true etymology, but I believe It was in
Speaker 2: a play in nineteen twenty four where they specifically in
Speaker 2: the play talked about like we're in the widget business,
Speaker 2: and that maybe like the first time that anyone had
Speaker 2: ever used it like that. But then Guinness came along
Speaker 2: and said, well, you know what everyone talks about, widgets
Speaker 2: is just a thing you make, a nameless thing you
Speaker 2: make at any company. We're going to make a real thing,
Speaker 2: and we're really going to call it a widget and
Speaker 2: get it patented as such.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they did. It's this thing that makes canned
Speaker 1: guinness much more like Guinness from the tap, which is
Speaker 1: actually much more like Guinness from a cask, because Guinness
Speaker 1: is its own kind of thing. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I say we dig into how Guinness' is Guinness.
Speaker 2: That's right. I think we should prep people that this simple, simple,
Speaker 2: little short stuff was a cause of a lot of
Speaker 2: emails and consternation between us today.
Speaker 1: Right, is it simple?
Speaker 2: I think? So?
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I think you should take the lead.
Speaker 2: In basically a pong ball.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, the widget is simple, right, so let's talk
Speaker 1: about what we're talking about. If you open a can
Speaker 1: of Guinness and just the can, it's not in the bottle.
Speaker 1: There's a little plastic sphere with a hole in the
Speaker 1: bottom that you will hear rattling around the can if
Speaker 1: you cut the can open very gently, set one aside,
Speaker 1: and then be very careful holding the other one up
Speaker 1: because it's a slice can. They're very dangerous. And look
Speaker 1: inside you'll see this little plastic sphere that is the
Speaker 1: Guinness widget. And there's no, it's not that big, is
Speaker 1: it now?
Speaker 2: That looks a little smaller.
Speaker 1: But could you though, does it have bounce to it?
Speaker 2: M I doubt it because it's not it's not full
Speaker 2: of air, okay, and it's heavier. I was just making it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I didn't know. I could see that being
Speaker 1: like a thing that the Internet figured out.
Speaker 2: I bet they've done that in Ireland. And by the way,
Speaker 2: Guinness calls these officially within the Guinness Company, they call
Speaker 2: it smooth.
Speaker 1: The fire okay, So everybody else calls it a widget then, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So they put this in there and only God themself
Speaker 1: knows how they work.
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk a little bit about a guy named
Speaker 2: Michael Ash. In nineteen fifty one, Michael Ash joined the
Speaker 2: Guinness Company. He was a mathematician he's a master brewer.
Speaker 2: He was a big believer in science, and he was like, hey,
Speaker 2: there's all these beers that are made with carbon dioxide,
Speaker 2: and it's that CO two that dissolves in the beer
Speaker 2: that makes it fizzy when you open it up. When
Speaker 2: the can is closed, the pressure inside is much higher
Speaker 2: than the pressure outside. So when you open that thing up,
Speaker 2: there's a pressure drop and the agitation of pouring it
Speaker 2: makes that CO two come bubbling out, and that's where
Speaker 2: you get your foamy head on a beer.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: He was like, this cask guinness is smooth and creamy
Speaker 2: and CO two just doesn't do it. If we're going
Speaker 2: to try and put the stuff in pubs and eventually
Speaker 2: in cans.
Speaker 1: No, no, So if you have a cask, the beer
Speaker 1: that's put into the cask, it ages in the cask,
Speaker 1: like when you deliver it to a pub, it's still
Speaker 1: doing its thing aging and once you tap the cask
Speaker 1: you have three days to drink it. That's how unpasteurized
Speaker 1: and new it is. But the thing is is when
Speaker 1: you get the beer out of the cask, you have
Speaker 1: to actually pump it out, and that creates like a
Speaker 1: totally different pour and finish than if you're pouring it
Speaker 1: out of a cake. So, because the world kind of
Speaker 1: transitioned from casks to kegs around the middle of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, Michael Ashen was like, well, then, what can
Speaker 1: we do to make guinness more cask like or keep
Speaker 1: its cask like profile and look and taste and everything.
Speaker 1: And he figured out that adding nitrogen is what would
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 2: That's right, and you know what, I think that's a
Speaker 2: good little cliffhanger. Okay, so let's take a break and
Speaker 2: we'll talk about the magic inside the Guinness can and
Speaker 2: glass right after this. All right, So where we left off,
Speaker 2: Michael ash had discovered that nitrogen along with it's not
Speaker 2: it doesn't replace the CEO two. It's a mixture of
Speaker 2: the carbon dioxide and nitrogen, but nitrogen isn't absorbed into
Speaker 2: the beer like carbon dioxide is. So it it has
Speaker 2: the same pressure of just a regular beer, but it
Speaker 2: has a lot less CO two, and so it's not
Speaker 2: as physy, which is not what you want out of
Speaker 2: a Guinness anyway, because that nitrogen is making up a
Speaker 2: great deal of that pressure inside the can.
Speaker 1: Yes, and even though it's harder for nitrogen to dissolve
Speaker 1: inside beer CO two. It's very easy. Nitrogen will some
Speaker 1: will dissolve and it forms smaller bubbles and more stable
Speaker 1: bump bubbles. So when you pour this nitrogen infused Guinness beer,
Speaker 1: the the head will be foamier, much creamier than say
Speaker 1: like a CO two loggerhead that eventually kind of settles
Speaker 1: down and looks like urine in a glass after a while,
Speaker 1: especially if we're talking about cores banquet beer. This is
Speaker 1: like a foamy head that, because the nitrogen bubbles are
Speaker 1: more stable, stays around way longer too. So he figured
Speaker 1: out by adding nitrogen and you can basically replicate the
Speaker 1: look and the feel and the taste of cask poor
Speaker 1: Guinness like it used to be.
Speaker 2: That's right. So the next step was like how do
Speaker 2: I make this happen in a can? It seemed like
Speaker 2: an impossibility until a guy named John Lunn l u
Speaker 2: n N, a master distiller, created the widget the patent.
Speaker 2: I believe Guinness eventually filed for the patent in sixty
Speaker 2: nine for an improved method of and means of dispensing
Speaker 2: carbonated liquids from containers. It began as a Project Dynamite,
Speaker 2: but apparently there was a lot of that was problematic
Speaker 2: for customs because it said Project Dynamite on all the
Speaker 2: paperwork and stuff. So yeah, yeah, so they changed it
Speaker 2: to Project oak Tree.
Speaker 1: They changed with the Project Dino mi right.
Speaker 2: They changed it to Project Nuclear Waste. Now Project oak
Speaker 2: Tree I think was a reference to the original Project
Speaker 2: Acorn from Guinness. So they wanted to get these cans
Speaker 2: right that you can get Guinness in a bottle, but
Speaker 2: it's not the same beer at all. It's completely different beer.
Speaker 1: So like the you like the canned version better? Huh
Speaker 1: oh yeah, okay, the pub version. I might not be
Speaker 1: doing it right then, because I'm like, what is this crap?
Speaker 1: Like this is I would rather just drink the Guinness
Speaker 1: out of a bottle any day of the week.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you like Guinness in a pub?
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever actually had real Guinness
Speaker 1: in a pub?
Speaker 2: Oh Josh, Because it''m taking you to England next week.
Speaker 1: Okay, that'd be awesome, you like really?
Speaker 2: Yea, that just surprises me.
Speaker 1: I must not import it correctly because it doesn't make
Speaker 1: any sense that they would even go to this trouble
Speaker 1: of putting a widget in it to make worse guinness
Speaker 1: than it is in the bottle. So I just didn't
Speaker 1: do it right, that's my guess.
Speaker 2: Well, maybe you just don't understand the concept of guinness.
Speaker 2: I mean, guinness is supposed to go down like a
Speaker 2: milk and not a fizzy carbonated beverage. It's got They
Speaker 2: call it the surge and settle. It pours in and
Speaker 2: you just see it gently falling to the bottom and
Speaker 2: you get this milky foam at the.
Speaker 1: Top the cascade.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like that's why I could always drink a
Speaker 2: lot of guinness because it didn't it didn't fill you
Speaker 2: up and make you super gassy and burpie.
Speaker 1: Wow. So I've been doing the opposite because drinking a
Speaker 1: single bottle of guinness is like eating a whole loaf
Speaker 1: of bread to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the bottle is completely different.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, So I got to try this other version
Speaker 1: because what you're talking about is basically the opposite of
Speaker 1: the guinness I'm familiar with.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that is that.
Speaker 1: That's funny, Like I really want to try it, Like
Speaker 1: you've just blown my mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh man, go out and get a four pack
Speaker 2: and crack the can open and then just dump it
Speaker 2: in the glass as hard as you can. Just turn
Speaker 2: it upside down, okay, and it won won't overflow or anything.
Speaker 2: It'll get to the top and just stop and then
Speaker 2: start settling.
Speaker 1: Well, there's this other thing they have now too, that
Speaker 1: I guess kind of takes the whole thing into a
Speaker 1: new level. It's called nitro surge.
Speaker 2: It's like I saw that.
Speaker 1: You put it on top of the can and it
Speaker 1: does it does the pouring like it would from a cask,
Speaker 1: as far as I understand, right there at home, or
Speaker 1: you know, in the parking lot of a convenience store.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw the nitro surge. I don't think they
Speaker 2: sell them here yet, but it's like a I think
Speaker 2: it's like a mechanical device, like does I have a
Speaker 2: battery in it? Even I'm not fully sure. I stopped
Speaker 2: to look into it when I realized how much further
Speaker 2: it was taking me away from the widget. You know
Speaker 2: what I mean?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I forgot. We were talking about the widget.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's get back to the widget.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So the widget is a little plastic ball, and I
Speaker 2: think this is where we got hung up earlier. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you saw my most recent email, I
Speaker 2: think it's a matter of semantics, because I kept saying
Speaker 2: that the in Guinness on their website says it's a
Speaker 2: nitrogen filled sphere, and you're like, it's not filled with nitrogen.
Speaker 2: I think it's just semantics because they don't literally fill
Speaker 2: this ball with nitrogen and then drop it in Okay,
Speaker 2: they can't. It is because it has a hole in it.
Speaker 2: It's you drop it in there and then fill the
Speaker 2: can with nitrogen, and then that ball fills up with
Speaker 2: nitrogen and beer, gotcha, got and it stays in this
Speaker 2: tiny It's basically a little mini turbojet. So when you
Speaker 2: crack that beer, it's a little mini ball with higher
Speaker 2: pressure than the rest with then even what's inside the
Speaker 2: rest of the can. And so when you crack that
Speaker 2: beer and all that pressure changes, just like a regular beer,
Speaker 2: it comes shooting out of that little tiny hole in
Speaker 2: the plastic ball and provides this little extra boost of
Speaker 2: nitrogen like a little beer jet, agitating everything to create
Speaker 2: even more bubbles.
Speaker 1: Right. But the specific kind of nitrogen bottles that make
Speaker 1: Guinness Guinness, which are smaller and more stable, so you
Speaker 1: get that foamy, creamy head in the cascade and all
Speaker 1: that I get me. Yeah, all right, he did a
Speaker 1: great job.
Speaker 2: I think it was the semantical thing when people say
Speaker 2: it's filled with nitrogen. It is, but as a virtue
Speaker 2: of the canning process, they don't like fill it up
Speaker 2: and go like quick throw it in there. Right.
Speaker 1: You have to hold it just right, put your thumb
Speaker 1: over the hole, and then just throw it in and
Speaker 1: put the top of the can on really quick.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's really ingenious though. I mean it's got this
Speaker 2: this tiny little hole and imagine a little ball filled
Speaker 2: with like nitrogen infused beer being jetted out of this
Speaker 2: tiny little hole as you're pouring, as you've opened and
Speaker 2: pouring this beer. It's so simple, it's ingenious and so
Speaker 2: ingenious that in two thousand and four they did a
Speaker 2: survey of almost nine thousand people and they voted that
Speaker 2: the Guinness widget was a greater invention than the Internet.
Speaker 1: Right, and they're prong. But I get the point for sure.
Speaker 2: I mean it's something to put on your website.
Speaker 1: I guess it depends which version of the Internet you're
Speaker 1: talking about, you know.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this. Have you ever had any
Speaker 2: like cream stouts? Yeah, like on Bodding Ten's or Murphy's
Speaker 2: or any of those.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, yeah, the guinness, Like I just associated a
Speaker 1: stout with like like I just had dinner three hours ago.
Speaker 1: I can't drink a stout because I'll throw up, I'll
Speaker 1: be too full.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think that's uh. To my mind, it's a
Speaker 2: misnomer because stout sounds heavy because it's a big, dark beer.
Speaker 2: But it's because it's not heavily carbonated like a lagger like.
Speaker 2: It doesn't fill you up like that. It doesn't make
Speaker 2: you gassy and burpie. It's like drinking a big thick milk,
Speaker 2: which may make you feel full, but it's not from
Speaker 2: like gassy fuls.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're getting tripped up by semantics again. It to me, yeah,
Speaker 1: the big milky thing. If I drank a big glass
Speaker 1: of milk after I ate, I would probably throw up.
Speaker 1: So it's the same thing in that sense. But no,
Speaker 1: it's not making me like you know, like Coors Bankwetpeer
Speaker 1: would rap burpie or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't fill
Speaker 1: you up in that sense. It like literally fills you up.
Speaker 2: I gotcha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So yeah, I think we're talking about the same thing. Well,
Speaker 1: now I'm worried that I have experienced Guinness like you're
Speaker 1: supposed to, and there's not like a whole world out
Speaker 1: there for me to try. Well, you may not like it,
Speaker 1: I'll try it for sure. I haven't.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't drink a lot of beer anymore period.
Speaker 2: And I went through a big Guinness phase in the nineties,
Speaker 2: starting in college and through New Jersey. And in fact,
Speaker 2: that brings me to another little factoid here. The Guinness
Speaker 2: uses a floating widget since nineteen ninety seven. And I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, that explains it, because in the nineties
Speaker 2: we cut open the can because we were like, what
Speaker 2: is that in there? And it was fixed to the
Speaker 2: bottom of the can, So it was pre ninety seven
Speaker 2: and during COVID with supply issues they fixed it to
Speaker 2: the bottom of the can then as well. But otherwise
Speaker 2: it's been a floating widget.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you have been freaked out when you cut the
Speaker 1: can open and you found the thing just fixed to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the can looking back up at you
Speaker 1: and blink.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like little irish Eyeball right.
Speaker 1: One other thing, though, there's a I noticed on this
Speaker 1: list an old speckled hen uses widget to which I
Speaker 1: didn't know that used to be one of my faith
Speaker 1: beers for a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Bodington's, Murphy's Beamish, tet Lee's, what else,
Speaker 2: Wexford bell Haven And I'm sure we've missed some, but
Speaker 2: they all use the widget technology to deliver that pub
Speaker 2: pub drawn flavor to your lips right there at home.
Speaker 1: Yeah. This episode is Short Stuff, brought to you by
Speaker 1: Corus Banquet Beer. Right. Yeah, I doubt that you got
Speaker 1: anything else.
Speaker 2: I got nothing else. I'm sure we got some stuff wrong.
Speaker 2: There's some beer fishonados that are like, I'm not quite right.
Speaker 1: Guys, whatever I think you should say the thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, Short Stuff is out. Stuff you should know is
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