Removing Gas container from guiness bottles..

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

waskelton4

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
232
Reaction score
1
Location
Jackson, MS
Hey group..
does anyone have any good ways to get those plastic gas holder thingies out of the guiness draught bottles so they can be used for bottling??

thanks
ws
 
I don't have a good way but I have done it in the past. I rinse the bottle, hold it near the bottom of the bottle and give it a good sling downwards. This sticks the widget in the neck, partially exposed. Use a pair of needle nosed pliers to extract the widget.
 
Haven't tried it, but one member says he just inverts the bottle and grabs the widget with longnosed pliers.
 
waskelton4 said:
Hey group..
does anyone have any good ways to get those plastic gas holder thingies out of the guiness draught bottles so they can be used for bottling??

thanks
ws
Dang, man, we're waiting for someone to bottle a beer with the widget still inside so we can see if they'll function as intended with homebrew! Don't you want to be the Guinea pig?
 
Needle nose pliers work good, as do hemostats (which I'm told are sometimes referred to as roach clips).
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Dang, man, we're waiting for someone to bottle a beer with the widget still inside so we can see if they'll function as intended with homebrew! Don't you want to be the Guinea pig?

well.. i'm sure i could leave it in there but i doubt it would work..

don't the widgets go in pressurized with gas so that the pressure inside the bottle creates equalibrium between the bottle and the widget..
then you pop the top.. and the pressure in the bottle flys out causing the pressure in the widget to be greater than its surroundings so it spews gas creating glorious bubbles in your beer.. and is therefor no longer useful for further brews..??

just a guess ;)

maybe somebody could manufacture a pre filled widget that "arms" itself when the bottle reaches a certain pressure..


ws
 
Widgets are pre-loaded with a drop of liquid nitrogen. It's then popped into the bottle and capped, so when the N2 vaporizes, it stays in the widget. There isn't any way to reuse them.
 
waskelton4 said:
well.. i'm sure i could leave it in there but i doubt it would work..

don't the widgets go in pressurized with gas so that the pressure inside the bottle creates equalibrium between the bottle and the widget..
then you pop the top.. and the pressure in the bottle flys out causing the pressure in the widget to be greater than its surroundings so it spews gas creating glorious bubbles in your beer.. and is therefor no longer useful for further brews..??

just a guess ;)

maybe somebody could manufacture a pre filled widget that "arms" itself when the bottle reaches a certain pressure..


ws

search for guinness widget on this forum. The function of the widget has been discussed in pretty good detail (we even read the patent on the thing!)

In short: widgets go into the bottle "empty" (they contain gas, naturally... air or nitrogen, but they are not pressurized.)

Beer is put into the bottle with the 'empty' widget.

A drop if liquid nitrogen is put into the beer, and the bottle is sealed. The increasing pressure in the bottle pushed beer into the widget, compressing the air or nitrogen that was in the 'empty' widget.

When you open the bottle, the now compressed gas in the widget forces the beer out of the widget in a high pressure jet, and this releases teeny tiny bubbles of carbonation to give you a creamy head.

We have a theory here that the widget can be cleaned and reused. Just drop the 'empty' widget into a bottle, and put beer in.

We don't think you need liquid nitrogen, because the pressure from normal carbonation should force beer into the widget to get the desired effect in the end.

-walker
 
david_42 said:
Widgets are pre-loaded with a drop of liquid nitrogen. It's then popped into the bottle and capped, so when the N2 vaporizes, it stays in the widget. There isn't any way to reuse them.

Not true, David. :)

I'll see if I can dig up the patent link from this site.

-walker
 
david_42 said:
Widgets are pre-loaded with a drop of liquid nitrogen. It's then popped into the bottle and capped, so when the N2 vaporizes, it stays in the widget. There isn't any way to reuse them.
I'm not too sure about that. Do you have a link? From looking at the patent and the way the widget functions I think it's possible it would work, but without any empirical evidence I don't think it's possible to say for sure. Unless you've tried it.
 
Imperial Walker said:
A drop if liquid nitrogen is put into the beer, and the bottle is sealed. The increasing pressure in the bottle pushed beer into the widget, compressing the air or nitrogen that was in the 'empty' widget.
-walker


so you can actually force cabonate a bottle of beer with a drop of liquid nitrogen?
 
waskelton4 said:
so you can actually force cabonate a bottle of beer with a drop of liquid nitrogen?

we've discussed this before and I said I'd try...

talk to my buddy in the lab. he works with liq N2 alot (freezing cow embryos).

I also did some research and math. Practical problem is this:

a tiny amount of liq N2 becomes a huge amount of gas when vaporized. so it would be easy to overpresurize. a " shot" of liq N2 is more than enough to make an instantaneous glass granade.

I asked my friend how could I put a single drop of liqN2 in a bottle and there is no simpe answer.
a syringe: imposible.
a spoon? very hard, easy to overdose!

we have to do some experiments when he can get some n2 from the lab but I am not as exited as before.

I'd recomend very low co2 carbonation for the bottle and the syringe trick to get the creamy guinness head. I'm actively working on that now ;)... my friend is providing the syringes hahahaha!
 
waskelton4 said:
so you can actually force cabonate a bottle of beer with a drop of liquid nitrogen?

No, that's not what I am saying. I think nitrogen doesn't dissolve very well (can anyone confirm that?)

The nitrogen is there MAINLY to increase pressure in the head-space of the bottle. When this happens, beer will be forced into the widget so that the pressure in the headspace and the pressure inside the widget are equal.

-walker
 
Imperial Walker said:
We don't think you need liquid nitrogen, because the pressure from normal carbonation should force beer into the widget to get the desired effect in the end.
We agreed with you right up to that point, but we don't feel that the slow pressure increase from natural carbonation will fill the widget, meaning we feel that the liquid nitrogen is necessary to provide the rapid pressure buildup.

We also feel that we need to go wee.
 
El Pistolero said:
We agreed with you right up to that point, but we don't feel that the slow pressure increase from natural carbonation will fill the widget, meaning we feel that the liquid nitrogen is necessary to provide the rapid pressure buildup.

We also feel that we need to go wee.

why does it need to be FAST building pressure? SLOW building pressure should also work, right?

maybe I missed something in that old thread.... need to go re-read.

-walker
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Hopefully nobody actually tries this so we can continue discussing it!
I was driving down the road yesterday, and right in front of me there's a pickup carrying a tank of liquid nitrogen. I immediately sped up to go around him, thinking I'm gonna cut him off, run him off the road, and take his nitrogen. Fortunately that very thought came to mind...why ruin a good thread with facts. :D

Imperial Walker said:
why does it need to be FAST building pressure?
I think a rapid buildup of pressure is required to force the fluid into the widget. If that wasn't the case, nitro wouldn't be needed, they could just put the widgets into the bottle and feel them at pressure like normal bottles.
 
El Pistolero said:
...why ruin a good thread with facts. :D
Well, I guarantee you for every four people on this board that try this, one will think it works perfectly, one will think it does nothing, one will think it ruined his/her beer, and the fourth will try a decoction next time.
:p
 
why you cant presurize with co2 and use the widget?

if you presurize to 2.2 atm with co2 you'll have overcarbonated beer at the moment you open it! I think that the widget will be loaded indeed but imagin a discharge of air+beer into such a highly carbonated ale!

I came to realize of this when trying the air injection. if you start with a normally carbonated glass of beer (2 vol app.) and you inject air you get a mes.
if you serve, let is sit for a while and inject in the same way as before there is a creamy head, (almost) no mess ;)

now if you prime to carbonate with only 1.3 vol of co2 (I guess that's guiness level) probably you won't get any beer into the gadget.

somewhere I read that bottled guinnes has 1.2-1.3 co2 and just below 1 vol of N2 but I may be wrong.
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Well, I guarantee you for every four people on this board that try this, one will think it works perfectly, one will think it does nothing, one will think it ruined his/her beer, and the fourth will try a decoction next time.
:p
I'm nominating that for post of the year! :D
 
El Pistolero said:
I think a rapid buildup of pressure is required to force the fluid into the widget. If that wasn't the case, nitro wouldn't be needed, they could just put the widgets into the bottle and feel them at pressure like normal bottles.

(This is a funny discussion given the PM exchange I had with you, EP. :))

Anyway, I was thinking that Guinness used nitrogen simply because they don't bottle condition, but rather force carbonate prior to bottling. If they force carbonate, then they NEED something added to increase pressure after sealing the bottle since there is no additional CO2 being generated to provide the needed pressure.

-walker
 
Imperial Walker said:
I'd vote for it, but somebody has to blame something on the use of bleach to sanitize the bottles.

-walker

I'd recomend a more philosofical thread as post of the year, like the old:

is this mashing or just steeping? :D
 
m_f said:
I'd recomend a more philosofical thread as post of the year, like the old:

is this mashing or just steeping? :D

You taking a jab at me, punk? ;)

That might have been a good THREAD, but for an individual POST, I think the Baron has secured the trophy.

In fact, you could post that same comment in a thread about any topic at all, and it would be a good laugh.

-walker
 
Imperial Walker said:
YIn fact, you could post that same comment in a thread about any topic at all, and it would be a good laugh.
Yes, it's a true multi-tasking post, which right there puts it way ahead of corn sugar and aluminum pots. :p
 
Imperial Walker said:
No, that's not what I am saying. I think nitrogen doesn't dissolve very well (can anyone confirm that?)

The nitrogen is there MAINLY to increase pressure in the head-space of the bottle. When this happens, beer will be forced into the widget so that the pressure in the headspace and the pressure inside the widget are equal.

-walker

Yeah.. didn't think that was what you were saying.. i was just thinking that it could be possible..

I have yet to brew a batch and am in the process of collecting bottles so i'll have a place to put it when the time comes :)

I guess when I brew my first stout i'll come back to this thread...

thanks all..

will
(patiently awating the results of the re-use the widget test..)
 
Widgets and Beer. Co2 is different then Nitrogen, Co2 carbonates nicrogen doesn't. That is the idea behind beergas isn't it, as well as the reason nitrogen is used in draught stout. It flows through and produces a nice head. I know there is more to it, but nitrogen and the widgets are for making that creamy head we associate with draught guiness, otherwise we could just give it a rough pour and call it a day.
 
Back
Top