Guinness surger

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RockfordWhite

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So idk if any of you have seen these at bars or in the UK, but Guinness has this thing called a surger, which as far as i understand, re carbonates flat beer, so i was wondering, since there are still CO2 molecules in uncarbonated hombrew if you could just use one of these to carbonate it? Thoughts and comments...
 
the surger is not "carbonating" the beer, it is releasing the air in the beer to create the famous guinness head...I work for a distributor of guinness (among other imports) in NW Indiana and we dont sell them in great volume, I believe they are mostly for bars who don't want the trouble of setting up a draft system...
 
Hmm...see the explanation i heard was that it sent electro magnetic waves at the frequency of the co2 and nitrogen when would re-awaken them or something...
 
what? electro-magnetic waves? CO2 and nitrogen are not metals..they wouldn't be affected by magnetic fields.

someone was feeding you lies.

I'm guessing the surger is like a stout faucet that'd be used with beer gas?
 
Its ultra-sonics.

The surger is a plate-like electrical device meant for the home. It sends ultrasonic waves through a Guinness-filled pint glass to recreate the beer's "surge and settle" effect. The device works in conjunction with special cans of surger-ready Guinness. Guinness tried out a primitive version of this system in 1977 in New York.

Which does make some sense I suppose.

nick
 
HP_Lovecraft said:
Its ultra-sonics.



Which does make some sense I suppose.

nick
Over on YouTube there's a number of videos. It certainly look like its an ultrasonic plate that simply shakes the brew rapidly and releases the suspended gas to create a nice head.

ETA:
Or we can simply check with the source Which states:
"Seeing is believing

It's really rather clever, if we do say so ourselves! To create the GUINNESS® Draught magic, slowly pour the special GUINNESS® Draught SURGER® beer into your pint glass, place it on the SURGER® and press the button. The SURGER® sends ultrasonic sound through the beer activating that instant rush of GUINNESS® magic, creating a rich black body with a tight white creamy head. "
 
RockfordWhite said:
yeah ultra-sonic, i had a brain fart there, that's how it was explained...
That makes sense. The vibrations do the same thing as a stout facet with draft beer. It causes the CO2 to come out of solution and create that great creamy head. It does not add the CO2 to the beer. It might be something worth trying with home brew stouts and other styles that work well on a stout facet with beer gas.
Craig
 
malkore said:
what? electro-magnetic waves? CO2 and nitrogen are not metals..they wouldn't be affected by magnetic fields.

someone was feeding you lies.

I'm guessing the surger is like a stout faucet that'd be used with beer gas?
Actually, (for the sake of being a smart ass), carbon, nitrogren, and hydrogen are affected by magnets. I won't go into it anymuch deeper than that, as it's not the technology for the surger and relevant to this discussion :D

I study this for a living with this guy:

800.jpg
 
I wouldn't mind using the Bruker 800. Since I am an undergrad, all that I am allowed to use is the 300 and 600. The 800 is reserved for grad students.
 
I just pour my HB Guinness into the middle of the glass and it ends up looking like a real one...:D

I looked at the video...it seems like they're selling a different brew also...Surger ONLY Guinness...I wonder how this would work on a regular beer???:confused:
 
homebrewer_99 said:
...I wonder how this would work on a regular beer???:confused:

Check out Youtube, apparently it makes a regular bottle of stella shoot a fountain a couple of feet in the air
 
srober19 said:
I wouldn't mind using the Bruker 800. Since I am an undergrad, all that I am allowed to use is the 300 and 600. The 800 is reserved for grad students.

I acquired my entire backbone and side-chain assignments on a 600...but that's largely to the fact that I can get my protein up to 3 mM concentration :)

I need to use the 800 for homonuclear and some Nitrogen-edited expts, though. It's just a prettier picture :)
 
PseudoChef said:

Nice conical!

j/k

my degree is in English/philosophy...I just assumed magnetic fields had no effect on beer.

wonder what a beer MRI looks like?
 
anderj said:
Check out Youtube, apparently it makes a regular bottle of stella shoot a fountain a couple of feet in the air




Guinness Surger Vs. Larger

Larger? wth... lol

Edit: I like the fookin hell comment.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I want one! But I don't want to pay the $50+ they are going for on ebay. Plus the 35pound shipping fee. At that price I'll stick with my stout faucet and beergas.
 
I don't see why it wouldn't, the head just wouldn't last as long since the gradient for c02 to the atmosphere would be larger.
 
Wouldn't you know after reading this thread on Friday, I happened to be at a restaurant that had the surger..... so I just had to try it.

my take....complete marketing gimmick.

Tasted like your standard guinness out o' a can. If anything, I did not like it as much as the standard guinness.

To me, if an establishment wants to serve guinness and be taken seriously....pony up and get the proper nitrogen dispensing equipment.
 
For some odd reason, I just remembered that Mr Wizard did a similar experiment.... oh... 20 years ago... using sonics on a glass of rootbeer? Something like that, with a similar experience.

I've never really had a problem pouring a glass of Guinness, but all the local pubs are useless. Either I'll get a glass that is 50% head, or no head at all. And the bartenders do not like being told how to do there job.

I wonder if the purger had lazy, ignorant bartenders in mind. Pour a Guinness half-assed, then just "purg" it for the head.

nick
 
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