The Brew SiteIrish Beer Week: Frothing up a Guinness with an electric toothbrush
Yes, the title pretty much says it all; the link sent to me points to a page (update: that link is broken, but it’s on the Wayback Machine here) that does indeed relate the experiment of frothing up a nice-looking head on a pint of Guinness with an electric ultrasonic toothbrush.
More recently, Guinness introduced the “Surger”, a drink-coaster sized device that froths up a home-poured pint by using ultrasonic waves to release the bubbles. The Surger produces an impressive pub-worthy head in seconds (and a larger version is used in pubs that don’t have a tap line installed). However, it is available only in the UK (for the price of £16.99, or about US $35) and you have to use a special kind of canned Guinness that’s had more nitrogen forced into it.
We wanted to see if we could mechanically simulate the Guinness Surger’s effect and create an acceptable head of foam on a canned or bottled Guinness through other means.
On one hand I admire the curiosity involved in this sort of testing, but on the other hand, I just want to say, Ew. I hope that’s a clean/sterile toothbrush.
just got back from europe, they had a surger at a bar in bulgaria. the pint DOES look nice, however it still tastes like a canned pint of guinness.
If you’re ever in Portland, the Belmont Station has a surger. The first time it got used we all gathered around and marveled. It looks like a promotional sign until you see someone put a pint behind the sign on a little coaster-sized disk. Then a second later it’s cascading like a poured Guinney.