Beer Bubbles Really Do Sink

Galvatron writes "A group of researchers at Stanford have shown that, despite being lighter than the beer itself, bubbles can actually slide down the sides of glasses. So, if you see it happen, it's not just that you've had too much to drink. For a description of methodology and an explanation of why it works, see the article."

Comments

Oh come on

[Spruce Moose]

This story is just asking for a frosty piss joke to be made!

Re:Oh come on

[WierdMichael]

This is NOT news, Scientific American did an entire article on it months ago. It's just a temperature-differential driven flow - the beer near the edge of the glass warms and rises. The beer in the center sinks. In stout, where this occurs. is thick enough, and the bubbles are small and long-lived enough to be carriied with the flow. It doesn't happen in Lagers or moth Ales, just Porters and Stouts

sliding down the glass....

[timelady]

odd, I've seen many a drunk sliding down the side of a glass...those pesky bubbles!

Re:sliding down the glass....

[laptop006]

*thinks back to LCA 2004 conference dinner* (Rusty, Linus etc. all a *little* too drunk, this would be why I have an OpenBSD shirt signed by Linus)

Yeah, sounds about right.

Re:sliding down the glass....

[Hogwash McFly]

hey, remember linus signed some pretty odd things during LCA:)

Yeah, my wife still refuses to wash her left breast....

Old story?

[ltning]

Wasn't there a story on /. a few years ago about someone researching why the bubbles in Guinness were apparently sinking - with the conclusion that they are driven down by streams closer to the centre of the glass?

Re:Old story?

[ltning]

Found it here.

It's old :)

Re:Old story?

[ubera]

This one. The researchers here appear to be putting an academic imprimateur on the model discussed in 2000.

Re:Old story?

[halftrack]

Yes the very same science that they refer to in the article. Austrailian scientists with computer simulations. This however is the result of real-world experience and experiment. And they concluded the same.

Re:Old story?

[Jahf]

Interestingly, in Dublin drinking from a standard Guinness pint glass at a number of pubs, I never saw the bubbles do anything but rise to form a terrific head. I've only seen the downward bubbles in the Guinness pint (which is a pretty standard size and shape) in the States.

The Guinness in Dublin tasted better, too, and I'm not the only one that thinks so. The most common answer is that the Guinness in the States is brewed in the UK from inferior water and the Guinness in Dublin is brewed from a much better source.

Perhaps only "bad" Guinness has the properties needed to float bubbles down?

Re:Old story?

[JoshRoss]

And there was also this one.

Re:Old story?

[drwho]

Interestingly, in Dublin drinking from a standard Guinness pint glass at a number of pubs, I never saw the bubbles do anything but rise to form a terrific head. I've only seen the downward bubbles in the Guinness pint (which is a pretty standard size and shape) in the States.

I highly doubt it. In the US and Australia, beer tends to be served much colder than the standard 55 F, which would cause a greater temperature difference between the outside air and the beer, and a greater temperature difference in the glass, and cause a noticable flow.

Re:Old story?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

If you're going to use fancy terms like 'imprimatur' you should spell them correctly. It's straight from Latin so doesn't have the 'francisized' ending.

So

[riotstarter]

when you're high, can dogs really fly or is it just the weed?

Re:So

[Hobbex]

If dogs are flying, then that is not weed you are smoking... Tread carefully, but enjoy.

Re:So

[jcenters]

Sure dogs can fly. It's rather easy. All they have to do is fall and miss the ground!

Re:So

[sydb]

Welcome, but please note in future that the term 'first post' is reserved for the first post to a story, not an individual user's first post.

As for me, this is my 997th post. Three more posts and I kill myself.

Too much?

[Calren]

So, if you see it happen, it's not just that you've had too much to drink.

So do bubbles going around the glass mean I'm half-way there?

Re:Too much?

[SmackCrackandPot]

But are you North or South of the equator? That determines whether they go round clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Nice article - but whatabout sharing the evidence?

[Jabes]

I have seen bubbles moving down at the edges of my Guinness. This latest "discovery" seems to be common sense to me, and is exactly how I have explained the phenomenem to other drinkers down the pub.

Shame I wasn't paid to do my "research", and that no-one would have listened to me because I didn't have a 750-frame-per-second video camera.

Now, this story would have been really interesting if it had a link to the videos of it happening 'cause it really is a sight to behold!

In Australia they also rise

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it depends which way your head is up, or down - sometimes they go sideways in both directions.

Beer

[radiochild]

Not being a beer drinker I am not surprised, the bubbles are probably trying to drown themselves rather than taste that foul brew...

In other news..

[plams]

..women at the bar can really like you! If one of them is turned on by your presence it's not just that you've had too much to drink!

Re:In other news..

[mccalli]

If one of them is turned on by your presence it's not just that you've had too much to drink!

No. It's just that they've had too much to drink...

Cheers,
Ian

Legitimate scientific value

[TobiasSodergren]

"While the pair's finding will be invaluable to barroom betters across the globe it also has legitimate scientific value in the area of fluidized beds, the mixing of solid particles with liquids and gases, which has industrial and engineering applications."

It's amazing what people do come up with to get an excuse for drinking beer.

Re:Legitimate scientific value

[betelgeuse-4]

Since this phenomenom only lasts for a short period after the beer is poured, they must have had to pour a lot of beers to allow detailed analysis. It would have been a shame to let it go to waste wouldn't it?

Next we'll see an academic doing a research paper on the marketing techniques used by pr0n sites.

Re:Legitimate scientific value

[TobiasSodergren]

I'd be really impressed if they manage raise money from investors for the research.

It might ofcoruse help to introduce the investors to the results of the beer discovery, empirically and with enough samples to be on the statistical safe side, before signing the contracts.

Wasted Tax Payers Dollars

[fozzmeister]

I'm not saying that this is not valuable information, however if only they had googled before hand they would have noticed that this WAS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT IN 1998! see this story at http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/phys/liquids /p00053d.html

Re: Wasted Tax Payers Dollars

[bj8rn]

Well, the fact that beer bubbles sink was actually already known thousand of years ago. But it has to be "re-discovered" in every two years or so, otherwise the world would come to an end. And reporting this "discovery" in media is just a part of the ritual.

The camera...?

[jemnery]

I wanted to know more about the video camera after the throwaway line "750 frames per second" - wow!

Re:Our tax dollars...

[goatan]

Our tax dollars at work!

What's more this has been done 4 years ago more here

Where's the video?

[Tweaker_Phreaker]

"So Andy got hold of a camera that takes 750 frames a second and recorded some rather gorgeous video clips of what was happening."

So quit hoggin' it and let us have some of that sweet sweet goodness.

Alcohol increases intelligence

[Anonymous Coward]

For any newbies: Apparantly your intelligence is increased by drinking alcohol, since it kills off your poor quality brain cells leaving more room for your high-powered brain cells.

So kids, if you want to pass your exams, sneak into Daddy's Spirits cabinet and have a swig before breakfast.

Neat.

[Ash87]

Now I have a new chat up line to use: hey babe, ever stop and think about bubbles moving down? Hello? You didn't finish your drink!

that was useless

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah maaaaan, crap!
that sucks!

Turns out I've stopped drinking for no reason after all...

got time to catch up with now.
bid day ahead...

Hmm...

[natrius]

I had a class with this professor earlier this year. This really explains his teaching style... he must have done his beer "research" each day right before he lectured...

Video report about it

[tsager]

There's a video about it here: video/mov,4MB
Mentioned in news article from

Never talk about beer on a Sunday!

[mgt]

Ouch, how smart is it to have an article about beer on a Sunday! ;)

Video of this man & glasses of foaming Guinnes

[supertsaar]

Right here

(Quicktime required)

Damn

[lars_boegild_thomsen]

Damn - I wish I had never seen this article. I've always used that observation as a definite measure when to stop drinking beer. Now I won't know when to stop. I'm sure this article has been sponsored by the breweries.

Re:Damn

[lars_boegild_thomsen]

Well - we all got our vices. And life would be pretty boring without them.

Re:Damn

[lars_boegild_thomsen]

But while we're at it. Someone should investigate why - some beers are bad - even within the same brand. I mean - you drink 9 and they are perfectly ok - and then all of a sudden no. 10 makes you sick. One would think in these hightech times they would have better quality control.

Re:Damn

[RadioTV]

Here is the advice I follow about when to stop -

"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

Gravitational perpetuum mobile

[Archangle]

Just examine the effect and move it to macro scale, i.e. you drag lighter-than-air baloons down, pick them and release them up in normal conditions, creating energy (i.e. lifting small amounts of water up and releasing it onto a turbine). Free Energy! Of course there ain't no free lunch, but in this case it comes at cost of earth's rotation momentum, after several megawatts of energy produced our day will be some fraction of second longer.

Re:Gravitational perpetuum mobile

[and by]

I can only assume that you have been out trying to reproduce the experiment in the article.

This is so obvious

[Pedrito]

I'm sorry, but it took scientists to figure out that it was caused by the flow of the beer from the bubbles rising in the center? I mean, I figured that out a long time ago just by looking. No 750 frame per second camera required. I don't even think I was sober when I figured it out. And this is news? Sorry, but I'm a bit disappointed.

A group of stanford researchers

[orbitalia]

ought to have better things to be doing than looking at bubbles in beer glasses dammit.

Sex education

[Gax]

"It's based on the idea of what goes up has to come down. In this case, the bubbles go up more easily in the center...than on the sides because of drag from the walls."

Is it just me, or is anyone else reminded of their sex education lessons?

I have no idea why they called it a "bubble" though.

My solution

[Mantorp]

quickly turn the glass upside down over your mouth

As I watcch this video...

[Epistax]

I am reminded I am only 20 (and in the US), but that Guinness looks so good. I'm also in Massachusetts which appears to have the worst alcohol laws of any state I've been in.
People here are shocked when I talk about liquor sold in gas stations! (I'm from Maine, founder of prohibition in the US)

unbelievable

[zaba]

Without further independent research that confirms this data, I won't believe it... As my contribution to mankind, I will be donating my time to this endeavor this afternoon, right after work... anyone else care to volunteer?

More information on beer and champagne bubbles

[sr180]

From Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
Bubbles 1
Bubbles 2
Bubbles 3

Re:Time wasted?

[UnknowingFool]

I cant see that this discovery can leed to any major breakthoughs. Not even minor ones.

What these researchers have described is anomaly in gas-liquid mixing. In the field of chemical engineering, the mixing and flow properities of gas-liquid reactions are ongoing research subjects for the last several decades, particularly in fluidized bed reactors. Fluidized bed reactors are very important in the production of a wide variety of chemicals. While the test subject may have been fun for them to explore, it may hold clues into how gases and liquids mix in a reactor and this back-mixing may other researchers develop more accurate theories and simulations. These simulations then lead to better processes.