Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1993 15:54:05 GMT
Subject: Coca-cola and Guinness and Fizz

hatu...@netcom.com (DaveHatunen) writes:

> ...and, for cans at least, lower carbonation due to problems with the
> tensile strength of the cans. It does seem to me that Coke from a glass
> bottle (can you find them anymore?) tastes better than from cans or
> plastic.

and PA...@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) claims:

> The aluminium (sic) cans also impart a taste into the soda.  Ask folks
> who've had chemo-therapy if Coke from cans is drinkable.  Something
> about the treatment makes for enhanced sensitivity.

But is it the aliumiuninnium (ick) or the carbonation?  Coke in cans
is carbonated with phosphoric acid, rather than carbonic acid, and it
definitely has a different taste.  You can even taste the difference
in the evolved gas if you capture it in a jar or a stomach or just sip
it off the top of a newly-opened container.  I guess a good way to
check is to compare with Coke from plastic bottles, where they also
use phosphoric acid.  I guess I don't believe there's enough Al in
Coke to taste.

de...@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne) writes:

> All guiness brewed outside the UK is manufactured by taking a local
> beer (any beer or lager will do) and adding 'Guinness extract'.
> Guinness extract is basically concentrated Guinness, it is supposed
> to look just like vegemite.

(And taste just like chicken?)  Somehow I don't find this is as
credible as the Coke extract story, but then I never thought they
brewed it outside the UK at all.  Back to the fizz issue,

david.ett...@geologi.uio.no (David Ettner) writes of the
> tapping device found only in Ireland.  The Guinness tap there has 2
> speeds, a fast speed for the initial fill and a slow speed for final
> filling, creating the fameous head.

And in the US there is a canned product called ``Guinness Draft''.
This has a plastic device on the inside at the bottom, containing
pressurized CO2.  When you pop the can, a spray of fine bubbles is
released forming a creamy head.  In order to keep the bubble spray
from initiating the ``fire extinguisher in a can'' effect they have
taken two steps: they carbonate the stout less, and they warn you to
chill it before opening.  Maybe real Guinness lovers like it, but I
end up with a flatter, colder drink than I wanted.  I guess someone's
mileage must vary, though, or they wouldn't bother.

Dan Hoey
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil

ObUL: Nicotine is added to Marmite and exported to third-world
countries to open new markets for the US tobacco industry.  Skol!

OOBUL: I dreamt I found a wax tadpole in my ancestor's Maidenform Bra,
but she made me give it back.