Weird Phenomenon with Guinness Bubbles

[doorcharge]

I'm Irish, and when anytime I've ever seen anyone pour a Guinness, including my dad, they always let it sit before finishing the pour. It's like a religious ritual with Guinness

[emilianozapata]

I'm sure the rest of Ireland will join me in saying, "I hope you drank those."

[youtubecat]

Either way it’s slowing me down from filling the whole glass faster

[mwm]

The bubbles aren’t sinking, the fluid caught between the bubbles is sinking and the bubbles are simply getting slightly dragged down on their way up. All the bubbles still end up at the top.

[Gortume]

It's actually because Guinness is bottled with nitrogen gas which form smaller, less bouyant bubbles. The liquid is then able to fall faster than the bubbles rise, giving that waterfall effect.

[kevinf]

Guinness World Records is a joke nowadays, though

[DaftBrian]

“Anti-pint” feels like such a cursed object

[afourtrackmind]

It's the viscosity. The liquid is falling through the gas. Not the other way around.

[kevinstoneburner]

Funny, I’ve watched it several times, and all I’m seeing is the dark liquid going down and the lighter gas bubbles going up, and the two flowing around each other. I don’t get it.

[MagicalCrow]

I had to watch more than once because the first time I got caught up on the fact that it wasn’t just a coincidence that the Guinness book of world records shared a name with the beer company. I never actually thought about it before

[FrancisR]

I always assumed as the head reduced back to a liquid the stuff at the top would sink down in streams that would occasionally pull small bubbles with the waves of fluid.
They don't actually sink, like because of buoyancy

[UnenthusiasticPerson]

The real question is “Do the bobbles also sink in your belly?”

[dudechunky]

Gas rises generally speaking and as the fluids drop, it gets denser and it's a dark color so it's easier to see and it doesn't flow straight down because it's going around the rising gases

[KiemPlant]

I think it just has a strong effect on the center where the bubbles rise a ton, which forces the bubbles on the side to be pulled down to fill the gap.

[Cats_ina_Trenchcoat]

Guiness is full of nitrogen. Nitrogen doesn't dissolve as easily as CO2 and the bubbles do not grow as large. They're not sinking they're just not rising as fast. That in conjunction with the contrast makes it look like they're sinking.

[andrewmosley]

The “proper” way is the wrong way just so you know. You want a head on your beer.

[zacha]

The slant of the glass walls means that the fastest traveling bubbles are the ones that have the most travel. That means the center bubbles move with the highest velocity. Water molecules are sticky to each other and the current of liquid rising in the center has to get its water from somewhere. That somewhere is the bottom of the glass that pulls the water down from the sides of the glass. The slanted walls also create lower pressure on the outside due to friction and allow the liquid to travel down easier.

[vesa]

To me it looks more like the liquid getting "stuck" to the bubbles at the top and the layers of the liquid then moving down the thick layer of bubbles.

[xXxtroublebehindxXx]

the foam is expanding in all directions- therefore creating pressure on slanted glasses

[AWBepi]

The nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than carbon dioxide bubbles. What you can't see going on is all the bubbles in the middle going up which causes a current which sucks the bubbles along the outside edges to go down. That's why it has the cascading look because it's fighting against the bulk of the bubbles going up the middle. Also the density of Guinness versus club soda has an effect as well.