Beer has come a long way since it was born as a happy mistake probably millennia ago. Now beer can be found in almost every place where alcohol is consumed in countless different brews and it’s one of the most consumed beverages in the world. So it makes sense that you’ll order a pint of the frothy stuff the next time you’re out for dinner. But did you know that your beer could actually be a litmus test of the cleanliness of a restaurant? In particular it could tell you a potentially disturbing story about the cleanliness of your pint.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 GBH News | 2022-10-12 13:42:03 |  3,207 Views |
Clean Glass? What Your Beer Foam Is Telling You | The Curiosity Desk
You probably know how important your beer glass is to your drinking experience. But in addition to affecting the taste of your beer your glass can also tell a story about how clean (or dirty) the glassware is at that particular restaurant. Beer naturally contains carbonation which gives it its characteristic effervescence and contributes to the nose and mouthfeel of the beer. But if those same carbonation bubbles are sticking to the side of your glass instead of rising to join their bubbling brethren you have a dirty glass in your hand. If you see this happen when you order a beer at a restaurant politely ask for it to be refilled into a clean glass.
All those bubbles in your beer want to rise to the top of your glass and in a clean glass they will do just that. So if they’re stuck on the side that means there’s something preventing them from joining the head of your beer. It could be something well-intentioned like dish soap residue or the cleaning solution the restaurant uses or even a sanitizer after washing. But it could also be food scraps or other unwanted substances that have been sucked up from the restaurant or the dishwasher. Either way the non-beer obstacle is keeping those bubbles from giving you an optimal (and hygienic) drinking experience.
While there’s some debate about the best method for storing glassware there should be no doubt that you want the cleanest glass possible when dining out. Maybe your glass just needs a simple rinse at the bar before you pour or maybe it needs another thorough rinse. Either way you can now interpret the story written in the bubbles of your beer to determine whether your restaurant passes this cleanliness test.
