Abstract
Besides being the favorite beverage of a large percentage of the population, a glass or bottle of beer is a test bench for a myriad of phenomena involving mass transfer, bubble-laden flows, natural convection, and many more topics of interest in Physical Chemistry. This paper summarizes some representative physical problems related to bubbles that occur in beer containers, pointing out their practical importance for the industry of beverage processing, as well as their potential connection to other processes occurring in natural sciences. More specifically, this paper describes the physics behind the sudden foam explosion occurring after a beer bottled is tapped on its mouth, gushing, buoyancy-induced motions in beer glasses, and bubble growth in stout beers.
Highlights
Every beer lover enjoys the taste and texture of a well-served beer
All these phenomena—and many others—have in common that they are driven by the interplay between bubble growth in supersaturated liquids, buoyancy, and the transport of gases dissolved in a liquid in motion
Before starting with our excursion through the physics of bubbles in beer, we will devote the end of this section to the introduction of some essential concepts that the reader will need in order to understand what is explained
Summary
Every beer lover enjoys the taste and texture of a well-served beer. if the drinker is a person with some scientific curiosity or interest beyond the physical satisfaction that this beverage induces, surely she or he will be able to appreciate a different kind of pleasure. The sudden generation of foam when the container is shaken or hit, the development of jets and plumes of bubbles that rise to the surface, the formation of a foam head when the beer is properly drafted, or even the appearance of foamy waves that travel downwards near the glass wall, defying the common intuition that bubbles rise, not sink. All these phenomena—and many others—have in common that they are driven by the interplay between bubble growth in supersaturated liquids, buoyancy, and the transport of gases dissolved in a liquid in motion (what is called advection). Before starting with our excursion through the physics of bubbles in beer, we will devote the end of this section to the introduction of some essential concepts that the reader will need in order to understand what is explained
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