For canned Guinness, you should pour the beer into a glass after opening, but the bottle widget (which is shaped like a rocket) is designed for you to enjoy the beer straight from the bottle ...

The plastic ball in the Guinness can, also called a "widget," ensures the draught stout has its classic foamy head, as if it were poured from the tap.

The history of the Guinness widget . Guinness Draught, invented by mathematician-turned-brewer Michael Ash, debuted in 1959 on the 200th anniversary of the original Guinness brewery.

You’re drinking a can of Guinness. As you near the bottom, something rattles around inside the can. You look inside and see, to your surprise, what looks like a ping pong ball. Was it a factory error?

During canning, pressurized nitrogen is added to the brew, which trickles into a hole in the widget. Once opened, the widget's nitrogenated beer squirts into the rest of the beer giving it a velvety ...