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Sometimes the Answer is Just Staring You in the Face: The Solution to a Problem Isn’t Always a New Product

Since the dawn of time, man has struggled against the forces of nature. Both science and religion came about as an attempt to explain the unwritten laws that seemed to dictate the daily plight man constantly faced throughout history. Religion has tried to compromise with nature and console man for his plight, whereas science has tried to penetrate nature’s defenses and fight back. Over years of spying and interrogation, science has published mathematical laws capable of predicting nature’s next move. Man is able to anticipate nature’s offense and manipulate its defense. Despite these efforts, vital battles continue to be lost.  Although modern man has learned to fly, harnessed the atom, and created the internet, everyday millions of people across the globe continue to suffer defeat in an ancient battle dating back to the 6^th millennium BC.  The consequence of this continued loss: flat beer.

Time is against the opened can. Gravity is waiting to attack a dropped container; the very temperature gradients that exist between a man and his beer are working against him. Whether using pressure loss, temperature gain, or agitation, nature continually lies in wait for its next attack. Is it not oddly inconvenient that beer tastes best cold?  Especially on warm sunny days? Nature is a sly adversary.

Rest assured, man has fought back. Using intel gained over the millennia, man as developed weapons. The refrigerator, the ice maker, the portable cooler, the pressurized keg, the can and the beverage sleeve all constitute man’s arsenal in this war. One could even go as far to argue that college drinking games like Beer on a Table (BOAT), racing and shotgunning were developed not as immature efforts to become inebriated as fast as possible, but as blitzkrieg warfare techniques used as an attempt to gain ground in this ancient battle. However, despite all these efforts, the casualty rate is still high. Flat beer continues to be poured out by the gallons.

Hope is not lost. Even nature has its Achilles heals and man has already developed the technology he needs to tip the battle in his favor. Technically the dreaded beer head works in man’s favor. Foam head separates the surface of the beer from the air creating a “barrier” of CO2 which helps keep the beer carbonated longer (more technically, the foam creates a virtual headspace above the beer where the partial pressure of CO2 is about 1atm effectively reducing the release of CO2 from the beer).

But nature would have man despise beer head; a big gulp of foam is not preferred, nor is foam up the nose.  The solution, long forgotten by man after the age of two, is simple: the sippy cup.

Not only does the sippy cup allow man to drink his beer without experiencing the adverse effects of a foamy head, it also serves as a secondary barrier to “lock in” the CO2.  Add an iced core (like water bottles already use) and a beverage sleeve and man has stacked the odds in his favor. Sound crazy?  This is war.

(man might need a slightly manlier sippy cup)

Tags: beer, beer head, beer keg, beverage sleeve, cold beer, flat beer, foam head, foamy head, keeping beer carbonated, keg, pressurized keg