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The Widget

The floating widget — now used by many brewers, is a small hollow plastic ball. It is placed inside the can during the first stage of the packaging process. Once a can is filled with beer, the can is pressurized by adding liquid nitrogen, which vaporizes and expands in volume after the can is sealed, forcing gas and beer into the widget’s interior through a tiny hole.

When the can is opened, the contents reach normal atmospheric pressure. The beer inside the widget is forced out through the small opening. The effect produces millions of tiny bubbles which rise to the surface and form the familiar, creamy head. The same foamy head created when pouring draught beer. A survey conducted by a well known British technical web site revealed the widget as one of the most important technological innovations in recent years.

Boddingtons

Boddingtons is an English beer, originally from Manchester, United Kingdom that has been brewed for more than 200 years. The bitter is now sold in over 30 countries worldwide, and can be drunk on tap around the world in countries as diverse as New Zealand, Hong Kong, and the United States.

The Strangeways Brewery was founded by two grain merchants, Thomas Caister and Thomas Fry, in 1778. The location of the brewery, just outside the city centre, was chosen to avoid a grain tax levied by local mills that belonged to Manchester Grammar School.

Henry Boddington joined the brewery in 1832 as a traveller, and eventually rose up to become a partner in the company. In 1853 he borrowed money to become the sole owner of the enterprise.

Boddingtons remained a family company until 1989, when the last Family chairman Mr Ewart Boddington sold the Strangeways brewery and the Boddingtons beer brand to Whitbread for £50.7 million. In May 2000, the Whitbread Beer Company was acquired by Interbrew.

Brewed in Manchester since 1778, Boddingtons contains 3.8% and 4.1% alcohol-by-volume in cask.

In September 2004, InBev announced plans to close the Strangeways brewery and move production out of Manchester to Lancashire, South Wales and Glasgow. However, the brewing of Boddingtons cask ale was moved to Hydes Brewery in Moss Side, Manchester.