Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site

A while ago, we got involved in a conversation on Twitter about how to put a head on flat beer.

You can*buy a fancy-pants sonic foamer (they tried to send us a sample, it got impounded by Customs, we never retrieved*it) but what lots of people recommended was a syringe. There’s more on how it works here but, basically, you squirt a mix of air and beer into the glass which introduces nitrogen into the mix like the widget in a can of Guinness.
We struggled to get hold of a syringe, though — for some reason, Penzance chemists look askance at you when you ask for one — and forgot about it. Then we realised that a testing kit we’d bought for home brewing came with a load of these small plastic pipettes:

As you can see, they turned out to be a pretty effective*substitute (no sound):

It might seem a bit daft but it’s really handy when you’ve just slightly misjudged the pour, or had to leave a beer for 10 minutes to take a phone call or something.
We so often get served headless pints when we’re out and about*but, realistically, we wouldn’t want to do this in the pub. You could, though, if you’re without shame, and it’s not as if the pipette weighs much.
Plus it is kind of fun: WHOOSH!
TOP TIP: Putting Life Back into Flat Beer from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Over-thinking beer, pubs and the meaning of craft since 2007


More...