Don’t Lose Your Head
A good foam collar on a beer isn’t just a pretty accessory, it helps lift aromas to your nose, which, in turn, amplify the flavors. (If you doubt the importance of aroma in beer, just try picking out flavors in food the next time you have a head cold.)
To maximize head’s aroma-enhancing qualities, a Japanese company created a product that allows beer lovers to reinvigorate the foam so each sip is as delicious as the first. In Japan, it’s called Sonic Hour (a play on the Japanese word for foam, “awa,” pronounced like “hour”). Now, a US company, California Creations, has renamed it the Sonic Foamer. (Guinness Surger, a similar sonic beer foaming device, was introduced in the early 2000s but is no longer on the market.)
“One of the keys to properly enjoying a good craft beer is to maximize the aroma,” says Rudy Flores of California Creations. “In a normally poured beer, the head dissipates after a short time. This eliminates much of the aroma. The Sonic Foamer allows a consumer to manage the head on their beer for the best beer drinking experience possible.”
The Sonic Foamer uses sound waves to gently pulsate a pint of beer and coax the bubbles into
a lovely head. To make it work, simply add a little water to the well, place a not-quite-full pint in the coaster-like
holder, and turn it on. Press a button and watch the Sonic Foamer do its bubbly thing. In moments, your beer will have a head that rivals those in TV commercials. The whole experi- ence tends to attract attention—who doesn’t love watching beer bubble?
But if that isn’t dazzling enough, you can change the color of the light that
comes on when the Sonic Foamer is frothing up your beer. The Sonic
Foamer is available online for $29.99 at sonicfoamer.com.
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