This New Can Design Promises a Perfect Beer-to-Foam Ratio

Japanese design firm Nendo created a beer can with two tabs to solve a common pouring problem.

Nendo, a Japanese design company, has taken on a wide range of projects, from creating a 24-foot tall minimalist Christmas tree for a Tokyo neighborhood to updating the style and graphics of Pokémon trading cards and developing a new game ball for the International Handball Federation. But they’ve also recently taken on a near-universal challenge: determining how to pour a perfect glass of beer.

"Beer heads [of foam] are considered essential for having beer taste better, at least in Japan,” the company wrote. “It is because a layer of foam with adequate thickness acts as a lid to prevent beer from coming into contact with the air, and keeps it from releasing aroma, flavor, and carbonation.”

After conducting their own research, the boffins at Nendo determined that one of the most crucial components of a good pour was the can itself, specifically the pull-tab. The company also realized that there were two things to consider when they were working on this design. The first involved the drop in the air pressure inside the can when it was opened, and the next accounted for the bubbles that are created when the liquid came in contact with the top of the can. Based on those observations, they designed a new style of can that had not one, but two pull-tabs positioned on opposite sides of a single opening on the lid.

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At first glance, the tabs look like they’re placed at 45-degree angles from the lid, but they’re actually staggered to work slightly differently. When the first tab is pulled, the lid is only partially opened to create a bubbly foam, which is then poured into the glass. After the glass is half-full and the foam has settled a bit, the second tab is pulled to open the can the rest of the way. The remaining liquid would then be poured into the glass.

“In this way, a glass with a liquid-foam ratio of 7:3, [the] so-called golden ratio, can now be easily achieved with canned beer,” the company explains.

That sounds simple enough, but we’d imagine it still might take a couple of tries to figure out the process and achieve that perfect pour. On the bright side, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t drink your mistakes.

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