Whether you’re a lager lover or not, everyone can agree that the worst side effects of drinking a beer is the bloating and belching that comes with it.
But now a scientist has revealed which pints are the gassiest – which could help long-suffering partners and friends to know which bottles to avoid buying in the weekly shop.
Dr Stuart Farrimond has also revealed which beers contain the least amount of gas, so that lager fans don’t have to miss out entirely.
Budweiser was revealed to be the gassiest beer in Dr Farrimond’s scientific study, containing 2.71 pints of CO2 per pint
Stella Artois and Coors Light were judged to be the joint second gassiest beers you can buy
Dr Farrimond’s worst offender, ‘King of Beers’ Budweiser, contains a whopping 2.71 pints of CO2 gas in every pint, according to the study.
That huge quantity of gas manages to fit into a pint because CO2 molecules are small and fit between larger water molecules.
The next gassiest are Stella Artois and Coors Light, which both contain a whopping 2.55 pints of gas per pint, according to the study.
It’s no wonder then that drinking a lot of larger will lead to bloating and belching.
Dr Farrimond was commissioned by vouchercloud.com for the study to reveal which beers are the gassiest.
On the other end of the scale, Guinness Golden Ale and Cobra Indian Lager were at the bottom of the top 10 with 2.25 pints of CO2 per pint.
For even less belching and bloating though, Dr Farrimond recommends opting for a pint of Hobgoblin, which contains 1.74 pints of CO2 per pint, or a Fullers Pride London, which has 1.9 pints of CO2 per pint, the results of the experiment revealed.
Fosters contains 2.32 pints of CO2 per pint, ranking it as the eighth gassiest beer
Cobra contains 2.27 pints of CO2 per pint while Guinness Golden Ale contains slightly less at 2.27 litres of CO2 per pint
Dr Farrimond said: ‘We were surprised at how much variety there was in the ‘gassiness’ of popular beer brands.
‘An imperial pint can contain less than 1 litre of gas to more than 1.5 litres. Our results also showed that it is very difficult to judge a beer’s gas content from taste alone.
‘Beers served cold taste less fizzy, while strong flavours also mask the true effervescence.’
‘Further investigations would be needed to catalogue each beer’s true gassiness. If this information were made available to consumers then they will be able to make more informed choices about beverage purchases.
‘Shops could even use a ‘traffic light’ labelling system to offer warnings to consumers about particularly high gas content beers.’
For the experiment, Dr Farrimond tested 31 samples of popular beer brands, including both lagers and ales. They were all stored for 48 hours after being moved and then tested at a temperature of 21C.
The test also showed that the same beer won’t be fizzier if in a can or in a beer bottle.