The Foam Experience

What's up with the foam?

You've seen it at bars: the server comes back with your pint and it's filled all the way to the brim with cold, crisp beer. Not a drop of foam in sight. So why does Mully's (and why do most craft breweries) serve your beer with an inch or so of foam?

It's about the experience

We're not trying to cheat you out of beer, we promise! For the same reason you go to movie theatre instead of watching the newest movie at home, or go to a concert instead of just listening to a song on streaming: the experience.

Craft beer is an experience, not just a beverage

You can drink a cold lager after mowing the lawn on a hot day, and there's definitely something undefinably awesome about it. But when you're tasting a hand-crafted ale, brewed locally with intentional ingredients for just the right taste, you want the whole story. You want to savor the beer, experience all of it!

You've seen the very specific way Guinness is poured from a tap, with two different methods of pouring and a rest period where the foam cascades through the glass. There's a reason for that, and it's not just to look pretty! Beer foam holds a ton of aromatic compounds from the beer, and can subvert or accentuate the flavors from the pint. You taste with your nose as well as your mouth (which is why you might plug your nose before tasting something nasty), and foam helps you smell the beer.

If you've ever had a glass of beer with too much foam, you know foam has a taste too! In fact, the "mlíko" pour (also called side-pour or Lukr after the tap style) has become popular as of late, a pour that leaves your glass filled almost entirely with foam. While that's a bit overboard for our purposes, it just underlines that foam does definitely have a taste, and that taste is part of the experience as well.

So the next time you're served a beer with a creamy, foamy head, stop to enjoy it. Give the foam a good sniff before you take your first sip.

Enjoy the experience!