Samuel Adams Set to Release New Helium Beer-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Samuel Adams has introduced a new helium beer called “HeliYUM.”
The Truth:
This was an April Fools Day joke that got out of hand.
Samuel Adams “introduced” a new helium beer called HeliYUM in a video released on April Fools Day 2014.
The company’s brewmaster said, “Infusing beer with helium has an amazing impact on the beer. Couple this with a lighter mouthfeel, and you’ve got a beer unlike any you’ve ever tasted.”
Then, of course, after he took a drink of helium beer his voice was high pitched like he’d just sucked in helium.
A lot of people missed the punch line, because rumors about the new helium beer were still circulating more than a year after the video was released.
The joke got recycled for April Fools Day 2015, too. Berkshire Brewing Company pulled the same gag when it released a video introducing its “new” helium beer, Helium IPA, a day before April Fools Day.
There have also been reports about others who are trying to make helium beer, but don’t believe any of them.
The website Science Everyday looked into the possibility of helium beer — and the outlook isn’t good.
First, helium is 700 times less soluble in water than carbon dioxide, so undissolved helium would form one or two big gas bubbles, not the trademark “slow fizz” of beer.
Second, all the helium sealed inside the beer can would immediately escape (along with a lot of water) immediately when the seal was broken, and it would make a big mess.