Pouring Beer On A Frying Pan Creates Amoebic Alien Goop

What happens when you pour beer onto a frying pan? It boils and evaporates, right? Not exactly. The beer sort of turns into this goopy blob that looks like some alien amoeba. Look at it go and tell me you’re not going to do this the next time you’re drunk (don’t do this while you’re drunk).



The beer reacts like this because of the Leidenfrost effect, which is when a liquid (the beer) gets in contact with something that’s much hotter (the frying pan) than the liquid’s boiling point. When this happens the liquid pumps out a vapor that insulates itself and keeps it from boiling too fast. The side effect is that it’s gnarly to see in action.