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The perfect beer every time

ECG

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
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I'm not sure if these are in use in England, but they're all the rage at sports arenas & stadiums here in the United States. The beer pours nine times faster than traditional dispensers & you get a perfect pour every time.
Gotta love the ingenuity. :--D
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-sOgG3h6l0[/youtube]
 
I saw them a few days ago thanks to Stumble. I've never actually seen one in real life, but I think they're ingenious. Such a simple system, that works so well.

Love it.
 
I'd like to see it tackle a Guinness.

I watched it at work, so I've got no sound. How does it work, surely the cups have to be special and can they be re-used?
 
^They have a small plastic disk covering a hole at the bottom of the cup, the device raised the disk away from the hole, fills the beer, then as it is removed the disk covers the hole again and stops the beer leaking.

I think, but I'm not 100% sure, that the disks have a small magnetic rim that attaches to another rim on the base of the cup (or a sticky area possibly). I think they can be re-used, but I wouldn't have thought they were designed to be re-used by the very nature of the events that they're supplied to.
 
Actually, the video has no sound. I guess sound isn't really necessary, but it would have been nice if they explained how it works rather than just showing you.
The cups have a small hole in the middle of the bottom of the cup & the weight of the beer pushes down on the cap (normally clear not with the logo like in the video) to keep it from leaking. I guess the cups can be reused as long as they are not damaged, but since these are used at sporting events & concerts the cups are just thrown away.

Edit: Damn you Hixee. Beat me to it. :p
 
East Coast(er) General said:
but since these are used at sporting events & concerts the cups are just thrown away.
Click to expand...

Indeed, which means that if the cups are quite fancy and cost more to produce, then it won't take off, will it?

At Le Mans last year they had a clever drinks system. They had reusable plastic cups, with a bit of branding on them. A beer was 5 euros and you had to pay 1 euro for the cup, then each time you wanted another beer, you just gave them your cup and they filled it up for you.

At the end of your trip, you have a pretty cool souvenir cup, and there's less waste!
 
That's one of the big differences between Europe & the USA. Charging a cup deposit is pretty much the norm in Europe (especially in Germany), but rare over here.
The cups are only marginally more expensive & the vendors more than make up for that expense by being able to serve much more quickly & efficiently. The cost for consumers has remained the same. More beer sales = more profit. Simple as...
 
Yeah, but most American's can't handle more than two cups of beer anyway can they? :p
 
Well it's not really going to be all that more expensive to produce the cups I wouldn't have thought. It's only like cutting out a hole in the bottom of one, then also producing the small plastic disks. The holes would be done on the mould to start with, which wouldn't be too expensive (when you start looking at the thousands of cups made) to get a new mould made, the machine is essentially the same. The plastic disks could easily be made from the waste material. Once they start pumping out hundreds of thousands of cups, the cost increase would become negligible.

EDIT: How did two of them manage to get in before me?!
 
furie said:
Yeah, but most American's can't handle more than two cups of beer anyway can they? :p
Click to expand...
Not real beer anyway. Might be alright with the dishwater that they serve up though... ;)
 
Yeah, most Americans can drink more than 2 of their domestic beers, if you want to call it that. I can't, simply because it's awful, but I sure can finish off more than 2 German beers (Warsteiner Dunkel) that the local store special orders for me. furie, Hixee, Gavin & Brad all did a pretty good of polishing off quite a few as well when they were here. :wink:
 
That was good stuff, but the best bit was the quick-cooling ice technique. Much better than just popping it in the freezer for a few mins for some reason. :p

While we're on the topic of cool ways to serve beer, I think this is absolutely great:

http://www.awesomebottleopeners.com/

I'm going to get one at some point...
 
Nah Hixee. It's all about the belt bottle opener. :p
That way you always have one on you as it's your belt buckle lol.
 
And you look like at 14 year-old who's only just discovered beer and thinks it's the coolest thing in the world?
 
What a useless invention, there's a skill to pouring a beer! I'm pretty good at it, always get a perfect pint.

What's everyones idea of the perfect beer foam head? I always like 1/4 of a inch.
 
That is pretty ace, but call me old fashioned, I'd rather have my warm, flat English real ale poured straight from the cask than go through any pipes or machinery.

And Dave, the best head is no head. (Sigh, I'm waiting for the innuendos.) I like a full, 568ml pint, unless I'm drinking fizzy lager or Guinness where it's better to keep the freshness and bad bacteria locked in under the head.
 
For those discussing how it worked earlier in the thread...

You were mostly right. The disk that pushes up is actually magnetic and holds firm to the bottom when the glass is full. The company that makes these are marketing the discs for advertising/gimmick space. They say the discs will be collectibles and that people will stick them on the fridges!
 
This looks awesome. I wonder if/when the UK will catch on with this?

And, I also want one of those bottle openers that Hixee posted the link too.
 
Seen this a while ago.

This video shows how handy they can be for service times also, especially at busy venues such as sporting events.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiu_IX14wLI[/youtube]

Neat, get these at major events, keep the pumps in my local pub. Ta.
 
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