Slashdot Mirror
Londoners Tests A Self-Driving Beer Tap And An AI-Assisted Brewery (gizmodo.co.uk)
At a bar in London, they're now testing the prototype for a self-driving beer tap, according to drunkdrone. Gizmodo UK reports:
All you need to do is select your pint of choice on the touchscreen, pay with a tap of your contactless card and stick your pint glass at its base. The pump contains an electronic valve, which opens to allow beer to flow through. A liquid flow meter ensures the right amount of good stuff comes out.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is also reporting on a London startup that's brewing beer with a special algorithm that constantly modifies the percentage of each ingredient -- hops, water, yeast and grain -- based on ongoing customer feedback. Levels of carbonation, bitterness and alcohol content all change based on how people are responding... The algorithm produces new recipes every month incorporating the feedback. "There are too many brands out there that just have one recipe for a beer, and they've had it for 60 years," said Hew Leith, co-founder of IntelligentX, the maker of the beer appropriately named AI. "We're not about that. We're about using data to listen to our customers, get all that feedback, and then brew something that's more attuned to what they actually want and need."
He believes the same process could also be used to design perfume, chocolate, and coffee.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is also reporting on a London startup that's brewing beer with a special algorithm that constantly modifies the percentage of each ingredient -- hops, water, yeast and grain -- based on ongoing customer feedback. Levels of carbonation, bitterness and alcohol content all change based on how people are responding... The algorithm produces new recipes every month incorporating the feedback. "There are too many brands out there that just have one recipe for a beer, and they've had it for 60 years," said Hew Leith, co-founder of IntelligentX, the maker of the beer appropriately named AI. "We're not about that. We're about using data to listen to our customers, get all that feedback, and then brew something that's more attuned to what they actually want and need."
He believes the same process could also be used to design perfume, chocolate, and coffee.
"let me have something stronger!" and then fall on your face after a few more, unless they are monitoring the blood alcohol content of each customer this is just a retarded exercise in AI, and a dangerous one...not trying to sound like a killjoy I love getting smashed, but this shouldn't be a replacement for a sober bartender
This is my sig, there are many like it but this one is mine
What's to stop people from going online and submitting bogus feedback. For example, demanding so much carbonation that all you ever get is a glass of foam?
I pay more to drink alone!
serve the NO Tipping cheap beer drinkers. install the distraction dispenser far away from the most valuable bar "real estate".
Those shits in the UK want to get rid of bartenders? Screw that. Who's gonna take my keys away and tell me my wife is being kind of a bitch and that I should lay down the law at home? Maybe the British should focus on inventing a self-driving dentist first, huh?
Anyway, they drink that shit warm over in England, so I don't think we should follow their lead on anything. It's no wonder their "football" players collapse in a screaming heap whenever the opposing team so much as breathes on them.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why does the title and article call it a "self-driving" beer tap rather than simply "automated"? I thought this was going to be like that sequel to the Heineken walk-in fridge commercial where the guy misunderstands the request and makes a mini-fridge that walks into the living room on robot legs when summoned.
And if you recall your chemistry, alcohol is a solution.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
would come to your house. Now that would be wonderful. Failing that, a self-driving
growler delivery would be pretty nice too -- and probably achievable in a lot of places,
running a known route. Just like the milkman, sort of.
Laws in the us will limit this but in the UK they don't seem to give a dam in some pubs and the drinking age is a lot lower there.
"Why?" you may ask.
Google "Dram Shop Liability" for your answer.
I was literally thinking it was a self-driving keg that you hail like an ice-cream truck :(
http://drafttaproom.com/
Silence is a state of mime.
Please stop slapping "self-driving" on any random news about devices totally unrelated to driving... The linked article doesn't even use the term, so it means it's some morons at /. that added it. And here I was rejoicing you stopped reposting the Hackaday crap...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Beware of the Leopard.
I've had a few bartending jobs, like a lot of people. It takes a while to learn how to pour each beer from each tap so that it's the right balance between looking flat a too much head. When you change a barrel, it takes a while for the new beer to settle down. I'd like to see how these beer dispensers deal with less than ideal conditions. Or do they only work well with specific beers?
Pour your own beer is nothing new
Cleaning the lines or the lack of is one of the worst things about taps. Using shared lines delivering different types of brews to the same tap would seem to compromise the taste of all the brews. Much the same way the coke free style delivery system makes your root beer taste like orange soda.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
http://www.circle7ranch.com/tabletaps.php A place called Circle 7 Ranch already does this near St. Louis, MO
We had one of these at a bar I frequent. It didn't last long as it was prone to breaking down and surprisingly difficult to use.
In theory it is a great idea, but many people don't know how to properly pour a beer. This would often result in a very foamy pour and unhappy customers. I don't think it lasted six months of actual use.
Film at 11.
Not exactly new: the Thirsty Bear in London has been doing this for a few years now, and it has the advantage of not being branded with a credit card company's logo.
You get your credit/debit card linked to one of the bar's own cards, and use that all night. They have taps around the pub that allow you to pour what you want, or you can sit at your table and use a touch-screen to order food or any drinks not on tap and get it delivered to the table. You place your card on a reader to activate the tap or the touch-screen. Works really well.
There are plastic pint cups with a magnetic valve in the base. It means the cup fills faster, from the bottom, with less foam. That would seem a suitable mechanism for a vending machine, faster delivery, a purpose-built cup means easier policing of customers plus, no magnet means no beer.
Because buying the same thing you bought last week is a bad thing? If people wanted to buy a different (flavoured) beer every week, these breweries wouldn't have lasted 60 years. Now, with micro-brews, with some breweries selling over 100 different recipes, people can buy a different (flavoured) beer cooked by a tradesman. Why buy a beer made from a recipe written by 100 teenagers? (In most countries, 19 year-olds can drink.) 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' is an accurate adage in this case.
They does?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."