Heineken and Krups bringing BeerTender to the States
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 9th 2008 7:06AM
posted Jan 9th 2008 7:06AM
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"Would you mind topping that up Luv'"
Too bad Heineken sucks... Now only if they had that for our home brews.
I'm sure you could stick in ANY mini keg, even homebrew.
They didn't mention that it uses special 4 liter BeerTender-kegs that are priced above usual kegs and bottles. I think these are the whole point of the machine. (making the installation very easy, accelerates the cooling, etc...)
So you won't find any kegs but those produced by Heineken. Heineken bought a bunch of small breweries in Europe, so here they sell Heineken + 0-5 local brands (depending on the country)
Still the product ist crap in my opinion: not only is the device expensive but the kegs are too and the limited beer selection is very limited.
Any Trappist ales available?
After Heineken introduced this a few years ago it was soon followed by it's competitor, PerfectDraft from Philps. Basically the same machine (they fought in court about it for quite some time actually) only with a wider selection of brands Dommelsch, Hertog Jan, Jupiler, Grolsch, Bavaria en Leffe Blond (yeah thats a Trapist) here in the Netherlands. Heineken then couldn't lean back so it now offers next to Heineken; Murphys, Amstel, Brand, Wieckse Witte, Afligem (Trapist!), brand. So if the PerfectDraft also comes to the market in the US then expect the offerings of brands to expand quickly!
I used one of these machines a while ago and my opinion; they are noisy and don't produce a propper layer of foam on to of your beer! However you do get a very nicely chilled beer.
But hey, build quality is rather poor, your beer is more expensive this way, and it is known that these devices (both of them) consume about as much electricity as a small refrigirator which is propostorous! (Actually, we once analysed this product some years ago at my study of mechanical engineering and really; it's designed badly)
So, just buy your beer in a bottle or can or go all the way and get a real bar in your home!
Have a look at the Beer Mate that has been is Australia for the past 12 months, its much better that the Krups. It has a "6 litre Uni-Keg" you can fill with any beverage.
http://www.sunbeam.com.au/products/product_details.cfm?rec_id=695&sec_id=48
@Mark Galvan:
No way on earth would the good monks from the trappist monasteries release their simply fantastic beer in some kind of keg. Have you ever had Chateau Petrus from a keg or champagne?
As far as i know all trappist beers are bottle conditioned and bottle conditioned only. They are very delicate products, you should let them rest for a while before opening the bottle. A keg wouldn't be a good solution. In most cases refermentation will take place in the bottle for several months before they even get distributed. And, similar to wine, the older they are the better (well not 10+ years, but 2 to 5)
I live about 10miles from Westvleteren, the other breweries are all within a 200mile radius :-)
@Rik
Leffe is far from a Trappist. They are part of Inbev, the largest brewing conglomerate in the world. You might be confused by the fact that they are an "abbey" style beer, though they are a poor one at that.
Affligem is not a Trappist either. They are brewed by Heineken, the fourth largest brewer in the world. Again, an abbey style beer, but not Trappist.
The only Trappist beers in the world are from Orval, Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle, Achel, and Koningshoeven.
@Dextro
There are actually a couple of Trappist beers that can be found on draft, though they are rare. Chimay White and I think Konigshoeven Quadrupel might be the only ones.
For a good beer education, try exploring beeradvocate.com
Heineken sucks! (and yes I am dutch)
Everything in this article sounded fine until the last sentence. "You can buy it in March from Williams-Sonoma and everywhere in April for $400." $400?!?!?!?
5-litres? Who here has ever made 5 litres of lager last 30 days..?
If I had 5 litres of Hieneken, it would last a lifetime. That stuff is nasty.
Other than being a different brand, in what way does this differ from this? http://www.hammacher.com/publish/74248.asp
This has been on the market here for years. It's cheaper too.
I don't get these things, though. Is there some reason you can't just keep beer in your fridge? I would think a mini-keg would go flat before your 30 days were up. Beer in cans or bottles, though, won't.
The 5 Liter Heineken Mini Keg using the tap that comes with it for free (~$23 total @ Costco) says on it that you should refrigerate it for 10 hours prior to use and that it will stay good once tapped (and kept cold) for 30-days.
You can buy a pretty cool mini-fridge for $400.
Because lager tastes best when it is served this way, but I need to point out that Heineken tastes bad even if it is served this way. If you want a descent beertender you better import the Philips Perfectdraft wich allows you to serve Belgian beer like Jupiler. The logic in these machines is that you will consume more beer so normally you would empty a keg every 14 days.
Let's just hope you guys allso get the perfectdraft, (http://www.perfectdraft.com/Intro/LangChoice.aspx?country=NL) that takes any keg from interbrew and Grolsch. (and is made out of steel, not plastic..)
Hinke
Duh, nevermind on that last part - you add your own CO2. Obviously, I'm not up on the whole keg scene. I just buy bottles :)
Small detail they kind of forget to mention: to cool one of those kegs to the advised temperature using only the BeerTender, you're looking at a 10 hour wait (!).
they're fixing that with the next firmware
Meh... I'll live with my bottles. Plus I just mounted a cool Starr opener. Happy using that.
lol, mounted, lol
I live in Holland an have 2 of these. They have been around for 3-years or so. The barrals are 4 litres, and it is quite a bit moer expenisve then bottled/cannad beer, but it's worth it. The machine pictured is avaiable here for around $200.
stelliot are you drunk?????
" barrals" "moer" " expenisve" "cannad" avaiable"
Just as an FYI, if you have an old refrigerator, you can convert it for about $300 into a two-tap system that is capable of holding as big of a keg as the refrigerator can handle (I did this this past summer; two taps and either two tall quarter barrels, or one half-barrel). And...not limited to Heineken.
this has been on the market for a few years now (in Belgium) and here in Belgium you can buy 2-3 different kegs for the machine (but Jupiler still is the best (I know some of you beer-loving Americans can agree with that))
you can't place ANY kind of small keg in the machine since it's a special connectionsystem. so for now you're all stuck with the worst beer in the world, Heineken
I was on a customer review panel for this early last year. At that time there was (if I recall correctly) 4 beer brands you could use (2 European; 2 Canadian). Not that any of them appealed to me. What is really interesting is the price difference. During the review we examined difference price points. Surprisingly the highest we were asked to review was $150. The beer price was equivalent to around $2 a bottle (volume comparison) if I recall.
A nifty idea, just too bad that Heineken is an absolutely horrible beer. Let me know when I can drink a Stone IPA or Rogue Dead Guy out of this, then maybe I'll change my mind.
Real men need devices like this (that keep 5 liters of beer fresh for 30 days) to go right next to their special tupperware that keeps their Double Whoppers fresh for up to a week - you know, just in case you can't finish it in less than 10 minutes.
In other words, not.
Maybe I missed it... does this have displayport?
It also constantly consumes 70W of electricity..
IF i recall correctly it takes 14 hours to cool 1 Keg .. so you can't really use it for partys (with more than 5 people...)
What great parties you must have with 1 litre of beer per person...
"You can buy it in March from Williams-Sonoma and everywhere in April for $400."
and can also be bought on e-bay in May for $50
This looks exactly like the Danish Tuborg (Carlsberg branded) model. Whatever Danes (and especially Swedes) drink alot more than any other in the world, why not share?! We can't be drunk all time.
Yeah, I'll pay 400 bucks for the privilege of drafting my own beer... these things have been around in Europe for a while, and they suck. They suck energy, they are noisy, they lock you into certain brands, and they are plain pointless in the first place. When I want a beer I go down to the pub.
400 bucks buys a lot of canweiser...
stelliot are you drunk?????
" barrals" "moer" " expenisve" "cannad" avaiable"
Heineken is way better in the Netherlands than it is here. Plus its stronger.
I'd be more than drunk if I lived in Holland!
bob sakamano
@ Jan 9th 2008 12:27PM
stelliot are you drunk?????
" barrals" "moer" " expenisve" "cannad" avaiable"
Well he is from Holland, so I would cut him some slack if he misspelled a few words.
You can buy a real BeerMeister for that kind of dough.
Yeah seems like hoity toity kegerator for a limited (1) beer selection.
Wait a sec, Americans don't drink cold beer o.O
I have one of these in Sweden. Love it! The only downside is that the pump/chilling unit is loud when it kick in every 30 minutes. Not something you want in a small apartment...it'll keep you up for sure. Other than that it's sweet & perfect for small parties.