The BeerVault

I stumbled across this while browsing the interwebs this morning. An Australian design firm has produced a system for storing and preserving bottled beer that allows for pouring of any amount without wasting the remaining beer. I'll let them explain:

In short, the BeerVaults has the ability to make ANY beer available "on tap" by extracting the beer out from the bottles and pressurizing it into an in-built reservoir. The in-built cooling and carbonation technology maintains the temperature and freshness of the beer itself.

The clear tubes that contain the beer are UV-filtering clear acrylic canisters surrounded by a clear volume of liquid glycol to keep the beer cold. Its a pretty cool sounding system if it actually works well at preserving the beer. There are often times that I see a beer available at a bar that I would love to have, but don't want to (or can't) drink entire 750ml bottle of it myself. This would also allow the bar to provide a sample of such a beer before someone orders a large (and often pricey) bottle of it or to be able to sell it by the glass without the worry of wasting unfinished bottles. I could certainly see this starting to pop up in high-end beer bars around the country.

Its currently in use at a bar called Biero in Melbourne, Austrailia (photo to the right). It would look pretty cool on the back bar at a place like the Anvil.