Video SteadyServ Helps Keep the Draft Beer Flowing (Video) 48
Tim: Mike, what does SteadyServ do?
Mike: Well, SteadyServ has put together a platform that allows you to handle inventory and order management of your draft beer in either retail establishments like restaurants and bars, or even at hospitality like Marriott or Hyatt Corporation and in their various hotels around the world. We put together a sensor here and this sensor takes weight readings every five minutes and sends them up to our cloud service through an Intel gateway over a ZigBee connection that turns around and takes those weight readings and watches as the keg depletes as the server turns around and pours or the bartenders pours beers out from the various taps that they have in their establishments.
The sensor is actually made out of both rubber, plastic and aluminum. We have an aluminum shield on top. These rubber pads right here allow the keg to sit up slightly off of the sensor and take more accurate readings. We have four different load cells that we average the weight readings across. And those are then turned around and averaged and sent up to the cloud. The hardware is made up of three individual boards inside. The first one is a quite simple battery board where we can put the unit in test mode for manufacturing purposes. We also have an RFID board in here.
And so the way that the kegs are paired to a sensor, is we read an RFID tag that has a specially encoded numeric value in it and we turn around and we associate that in the cloud with the brewer, the beer product name, and the vessel type. Because these sensors can handle various keg sizes, whether it be a half barrel or quarter barrel or even a 50 L keg or 40 L keg or a 30 L keg. The third board that we have inside is the main processor board. It has a freescale processor on it. It turns around and controls the battery life. It also is the one that times out every five minutes to take that weight reading.
It also has an integrated ZigBee transmitter in it, and can turn around and transmit those weight readings to the gateway over a ZigBee connection. Our ZigBee network is slightly different—we do not use a mesh type ZigBee, we use a star type ZigBee network. Where the gateway is the coordinator and the sensors basically are nodes around the network itself. The other piece to this is that that way the sensors can go to sleep, and they go into a deep sleep in order to draw less battery current and extend the life of the battery. You can change the battery out by simply opening up the door on the underneath right here, you can take this door off, and you can take the battery out, and replace it with a fresh one. Right now, the batteries last anywhere from a year to 15 months.
Tim: What kind of batteries are you using there?
Mike: They are basically lithium ion type battery -- low voltage and quite simply they are like your phone handset at home type batteries. Alright. Here you press the button when you want to pair, what happens is that you will see right here, we have a red light, so when you press the button, and you pass the RFID over this antenna the LED will flash and you know the sensors have been paired.
Tim: Right now you are concentrating only on beers—is that right?
Mike: That’s correct. But there are actually other beverages in the marketplace for example, wine. We can handle wine as well. There is something out in the market called the sixth barrel. The wine industry is moving toward distributing their wines through sixth barrels. They actually look like old Coke canisters, if you will, from years past. There is a wine manufacturer in Australia called Yellow Tail, you may have heard of it, they have actually purchased up all the sixth barrels inventory in the world in order to distribute their wines in sixth barrels. So that they don’t have to deal with bottles and the cost of bottles quite frankly. They get to reuse these sixth barrel kegs over and over to distribute their wines, just as the beer manufacturers get to do with their kegs.
Tim: How do they keep it fresh? Is it nitrogen inside?
Mike: Yes. They actually infuse nitrogen in the kegs in order to get the beer out, to get the wine out, excuse me.
Tim: That’s the beer talking.
Mike: Yeah, that’s the beer talking.
Tim: Now I understand it is off to an API that is... at least it works to use some of the data that all the sensing is going through.
Mike: Yes, so what we are doing is in our partnership with Intel we are moving to a more structured data warehouse using an open source Hadoop type of architecture. And what we want to do is we want to develop reports that get extracted from that data warehouse as well as provide an API to that data warehouse. So that’s also the big piece that we have running here is we are getting into big data. We are going to provide an API. That API can be used by brewers in order to see how well their beers are selling in a particular territory etc. or the distributors—perhaps they want to know how well their clients are doing with some of the beers that are getting put out there. It is also being a big hit with the craft breweries. The craft brewers are really trying to figure out where to sell their beer next. And so they may test market some of their products in order to get those beers into those distributors and distributed to those retail locations going forward.
Tim: Especially with the microbrewer, they need to make checks to measure frequently because they can’t rely on how many millions of units they are shipping.
Mike: Right, so they get to look at their data almost virtually real time. Or they can do it through the API in real time if they choose to do so.
Tim: What about a smaller version? A lot of times, a weight based sensor like this would be very useful. Are there any other versions that you make or are planning?
Mike: Actually, there is. So we are actually going to shrink the size of our sensor. Right now, you can put a sixth barrel right on the inside of these rubber pads, but what we want to do is we actually want to develop a sixth barrel sensor that looks more like a hockey puck basically just a little bit larger than a hockey pod that will slide underneath the sixth barrel. We have a lot of there are a lot of retail establishments out in the marketplace that have kegerators in their bars and what they are doing is they are putting these sixth barrels inside in order to handle more than a dozen taps that they want to provide for their customers. So putting a sixth barrel on top of something like this will work, but it takes up space within the cooler, valuable space that they could add more product to if they so choose.
Tim: What is so special? What is it like being a tech company in Indiana?
Mike: Actually the tech industry in Indiana is becoming quite popular. Down at IU, they have a big program informatics with they are developing a UX Consortium.
Tim: I think they were one of the first informatics programs.
Mike: Yes. Actually, they are one of the premier UX programs in the country. We also have in Indianapolis at IUPUI which is a joint venture between Indiaana University and Purdue University. They have one of the best video scanning algorithm development departments in the country there as well. The FBI turned to them quite often in order to do facial recognition of video tapes etc. that are becoming quite popular obviously. There are a lot of tech firms. And the tech growth in Indiana is being fostered by the state as well. So actually they are an investor in SteadyServ as well, the state is. They have an Elevate fund there and they invest in our company as well.
I was getting ready to complain this was an ad (Score:5, Insightful)
Then I saw it was a roblimo video, and I realized that was a redudant statement.
Seriously guy, can you stop with videos loaded with effusive praise for uninteresting products?
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And put controls back in the video player. WTF is this facebook?
I think you should put a "this is an ad" type icon (Score:1, Insightful)
or disclaimer on these things.
Re:Paid advertisement (Score:4, Funny)
With iKeg's Technology We Guarantee You Will Never Run Out of Beer
The only time I run out of beer, I've likely already had enough. I don't see this as a problem inherent to beer.
you'll realize almost immediately that SteadyServ isn't making equipment for home use, but for bars and taverns that serve draft beer.
If you told me someone was selling draft beer supplies (or whatever this crap is), my first assumption would be that it was for bars and taverns, not for home use. Thanks for taking time to point out the obvious.
With the new iKeg® system, we aim to ensure that you get your beer, in the right place, at the right time.
This sounds like the way I already get my beer. I can't say I ever get a beer in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Can you also make the beer a liquid?
We also want to simplify the lives of all the hard-working people in the beer industry.
Not to trash on bartenders or anything, but grabbing a class, putting it under a tap, and pulling the lever for about 8-10 seconds already sounds quite simple. I actually can't think of too many jobs that pay as well as bartending that are much simpler. Yes, it's hectic on a Friday night, but you're still just pouring beer.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to help keep America from running out of draft beer?
I already addressed this, but it is clear that you're not getting it. There is plenty of draft beer available. If you live in a place where there are only three available choices on tap, I feel for you, but I can already go across the street and order a pint from a selection of about 15 local beers, along with the standard selection of decent beers available at any proper bar. I have yet to go to the bar and have them tell me, "Sorry, we don't have any beer today."
From the summary, I get the impression that the marketing drone that wrote this doesn't actually have an idea of what beer is.
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I take it you don't know any homebrewers, then. Kegging is a hell of a lot easier than bottling. That said, the usual insurance against a keg running out is...wait for it...having a second keg on tap. Cheap and low-tech.
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Actually, I know a lot of home brewers. Why are you assuming this and what does this have to do with my previous statement?
What you are saying amounts to, "because you believe that more draft beer supplies are sold to bars/taverns than home brewers, you must not know any home brewers." If my statement was reversed, would you assume I'd never been to a bar?
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Failing to give a shit. (Score:1)
I dunno.
As a teetotaler, I simply don't give a damn.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Makes me wonder what the editors are drinking...
Why, they're drinking only the finest: Endless Fresh Beer, from the revolutionary iKeg® by SteadyServ®!
I do my part (Score:4, Interesting)
One 5-gallon batch at a time. And so far, I too have never run out.
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++ Would read again.
I've got a porter and an ale bubbling away at home, as we speak. Bonus: Don't throw away the spent grains! Make bread instead!
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But does your process scale? While everyone's requirements may be different, here's another technology so beer drinkers can stress less about ever running out of beer. These were the best images [flickr.com] I could easily search [amsterdogblog.com] for to cite my point. We already *have* the technology people!
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It will scale up to 100 gallons/year, which is the legal limit in the US for homebrewing. That's 20 batches, or 1.6667 per month. Put it another way, it's 960 bottles of beer on the wall. That's more than enough scaling for me.
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I don't know how they do it now, and I never fully understood how the cook went as it was above my pay grade and housing, but I recall super-clean 32 gallon (or so) plastic trash cans w/lids in Saudi Arabia full of beer stuff & yeast as part of the process which I'll abbreviate. Mind you all of that stuff you might have heard about 'compounds for expats' did *not* apply in this place. When/if a room air conditioner conked out, a *serious* condition exists. Since a passer-by walking past the residence wo
Trademark suit incoming.... (Score:2)
Disable Advertising (Score:5, Funny)
Oh disable advertising checkbox! I trusted you! You were the chosen one!
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Why is this on /.? (Score:3)
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All of those can be done with a guy spending two seconds typing in the name of new beers when they come in.
Also, St Augustine's in Vancouver does the whole live update menu thing and has for years. They have it over the bar and on screens over the urinals in the bathroom. I'm assuming they have flow meters or some other type of instrumentation set up.
http://staugustinesvancouver.c... [staugustin...couver.com]
Looks like they turned over a hell of a lot of kegs recently for whatever reason.
They've invented WiFi scales (Score:3)
It's a nice idea for a product, but there's the usual marketing fluff covering what it really is: Bathroom scales hooked up to the internet to weigh kegs.
I'm not entirely sure what the point is. If you buy a keg, it's in your inventory (hopefully) and you know how many pints are in it. Surely you set up your system so that once you've sold X pints of Y beer, the POS system says "Hey buddy, we're about to run out!" and can either order a new keg for you or indicate that you should get a new one. You replace the keg and hit a button that says 'new keg', enter the capacity and you start again. All of this data can be logged to an internal database.
For a start a POS system is cheaper, it can be done offline and the data is quite literally down to the second because you can log when someone buys it. You don't need to record how heavy the keg is at 5 minute intervals when you have ~500ml precision down to the second.
Now if you're a brewery then point is that this updates to the cloud and you can see when your beer is being sold - cool - but why can't this be done with a simple 'smart POS' system? And again, you'd have exact sales figures down to the minute or daily (really, do you care about figures that fine grained? on the time scale of brewing that's nothing). The big bummer I see here is that you're relying on the establishment to do the leg work for you. They have to install this system so you get your data.
"Especially with the microbrewer, they need to make checks to measure frequently because they canÃ(TM)t rely on how many millions of units they are shipping.''
Was that sarcasm? Surely you know that you sold X kegs to Y town and they're chomping at the bit for more...
In unrelated news... (Score:3)
With the new iKeg system, ...
Seriously not to be confused with the iKegel [wikipedia.org] system.
I'm a brewer (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a brewer. I go to lots of bars, speak to lots of bar managers and owners, and poke around lots of beer fridges.
First, high volume bars, if they want metrics, install flow meters on draft lines. The sophisticated ones communicate with the PoS and report when the beer is flowing and how much. If the server's pouring freebies, the system will know and rat on the bartender. The system also knows if a brewer is shorting their kegs or is making foamy (over-carbonated) kegs that lead to spillage. Managers love that. Second, the meters are integrated into the lines so there's no ****ing around with flying saucers; you will always get the right data for your taps. Always. Third, most beer fridges are wet, dank pits. No one likes spending time in them. Telling bar staff to pick up a keg that weighs upwards of 150lbs and place it on a disk is ... hopeful. Telling bar staff to perform the same maneuver on a disk stuck in a keg fridge? That's borderline stupid. Those saucers are going to get punished.
Also, it's not rocket science to keep a few extra kegs around if you're managing 30 taps; you, by definition, have lots of storage. And if 4 or 5 lines blow without replacement? That is not a big deal. In fact, some bars won't replace blown kegs after dark because it makes them look busier (no, seriously, I've seen this in action) and helps to push people to less popular brands.
Seriously? Has this guy worked in a brewery ... or a bar ... recently?
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Okay, I'm a bar owner. In broad terms, you are correct, no one is likely to sign onto this system.
A few things you are not correct about, though:
No keg (in the US) weighs more than 110 lbs.
There's no such thing as 'overcarbonated' kegs. Bar kegs require an external CO2 tank. There's nothing but beer in a bar keg. When it's running too foamy, it's a problem with the CO2 tank regulator (mostly; other factors are in play too).
Consumer kegs ARE sold pressurized/carbonated. That is probably the confusion here. S
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The standard Beer Store keg in Ontario is 58l (half barrel). That's 58 (give or take) kilograms of beer + the weight of the keg. That's closing in on 150 pounds.
If you think your kegs aren't carbonated, I have a quick test for you. Give the keg a few shakes, or roll it on the floor for a couple minutes. Take your coupler, shut off the gas to it. Attach to it a new keg. Most Sanke D couplers (at least the good ones) have blow-off valves (it's a safety feature so that the keg doesn't go BOOM! if things reach
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Ok, "bar owner", you must not also be the bartender or manager. There is no difference between "consumer" and "bar" kegs. All kegs come pressurized AND require an external CO2 tank. (Though some people use air pumps since they do not have CO2 equipment. Anyone doing this looks like a amateur frat-boy, just use bottles and cans for crap's sake.)
If the beer contained no head-space, there would be no way to get it pressurized. And if there was oxygen in the head-space it would cause the beer to go bad...fast.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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For some reason, I would have expected some kind of automatic valve system that would allow multiple kegs to be connected at once, switching over to the next keg when one went empty.
There are a lot of high-volume bars with few taps, I can't imagine the nuisance of constantly switching over to new individual kegs.
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