Hasta La Ideas

Earlier we looked at the Draft Top Lift, an invention that neatly beheads aluminum beer cans, so you can sip from them.

Now the company behind it is Kickstarting the Draft Top Pro, a heavy-duty countertop unit for commercial use.

At first this seemed silly to me, but the more I think about it, the more I realize its benefits. For a bar to stock bottled beer is never as convenient or cost-effective as having kegs hooked up to taps, but bars do it, because a subset of customers demand it. So it’s not a stretch for bars to stock canned beer, and assuming customer acceptance, not having to pour that into a glass brings benefits.

Years ago I tended bar, and I remember that glassware provides two problems. One, they require regular washing. If the bar where you worked didn’t have enough glassware and/or the dishwasher got backed up when you were slammed, you had a bottleneck. Also, beer glasses always came back from the dishwashing station piping hot, so you had to chill the glasses prior to serving beer in them, another time-waster.

The second problem was breakage, which just inevitably happens. The worst was when a glass would break anywhere near the ice station; you then had to use hot water to melt all of the ice in the bin, for safety’s sake. (More than once I melted all the ice down and found glass shards that thankfully didn’t make their way into anyone’s throats.)

And in venues where glass vessels are not permitted (is this just an American thing? Here our young men have a tendency to break bottles over each other’s heads), serving beer in beheaded cans would save you from having to buy hundreds or thousands of red Solo cups.

The $299 Draft Top Pro has been successfully Kickstarted, and at press time there were 13 days left to pledge.