“Necessity is the mother of Invention.”
Or, to borrow from one of my kids’ favorite movies, Robots: “See a need; fill a need.”
That’s what Matt Younkle did. It seems the line at the bar was always too long. The reason? It took quite a bit of time for the bartenders to pour each beer and ensure that there wasn’t too much head. There had to be a better way.
Popular Science: How to Pour a Perfect Beer
To limit foam, Younkle grounded his design in fluid mechanics. He extended the tap nearly to the bottom of the glass and added an internal diverter shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss, which gently guides the beer outward as it exits the tap, preventing turbulence. Bartenders can crank up a keg’s pressure until it delivers a pint every three seconds and still create an ideal 1.5 inches of foam on every pour.
His invention is now being sold as the TurboTap, which claims: “One perfect pint. Two seconds.”
I suppose if you’ve got a long line thirsty people, pouring your beer as fast as possible is a good idea. Having the shaft of the tap in the beer, though, I would worry about contamination. For myself, anyway, watching in anticipation while my bartender pours the beer is part of the experience.
