American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
There was a time in our history when you knew exactly what was on tap at the corner bar – those early days when only the town brew was available, then later, just two or three big national brands or God forbid
Those busy days of mass confusion, distribution headaches, and dusty chalkboards may soon become a thing of the past as today’s slingers of artisan pints and savvy craft brewers are being saved by digital Point of Sale mechanisms that are wowing not just the publican but also the public at large. One of the only (if not THE only) companies that links all aspects of the taproom experience, fusing the backroom, POS, menu, and social media applications, is a Portland-based firm called DigitalPour.
The story goes that Bailey’s, a local taproom in town, was struggling to maintain a constantly rotating 24 tap operation in August of 2011. Enter Co-Founder and CTO Eric Sterling, a software engineer by day and a Bailey’s regular by night (maybe mid-day?), who designed the original digital interface. Basically they’ve created a means by which to measure how many ounces of each beer are being served via POS. The system keeps track of what’s being tapped next, updates the bar’s Twitter feed with the kicked kegs and freshly tapped ones replacing them, visually displays the levels of each keg as well as the color, names/locales, social media interactions (foursquare, twitter, untapped, etc.), and the blood type of each pint purveyor. Well, maybe not that last one. All this detail provides the owner with metrics and spreadsheets that allow better long-term projections to better serve the public and their finances.
Recently, I was able to pick the brain of their CEO Lisa Marcus, who informed us that their system is now operating in 4 countries, 22 states and 37 cities, yet they’re just getting started. “DigitalPour is growing rapidly on pace to double or possibly triple our installed base this year,” notes Marcus, and “we expect that to accelerate as we begin to invest in marketing over the coming months.”
What’s astounding about their explosive growth is that while they offer advanced software and social media interfaces, the company sports less than 10 employees and offers their services at a price less than expected by potential subscribers. There’s also little to no hardware required beyond the screen. “The technology is so developed that everything can be run from here in Portland” says Marcus. “Remote installs are easy and operationally, DigitalPour is very stable and trouble free, with 24/7 customer support as needed.”
With the recent growth and popularity of not only craft beer and craft restaurant chains, but also taprooms that cater to growler pours, this technology is tailor-made for an industry that’s already bursting at the seams. Outdated technology, such as chalkboards or the soon-to-be closing Taplister (also a Portland start-up), made updating speedily rotating taps a headache and sometimes even more expensive. Just the other day, I had the chance to speak with Kelly Jane Dent, the owner of Shamrock’s Pub and Grill in St. Peters, Missouri, who’s been getting great feedback since they started using the system. “We were the first bar in our area with anything like it. The connection with Twitter has been great,” says Dent. “It automatically sends out a tweet when we change taps so our guests can keep up-to-date with what we have.”
It is this kind of ingenuity, community interaction, and technological know-how that has enabled the craft beer movement to grow and flourish. You might even say it’s flowing non-stop, like the taps from keg-monitoring robots from heaven…
