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Beer is the pizza of beverage automation.
Previously, I’ve noted that if you want to see the future of food tech, you should look at pizza. From robot assembly to self-driving vehicle (and drone!) delivery to vending machines, pizza tends to be a vanguard for innovation.
Just as pizza paves the way for interesting food technology, beer appears to be the beverage to watch when you want to know where drink automation is heading.
Consider two news bits we highlighted on The Spoon this week:
- Hop Robotics’ Beer Robot is Ready for Events This Summer
- Heineken B.O.T. Follows You Around With Ice Cold Beer in Tow
Part of what makes these two stories of note is that the companies featured are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Hop Robotics is a small, one-man operation that only has one commercial prototype; Heineken is a giant global using robotics basically as a promotional gimmick. (You can enter to win its Beer Outdoor Transporter.) Regardless of their intentions, both companies are looking to make it easier and faster for you to grab a brew.
Hop and Heineken aren’t alone in this endeavor to speed up beer service, as we’ve steadily seen other automation startups come to market. In the U.K., EBar makes big, mobile vending machines meant for events and large venues that will pour a pint in under 30 seconds. The Revolmatic comes out of Poland, and is a countertop machine with a rotating tray that can dispense 450 beers an hour. Macco Robotics in Spain is taking a slightly different approach, employing a humanoid robot with arms to pour your beer in 23 seconds.
All of these machines are meant for events and large gatherings (sports, concerts, conferences) and, when set up in age-restricted areas, can act as unattended beer retail operations. This is helpful in a couple of ways. First, these robots can take over the grunt work of just pouring hundreds of beers an hour. These speedy workhorse machines can help customers spend less time in line for drinks and more time at their event. Automation can reduce overages with consistent, perfectly portioned pours, saving money and reducing waste. These robots also free up human bartenders to focus on more complicated drinks and customer service. And finally, while we are coming out of this pandemic (fingers crossed), venues and retailers will still be looking for and adopting contactless technologies that reduce human-to-human interaction.
Beer isn’t the only beverage getting the automation treatment. Both Rotender and Celia robots are making mixed cocktails, and Botrista just raised $10 million this week for its cloud-connected mocktail and fusion drink dispenser. But I think we’ll see the most automation activity in the beer space. I mean, beer is a huge market. According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association, 2020 U.S. retail sales of beer and malt-based beverages was $100 billion, and that was during a pandemic, when restaurants, bars and stadiums were closed. (Sales were $120 billion in 2019.) And for automation startups, a beer machine is just easier to make because it doesn’t require as many mechanical bits and bobs that are needed to make cocktails (ice, different bottles of booze, mixers, etc.).
Perhaps what’s most fun about Hop Robotics is its size. If one guy in South Carolina can build a working beer robot in his garage, imagine what well-funded companies will create. Whatever the future brings, beer and pizza night will never be the same.
More Headlines
Vegano Launches an All-Vegan E-Commerce Grocery Marketplace in Canada – For now, the service operates in the Metro Vancouver area as well as Squamish and Whistler. The company said it plans to expand to Toronto and Montreal by the end of this year in addition to heading Stateside and launching in Los Angeles.
Czech Online Grocer Rohlik Raises $119M, Its Second Nine-Digit Round This Year – This funding comes just months after Rohlik raised a €190 million (~$230 million USD) Series B round in March of this year. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Rohlik to nearly $380 million.
AiFi and Trigo CEOs Weigh in on When Cashierless Checkout Will Go Mainstream – TL;DR, look for most major cities to have at least one next year, with more saturation coming in ten years.
Farm.One Launches a New Vertical Farming Facility in Brooklyn – The space will grow various microgreens as well as herbs and some flowers. All crops are grown using the hydroponic method and artificial lighting, with plants harvested “hours before delivery,” according to the company.
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