LATEST NEWS

Draught Beer Online has a brand new product which will be especially interesting for users of KeyKegs, Ecofass and any other bag in the keg products.

We are now importing miniature but very efficient air compressors. Designed for use instead of CO² or mixed gas these 'micro-compressors' are particularly useful for behind the bar pressurisation of Keykegs, etc. without the need of cylinders and regulators.

The same air compressors can be found in our range of portable beverage coolers which have a proven design, quiet and totally reliable.

Fully finished in stainless steel, The compressors have variable pressure adjustment from 1 to 3 bar that can be set on the integral gauge and are fitted with a molecular filter at the suction which ensures clean output air.

With their small footprint these compressors can easily be placed under a bar and by using John Guest push-fit fittings connecting everything together is simple.

With the release of the latest Ecofass Kegs we needed the perfect platform to display and demo them, and where else could be better than BeerX?

We will be at SIBA’s (Society of Independent Brewers Association) BeerX from 13-15 March 2013 at The Ponds Forge Conference Centre in Sheffield.

Visit us on Trade Stand No. 18 where the new Second Generation reusable Ecofass kegs with one-way bags will be on display.

These new slimline design, space-saving Ecofass kegs will be available in 10L, 20L, 25L and 30L sizes. Dimensions (only one diameter for all the new kegs = 310 mm):

Ideas from small and medium-sized enterprises can be submitted to The Compass Group for consideration by members of its 'the !dea Works' team. Applicants are shortlisted before the suppliers with the best concepts are called into the boardroom to pitch their proposals in a 'Dragons Den' style presentation.

This is what we at Draught Beer Online did recently and were one of the lucky companies to be selected. The panel of judges consisted of; Nick Vadis - executive chef, Claire Nutter - head of commercial - health, wellbeing and sustainable sourcing, Oliver Cock - managing director, commercial and Adam O'Connor - head of central marketing.

Nick Vadis liked the simplicity and lack of Health & Safety complications and could definitely see where the portable draught beer dispensers from Draught Beer Online could work within The Compass Group.

Adam O'Connor commented "This product could dramatically change parts of our business where we need to deliver chilled alcoholic drinks, either at short notice or in unusual environments. We're going to speak to our sports stadia clients about deploying this product for the new season."

After the pitch, which can be seen here, we received four resounding 'Yes' votes from the panel of judges.

We are at present awaiting for the !dea Works team to outline our portable draught beer concept to the Sport, Leisure and Hospitality sector of the Compass Group and discuss how it can best be utilised within the Company.

We are hoping to see this sector utilise our portable draught beer dispensers in their hospitality suites and elsewhere at the various large sporting venues where the Compass Group is responsible for contract catering e.g. Wimbledon, Chelsea FC, Goodwood, Brands Hatch, Millennium Stadium, The O2, Twickenham, The Brit Oval, Cheltenham, Aintree, Henley Regatta and Lord's, to name a few.

The annual Weyhill Fair Beer Festival was held this year from Friday 21th to Saturday 21st July. With live bands, great food and plenty of beer it's proving to be a very popular local event.

Rob Eyre, of The Weyhill Fair near Andover, contacted us to supply four double tap draught beer dispensing coolers in order to minimise waste. Setting up in the 'lager tent' the four coolers were put to work dispensing both Fosters and Kronenbourg.

The weather had not been great in the week leading up to the event, but it didn't actually rain on the first day and, during the course of the weekend, the weather improved greatly. Although the numbers were down on last year, approximately 3,700 people attended over the two days and 28 kegs of lager were consumed – all beautifully chilled and dispensed by our unique portable draught beer dispensing coolers.

Thanks to Daniel Hobson for supplying the photographs used in our gallery. Please visit his website: www.danielhobson.co.uk

The Rail Ale festival was held on 18 and 19 May 2012 at the Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre. There were over 150 different ales on offer, 40 ciders and perrys as well as several bottled world beers.

Draught Beer Online was invited to attend the Rail Ale Festival by the Event Organisers to give a dispense demonstration utilising KeyKegs and the new Ecofass reusable kegs with 'bag-in-keg' technology.

There was a special 'European' area in which we set up three double tap dispensers; the Kontakt 55/Kprofi, the Kontakt 40/Kprofi and the Pygmy Tower 25/K on the Craft Keg Bar.

These were used to dispense Summer Wine Brewery's Oregon Pale Ale, Kernel Brewery's Citra IPA, Magic Rock's Magic 8 Ball and Thornbridge Brewery's Halcyon all in KeyKegs - as well as Lovibonds Brewery's Henley Gold and 69 IPA in Ecofass kegs.

There was a short 'trade' period between 10 and 12 on Friday morning prior to the festival opening and a demonstration of the 'bag-in-keg' technology together with portable dispensing was given to several interested brewers. The dispensers utilise compressed air to squeeze the beer-filled inner bag in the Ecofass or Key Keg, making these an ideal combination for easy portable dispensing.

There was a lot of interest in the demonstration and later on in the day, even more interest in the beautiful beers being dispensed!

It was a pity the weather was so cold but it didn't seem to deter the hardy beer drinkers who arrived in their droves. It seems the final attendance figure topped 5,000 which is a record for this particular event!

All-in-all the Barrowhill Rail Ale festival was a great success for everyone concerned and our demonstration certainly enlightened the forward-thinking brewers in attendance.

We entered the Hotelympia Innovation Awards 2012 (Technology category) with our unique portable draught beer and wine dispensing coolers and were delighted to be announced as one of the 6 finalists.

This enabled us to display the Kontakt 55/Kprofi in the boulevard at Hotelympia for all to see as they entered. This in itself generated a lot of interest resulting in additional traffic to our Stand.

However, things really kicked off when 'Star' Chef Jason Atherton revealed the final results of the innovation awards on Monday after the ideas had been pitched to a "Dragon's Den" style industry panel.

We were absolutely thrilled to receive the Innovation Award for our portable draught beer and wine dispensers, especially as we faced some stiff opposition from large international companies but still managed to impress the judges.

Handing out commemorative plates to the winners, Jason Atherton said: "Innovation is the key to success. New ideas and products take forward-thinking people, and we’ve seen a great standard."

Although our dispensers are innovative when used with standard kegs, they are even better when coupled with KeyKegs or Ecofass kegs. The beverage in these kegs will last longer as both types of keg will prevent air ingression into, or contamination of, the beer, wine, cider, lager, Prosecco, stout, etc.

Draught Beer Online is pleased to announce it has available a new keg from C G Industry using the bag-in-a-keg principle. With only the bag being disposable instead of the whole keg, this new cost-effective innovation provides many benefits to breweries and other drink producers.

Constructed from reusable HDPE, the kegs are fully recyclable and easily stackable for storage and palletisation. Keg washing is no longer necessary because of the internal disposable bag. This equates to a huge reduction in water and chemical products usually required for this purpose.

Unlike normal kegs, gas is not essential for dispensing - compressed air is adequate to pump the air into the space between the inner bag and the external keg. This is a big health and safety benefit as well as being more economical. The biggest benefit of this innovative new keg is increasing the product shelf life as the one-way bag preserves the beverage and there is no air or gas ingression.

In addition to preserving the beverage there is also no loss of beer or other drink when the keg is nearly empty - every last drop can be dispensed by the customer.

This makes the kegs ideal for use with Draught Beer Online's portable dispensing coolers with onboard compressors.

Specifications:
Weight: 4 Kgs
Size: 40 cms diameter x 44 cms high
Volume: 30L now available, 18L and 11L sizes available from April 2012
Couplers: Compatible with standard 'A' and 'S' type keg couplers
Filling: No specialised filling equipment required

More information on this new type of kegs can be found in our Ecofass section.

This month saw us visiting Brau Beviale 2011 at Nuremberg in Germany. Brau is the most important exhibition for anyone in the beverage industry and it certainly didn't disappoint.

We visited our main supplier Lindr who had a fantastic stand with many of their beer dispensers beautifully displayed. Draught Beer Online is the No. 1 supplier of Lindr beer dispensers in the UK and it's great to know we have the backing of such a professional company.

We also visited some of our other suppliers too which gave us a great chance to catch up and discuss their latest developments. One thing which excited us the most was the discovery of a new innovative product which we feel will be of great interest to be brewing industry... watch this space for further details!

Our first time exhibiting at the Restaurant Show and we weren't disappointed!

We shared Stand H21 with our friends RJC Catering from Monday 10 October to Wednesday 12 October and were overwhelmed with the number of visitors. A lot of interest was shown in our dispensers on display as well as the new KeyKeg concept of recyclable kegs for craft/real ale and draught Prosecco (see our KeyKegs section for more information).

With the brand new Pygmy Tower 25/K on display as well as the ever popular Kontakt 40/Kprofi double tap dispenser and Pygmy 30/Kprofi single tap dispenser we dispensed Lovibonds Henley Gold craft ale which was served beautifully chilled, was very refreshing and proved to be extremely popular with visitors to our stand!

Thanks to everyone that came to visit us and if you need any more information about any of our products please contact us.

STOP PRESS: Due to overwhelming demand we are pleased to extend our free cleaning bundle offer until the end of September 2011!

Yes ‘Free’!

We know the saying goes that you don't get anything in life for free but on this occasion that's wrong. Draught Beer Online is pleased to announce it is giving away a free cleaning bottle bundle worth £60 with every Kontakt 55/Kprofi beer dispensing cooler purchased before 31/08/2011.

The Kontakt 55/Kprofi is the crème de la crème of beer dispensers and is found in our Special Cooler range. With two separate fonts and the ability to pour up to 70 pints per hour the Kontakt 55/Kprofi is perfectly suited for any commercial use.

Our free cleaning bundle consists of a cleaning bottle, keg coupler of your choice (from the 4 main types available in the UK) and a 3m length of tubing - everything you need to maintain your cooler in A1 condition.

Hurry, don't miss out on this fantastic offer - you could actually get something absolutely free... And we really mean that!

Full details of the Kontakt 55/Kprofi here
Full details of our cleaning bundle here

We were first contacted by Rob Phillips, Food & Beverage Manager at Reading University Students' Union several months ago as he was planning several events during June, the main one being the RUSU Summer Ball on the 18th.

Last year they had a cellar in a trailer running pythons to the fonts. This not only took up a lot of space but was inefficient due to fobbing and consequently high wastage.

After meeting Rob at Reading University we discussed his requirements and agreed that six double tap dispensing coolers would be up to the job of supplying almost 4000 students with pints of their favourite tipple... 'Snakebite'. Each double tap unit was to be coupled to a keg of lager and a keg of cider for this purpose.

Read the full story

And we also have low-cost filling equipment for breweries to be able to manually fill KeyKegs with their own unique brews!

We now have three types of Prosecco sparkling wine and two types of still white wine available on tap in 30 litre KeyKegs! That's equivalent to 40 bottles or 240 flute glasses.

Prosecco is the light sparkling wine produced in Italy's Veneto region near Venice and is rapidly growing in popularity. Its appeal as a quality sparkling wine has spread from its home country to most parts of the world with explosive growth.

Enormous savings are to be made when comparing the product to its equivalent in a bottle due to reduction in cost of packaging, transportation, storage, the actual bottles, labelling, corks and threads, all of which add to the cost of production. In addition, import duty on Prosecco in a keg is less than in a bottle. Consequently we are able to sell these quality wines for the equivalent of just 50p per flute.

Having Prosecco on tap is economical, easy, more efficient and less wasteful. No more messing about with opening bottles, keeping them cold and disposing of them afterwards - and it tastes great too!

View our full range of wines available in KeyKegs.

And we also have low-cost filling equipment for breweries to be able to manually fill KeyKegs with their own unique brews!

The KeyKeg is a disposable keg, consisting of a plastic ball, with an inner food grade bag to contain the beer. The whole thing is packed in a cardboard shell for stacking, etc. It's made from recyclable materials allowing the brewery to send them out without having to worry about returns.

There is a basic coupler, which looks pretty similar to other commercial couplers, which hooks up to a beer out line and a gas or air in line. Once hooked up to the KeyKeg, gas or air is pumped in through the gas line, increasing the pressure in the keg forcing beer out through the dispenser font. A great way to serve 'beer on the move'.

This is different from a normal keg as the compressed air does not go into the same space as the beer; it goes into the space between the plastic ball and the inner plastic bag which contains the beer. So the beer never comes into contact with the compressed air or gas pumped into the keg. Any gas may be used but compressed air is suggested by the manufacturer.

The fact that no CO₂ is added to the beer at any time during dispensing means that it is possible to dispense real ale in this way. With the KeyKeg and dispenser from Draught Beer Online, the beer never comes into contact with the compressed air.

KeyKegs really demonstrate their abilities with shelf life. Where a traditional cask allows air in, staling the beer within a few days, beer dispensed from a KeyKeg will last weeks.

Virtually any beverage can easily be put into a KeyKeg. Beer, wine, champagne, real ale, carbonated drinks, etc. The possibilities are endless and a great way for breweries to take their beer out and about for people to taste and try, not to mention transporting it further afield!

Draught Beer Online is pleased to announce reduced hire prices on our range of single, double and special font dispensers. Until the end of March 2011 our rates have been slashed so don't delay, organise that party today!

With us supplying a beer cooler and kegs of your favourite beer you can be assured of a great event this Spring with significant savings. Please note this saving is only available for hire dates up to and including 31/03/2011.

Also, look out for 2 new products coming soon:
Pygmy Tower 25/Kprofi - a luxury beer cooler and unique as it is the first dispenser with a dry cooler inside the tower. Aesthetically designed for front bar operation, this two product dispenser compliments any bar configuration and dispenses 35-40 litres per hour at 4°C.

Kontakt 115R - a professional and functional draught beer dispensing cooler. Dispensing 115 litres per hour at 4°C, the same as the proven Kontakt 115, but is equipped with two line pressure reducers with manometers allowing each line to be regulated with different pressures.

A late decision to attend Hospitality 2011 saw Draught Beer Online sharing Stand No 1134 with RJC Catering. Running from Monday 24 January to Wednesday 26 January at the NEC, Birmingham the show got off to a flying start straight away. It was really buzzing with busy aisles and lots of enthusiastic exhibitors.

On our stand we displayed the robust Kontakt 40/Kprofi double tap dispensing beverage cooler which received a lot of interest from many attendees with varying requirements.

The concept of our dispensing coolers is still relatively new to the UK market although they have been around for several years in all the major 'beer-drinking' countries of Europe. Our attendance at Hospitality 2011 helped raise awareness of all our coolers and they are set to become a lot more popular over the next few months.

Another new concept we are promoting in 2011 is the dispensing of Real Ale and Prossecco Italian sparkling wine from 20 litre and 30 litre disposable KeyKegs. For more information on the KeyKeg concept please click here.