Fizzics: portable draft system

Maybe I'm wrong, but this doesn't look like it actually carbonates the beer. It just foams the beer (similar to one of those foaming soap dispensers) to give you a "perfect" head.

If you want to carbonate the beer, just get a soda stream.

 

thats what i got from it.. although there isnt much actual information.

Along similar lines this: http://www.growlerwerks.com/ gives you a pressurized, insulated, growler which would be cool! but not cheap..

 

It works reasonably well, just don't over do it. Beer (especially those big HOTD brews) seems to "grab" the CO2 more than water. And have another bottle handy full of warm water to clean the nozzle right away.

 

so pretentious. I really have to enter my email just to watch the rest of the video. C'mon, a guy can pour a beer.

 

I pour a beer better than they spell deschutes. Spelled deshutes on their site, let's see how long it takes to get that updated.

 

this is one of the most unnecessary products I have ever seen.

 

chillthe beer very cold, pressurize, then let out co2 slowly over time. impatience means beer on your counter.

 

Yeah, that's a terrible ploy. Anyways, this is the actual video without their javascript which stops it: http://embed.wistia.com/deliveries/5a3f2c3f870abfdb4a697c1fc9f976073ecbdc93/file.mp4

The video just shows it pouring the head on top of an already poured beer, so I'm not sure it's adding any carbonation or just creating the head.

 

I just watched the video on the iPad while my 8 year old was doing his homework. He looked over and said, "Dad, why would anyone need a beer pourer".

 

At the very least it seems interesting.

http://www.cnet.com/products/fizzics/

 

I wonder if I could use this to carbonate homebrew instantly...I think this is the only place this offers me a lot of value.

 

It's about time. My "Keggy" is just about worn out.

 

There's no way that wouldn't sell like mad for like three weeks. I doubt that the patent still active, and I'd bet one could buy a gross of them from China for pennies and sell them for about $20 a piece. I feel a good old fashioned hipster fleecing coming on!

 

There is going to be a wave of these gizmos...

 

I just ordered one for the idea to use it primarily with growlers. That's where I see its greatest potential to us microbrew and craft beer lovers. It's not going to create carbonation. From what I understand, the chamber you insert your can, bottle, or growler in is pressurized once the lid is closed. That keeps the carbonation in the beer and helps it to stay fresher longer. And the machine supposedly can keep a growler cold for 24 hrs or up to 48 hrs with ice packed around it. I don't see me opening up a bottle or can all that often and putting it in this machine. But I think it's a great way to get the draft experience out of a growler. When you get a growler filled (if it's not a pre-fill one), the beer has never been outside the keg or holding tank it was in. So it's the closest thing to getting the draft experience without having to invest money into kegerators. But again, I can't see using this system on a regular basis when I just wanna open a domestic lager or if I want a big beer like a barleywine or old stock ale where a head is not stylistically correct. I found one cheap on Amazon and I still had leftover money from Christmas, so I said, "What the heck?"

 

pass.

 

Not being accusatory (just genuinely curious) where are you getting that?

From the website it says it doesn't use CO2 cartridges, so at a minimum even if it is pressurizing the chamber, it's doing it with plain air (which I believe means it's not going to do anything to keep your beer carbonated).

It does take batteries however. As far as I can tell, it's just a pump at the end of a straw. You stick the end of the straw in the bottle. When you flip the handle one way, the pump kicks on and starts pumping the beer up the straw and out the nozzle. When you flip the handle the other way, it does the same thing but it puts some sort of "bubble nozzle" in front of the tap to create the head.

While I can be persuaded that the bubbles might affect the taste of the beer, I can't imagine the effect is so significant that I would want to haul this thing out every time I want a pint.

 

If it doesn't have any CO2 component, isn't this "aerating" or "oxidizing" instead of "carbonating" the beer?