OK, so we don't have a flying car yet, but this is possibly even better: The Internet of Beer Forget all those interminable IoT gadgets gathering dust in the drawers of the world. Brewers may soon be able to breathe easier after signing up to what we're going to call the Internet of Beer. The keg-tracking tech has arrived as the UK's publicans have been given the green light to open up their outdoor spaces and brewers …
So if you buy a keg, the price also includes a deposit on the keg itself, which you get back when you return the empty one.
Kegs are sometimes the source of beer at underage parties held in remote outdoor locations. According to and old college roommate, the sheriffs near his hometown had a unique way to deal with breaking up underage parties: shoot the keg. Literally, they'd use their sidearm to blast a hole in the keg.
I suppose they couldn't just leave it there, and siezing it was more trouble than it's worth. Shooting it means nobody can sneak back to drink, plus the lawbreakers lose their deposit.
That's exactly what they do believe ("The law is what I say it is.").
Some of them even believe that they're both.
That's what's wrong with the idea of city police forces in the US.
A more viable alternative would be a single, radically reorganised state police force along German lines. But it'll never happen.
But I digress.
I remember an outfit that was stealing them and melting them down for scrap. I don't think the tracker would help with that. The cheeky bit was that the forensic lab started out as a wing of an industrial lab and they were bringing the ingots in to the industrial side to get an analysis to show when they were sold on.
As I looked out of the window today, at the bright cloudless skies of London, it occurred to me that some part of the Future *was* here. After all, a little way down river, in the vicinity of Tilbury, this was true:
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
That is, bright blue :-)
I suspect you have read too much in to the “10 year battery life” and the 2min tracking mentioned on their web site. To marry those two up is going to take one big battery!
Also given the way I have seen publicans handle the barrels they have paid for, never mind the handling they will get by the people stealing them, it needs to be quite a robust package!
...not only that, but the barrels I've seen in the UK are metal (aluminium?) which no doubts makes for a very good Faraday cage...
So, one assumes the "tracking device" must be external to the main metal barrel and perhaps could be easily identified (and hence the thieves could choose to nick a different non-trackable barrel) or they could be armed with a "lump hammer" to bash the "tracking" section and make off with it anyways.
OTOH, the maker(s) of the barrels could use a more "cost effective" solution and just put a large label on it saying "GPS Tracker Installed" and hope that this puts off the "crims" and they select something else to nick?
I wrote a presentation about Internet of beer once for a pub and restaurant chain. The loss of barrels is a very low value part of what this could do. Improvement in beer quality and creating a community around beer was the primary goal. Just like the fetishisation of coffee the extra info about origin and treatment would drive interest. The ability to show new beers arriving at a pub can lead to events for beer lovers and tracking cellar conditions against beer quality would allow patrons to choose when best to enjoy their pint.
Measurement ill be for casks not kegs, kegs contain pressurised muck, real ale is delivered in casks, which are laid on their side and tilted as the beer is drawn down. that's why casks are fatter in the middle, where as kegs are straight walled. You can however use a "caskwidge" which allows you to draw from an upright cask.
Even 10 years ago the industry had moved to stainless casks and kegs to avoid the aluminium thefts by Intractable Potsherd's friends. Stereotypes, by definition, are created by reason.
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