Is beer dispensing evolving and embracing the digital revolution?
When we actively investigate the food and beverage industry, we can easily see evolution and digitalization in the operations. Visiting a pub where the server takes your order on a tablet, or more often, scanning a QR code using a smartphone to order food and drinks, the digital world has become inescapable.
There are cases where automation has been taken to a new level and you can find a robot serving you the beer you ordered and paid a few minutes before from your smartphone. It is also common to see tap rooms transformed into places where you can self-serve, meaning you can pay with a contactless card and pour the beer by yourself.
If we can easily see the front-end and customers facing operations evolving and finding ways to grow the operator’s businesses, attract more consumers and improve their experience; can we say the same about the dispensing equipment? Are those evolving in the same way and adapting to the change?
If we consider the majority of beer coolers installed in the field, they are still using the same technology of a few decades ago when, if we make a comparison to an oven in the kitchen, it is now connected, self-cleaning and digitalized with greatly improved features that can support the operator.
With that being said, what are the main constraints for beer dispensing to evolve and digitalize? The answers could be plentiful, but first, we must consider an important aspect: who owns the draft system and specifically the beer coolers on a typical installation?
Who owns your draft system?
The oven we mentioned before will usually be carefully chosen most of the time by the restaurant owner and purchased as a capital investment. In comparison the beer cooler is often provided by the beer brand free-on-loan with the capital expense absorbed by them, meaning usually a low investment that can be quickly amortized.
A question will now arise: how can beer dispensing evolve and become more efficient and sustainable? Most probably when the equipment is owned by the outlet operator, just as the oven is.
The Celli Group is a leading company in the beverage dispensing industry. With over 45 years of experience, the company has enabled the Made-in-Italy with quality, reliability, design, and innovation, to guarantee the best drinking experience.
In the last decade the company has invested extensively in leveraging digital technologies to develop new solutions for draft systems that provide more efficient, sustainable and engaging ways to operate looking into every component involved, from the keg down to the way glasses are filled.
For this reason, in 2020 we created a line of dispensers, “Geo Green” with more environmentally friendly propane gas, and improved components and insulation for increased energy savings that could be estimated to be almost 30%.
Those coolers now have full IOT capabilities called “Intelli Draught” able to monitor dispensing data, to enable preventive maintenance, remote troubleshooting, automatic reordering and fulfilment if integrated into the supply chain management system.
Dispensing data at your fingertips
Here is an example of machine learning and preventive maintenance, where the system monitoring the compressor working time and the water bath temperature, can predict the compressor failure and inform and eventually alert the operator with the opportunity to reduce or minimize the operational downtime.
Dispensing data is also a powerful tool to monitor and enable all the stakeholders in the value chain to make efficient and quick business decisions. A notable example is being able to monitor, within a specific period, the dispensing volumes and quality providing very insightful information to analyze the success and the return of promotional and marketing campaigns.
Digitalization and automation can also be applied to the way we perform the cleaning process of the beer lines, currently in most countries done manually by a servicing company. The cost of cleaning is always a tradeoff between the quality of the beer and the frequency of the sanitization process, unable to be performed daily.
One innovative solution that Celli Group has lately developed is HiClo, a fully automated and connected device that allows the operator to easily and independently perform the sanitization of the beer lines by simply disconnecting the Keg coupler and connecting it with the HiClo device. The entire process is automated and controlled via a dedicated APP.
The most innovative feature of HiClo is the ability to generate a cleaning solution (chlorine based) without the need for the addition of any chemicals or detergents with the lowest impact on the environment and operational costs.
In conclusion, while digitalization has swiftly impacted customer-facing operations, the equipment itself has a lot of opportunities ahead. Ownership models have posed challenges, but innovative solutions such as the “Geo Green” line, IoT integration and Hi-ClO are reshaping efficiency and sustainability.
The Celli Group is driving the digital transformation in the beer dispensing industry, exploring opportunities to bring innovative solutions for the operator to improve, digitalize and automatize the dispensing process to deliver the highest quality standard of the beverage.
The future promises a more digitized and efficient beer dispensing experience, with Celli Group leading the way.
For more information about our latest solutions please contact: [email protected]
