No one wants to queue for a beer, so Barclaycard has shown off a solution in the UK that gets around the problem by building a beer pump that has contactless payment built in, and will auto-pour you a pint in just 60 seconds.
The technology is obviously designed to work with Barclaycard's own credit and debit cards, but it works with any contactless card as well as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. You tap your payment device against the base and in seconds you're getting a perfect pint poured for you.
Once you've agreed to the price, you tap your card and one more confirmation is needed to get the beer pumping. If you don't start the flow of beer within the first minute then the machine cancels the transaction and refunds your money.
What's more, to keep queues small the pump will only sell you one beer at a time, so it should keep things frustration-free and reduce lines considerably at busy times. Although it's only a pilot, the system works flawlessly and was tested numerous times while I watched on. The beer demoed was an ale, rather than a lager so less pouring skill is needed. But this is about moving people through quickly more than it is about quality pouring, I can't see it working for Guinness any time soon.
There are some issues of course, in the UK at least it's the barman's responsibility to make sure you don't drink yourself into a coma. Ignoring those rules will land them in hot water, and could cost the landlord his licence. And the same, obviously, with ensuring that customers are all of legal drinking age.
It's perhaps not a perfect solution but then the dolt ahead of you orders 15 of the bar's most complicated cocktails, you'll be glad that automation can take that thirst away in just one minute.
