back to article Japan's Robo-Bartenders point to a golden future

Not content with wowing the world with the posterior polishing wizardry of their electronic toilet seats, the Japanese have turned their attention to that other first world problem: pouring of the perfect pint. In the past, thirsty customers have had to rely on the vagaries of the human/beer interface (more commonly known as …

  1. kain preacher

    BooBoo Boo. I thought this would be able to make me some thing like a Manhattan or a martini .

    1. Goldmember

      Those do exist. I was served a cocktail in a Las Vegas bar which was mixed by a robot. Here it is in action:

      Robot Bartender

      1. Blackbird74

        Optional

        There used to be one in a bar under London Bridge that did cocktails:

        http://www.cynbar.co.uk/images/Cynthia%20pouring.jpg

        http://www.cynbar.co.uk/Photos.htm

  2. Andytug

    Nice idea, but...

    that looks suspiciously like lager, from a keg. Come back when it can hand pull cask ale.

    (Shouldn't be that hard, just keep the glass tilter, and add a hydraulic pump arm to the top.)

    1. nijam Silver badge

      Re: Nice idea, but...

      > (Shouldn't be that hard, just keep the glass tilter, and add a hydraulic pump arm to the top.)

      ... and stop chilling the stuff... oh, it's lager.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Nice idea, but...

        ... and stop chilling the stuff... oh, it's lager.

        ...where chilling the tongue yields positive benefits..

        (Life is too short to drink lager when there are many, many more enjoyable drinks. Cider by preference!)

    2. Korev Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Nice idea, but...

      "Come back when it can hand pull cask ale"

      Could be difficult as robots tend to not have hands ;)

      Mine's a Skinner's, but none of that head please -->

      1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: Nice idea, but...

        Skinners - Cornish brewery, I used to hang out with the sales guy on occasion.

        I just dumped a whole load of their t-shirts\sweatshirts down at the local thrift store, not worn them since I emigrated.

        I also had to dump a whole load of their Betty Stogs mugs before leaving the country, someone in my household objected to me making a comment about the resemblance to her mother.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nice idea, but...

      Isn't this the sort of thing we could do with clockworks?

    4. wallaby

      Re: Nice idea, but...

      "just keep the glass tilter"

      for hand pulled cask !!!!!!!

      glass should be vertical at all times, sparkler (or not - for the heathen southern jessies) should be firmly against the bottom of the glass in the centre. Every cask is different requiring a different pull technique.

      If I were drinking lager and someone poured me a glass with a head that big in the clip I'd be sending it back for a top up

      (former winner of numerous CAMRA awards).

  3. Aladdin Sane

    If the damn thing draws a shamrock on your Guinness, you're allowed to rip out its CPU.

    1. Teiwaz

      If the damn thing draws a shamrock on your Guinness, you're allowed to rip out its CPU.

      Can't stand Guiness, but where I grew up, the tradition was a smiley, which got progressively more straight faced as you approached the maudlin stage.

    2. apveening Silver badge

      If the damn thing draws a shamrock on your Guinness, you're allowed to rip out its CPU.

      Only if you are a regular in that bar (not a tourist) ;)

    3. phuzz Silver badge
      Pint

      You know how many tips you get from yank tourists if you can draw a shamrock in a Guinness head?

      They practically throw the money at you.

      Very lucrative skill, and pretty easy to learn.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If I was in an esteemed drinking establishment (or pub) and I was served such a beer as displayed in that video my response to the bar keep would be "Have you got a flake to put in that?"

    My own personal preference is 2mm for lager and 5mm for bitter. If I wanted a moustache I would grow one.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'm guessing you're a southerner, so perhaps the lemonade in your shandy normally knocks the head off the beer and you're not used to how a normal pint is served?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I like my beer cold thanks and where I am in the north the pints are served as described. My mother is also a barmaid at the local working men's club where they have an artist on every Saturday the likes of which you will never see on television. I don't have a whippet but I sometimes eat gravy for breakfast, it's also not a barm cake it's a muffin. What is this shandy you speak of?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          So not only are you a lager drinker, but you don't use the internationally accepted only term for a barmcake: barmcake.

          Seek mental help, man!

          1. A K Stiles
            Pint

            It's a soft roll by any other name, as any fule kno!

            I was thinking it was just about doing okay with the head, and was giving a brief pause to let it settle slightly before finishing the pour, then it did a dodgy Mr. Whippy impression all over the top - the only saving grace being that it was clearly lager and thus not of great interest in the first place.

            And you can top that up too! --->

            1. HmmmYes

              Bread bun then.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            The argument can usually be settled as,

            Would you rather eat a barmcake or muffin?

            Not really a lager drinker, I did in my youth. These days it's either spirits or a pint of Boddingtons from a Boddies pub.

        2. HmmmYes

          Do you remove your glasses, just in case?

        3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "What is this shandy you speak of?"

          Back when I had a valid passport, I once went "down south". I believe down there they call it London Pride.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Its a sodding

          Breadcake!!

          Effin barmcake...

      2. Korev Silver badge
        Joke

        "I'm guessing you're a southerner"

        Says someone claiming to be from Tunbridge Wells

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgusted_of_Tunbridge_Wells

          1. Korev Silver badge
            Happy

            I realise that... Hence the joke icon.

            Yours sincerely,

            Mrs Trelllis,

            North Wales

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              I have in the past been invited into a shouting match on my local newspaper's forum when complaining about out of town protesters coming over here, taking our women plackards. "But you're from out of town! You're from Tunbridge Wells!".

    2. Pedigree-Pete
      Pint

      Flake?

      Back a few years by local served me a pint (bitter) with an oversized head. I DID ask "do I get a Flake with that". He chucked a Flake in my beer. Oddly, it was one of those bitters that quite suited a chocletty addition. PP

  5. tiggity Silver badge

    I hope that was an oversized glass

    As head was huge.

    A proper bar person asks what type of head a customer wants - preferences vary a lot. Some people like a frothy head whilst at teh other extreme others like a flat pint.

    .. though in my days of bar work I worked in a traditional boozer, and it was bitter drinkers (of which there were many, rather than lager philes) who cared about head.

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: I hope that was an oversized glass

      " in my days of bar work I worked in a traditional boozer, and it was bitter drinkers ... who cared about head."

      Is that why they were bitter?

    2. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      Re: I hope that was an oversized glass

      A proper bar person asks what type of head a customer wants

      My local used to have a young barmaid like that. I really do miss her.

      1. Korev Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: I hope that was an oversized glass

        Sorry I haven't a clue about this - was it Samantha?

        1. Steve Todd

          Re: I hope that was an oversized glass

          +1 for the Radio 4 quiz show reference

      2. Frumious Bandersnatch

        Re: I hope that was an oversized glass

        I actually learned the Japanese word for "oral" today. It's 口頭, which uses the symbols for "mouth" and "head". Suffice to say, I didn't have a problem memorising it for some reason...

        1. Aladdin Sane

          Re: I hope that was an oversized glass

          Is it pronounced how it's written?

  6. TRT Silver badge

    Can it pour a decent pint of mild?

    And WTF? That's been given more head than Hugh Grant in a lay-by.

  7. ofnuts

    Putain de faux-col, as we say on this side the Channel.

  8. IanDs

    As any fule know, the beer glasses -- at Narita, in Japan and in most of Europe -- are lined to leave room for the head, not to be filled to the brim. Anyone whining because their beer isn't filled to the top, go back to England where pubs often serve beer with a head in glasses designed to be filled to the brim...

    1. Teiwaz

      go back to England where pubs often serve beer with a head in glasses designed to be filled to the brim...

      Deep down, probably what Brexit was really about - that, and perceived slights about British sausages and the shapes of an Englishmans banana.

  9. iron Silver badge

    Depending on the size of the glass that head is somewhere between a bit big and providing a pint that is criminally under sized. For crappy lager anyway, you don't get foam like that on a nice ale.

  10. Ben Bonsall

    Duvel glasses are designed so you get about 5-6 cm of head. The tradition was that you had to finish the beer before the head was gone. Before they added a head keeper to the glass, this was about 15 minutes. Now it's about 40 which is much easier for an 8.5% beer.

    1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      I've heard of certain chemicals being added to the beer to aid head retention (I'm sure Newcastle Brown Ale had something soap-based in it at one time) but I've not head of head keepers on glasses. What are they?

      1. Aladdin Sane

        Re: Head keepers

        It's that little etched pattern you see at the bottom of the glass.

        1. Frumious Bandersnatch

          Re: Head keepers

          > It's that little etched pattern you see at the bottom of the glass.

          Encourages "nucleation", if you want to get technical.

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: Newcastle Brown Ale.

            Or "dog".

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I've got some of that for homebrew beer. Didn't use it twice as it didn't make a difference.

        The ingredients are: water, propylene glycol alginate e-05, polysaccharides, preservatives E223 & E211

        ( some commas may be in the wrong place as the label has faded )

      3. Korev Silver badge
        Mushroom

        "Newcastle Brown Ale had something soap-based in it at one time"

        That might explain the World Class hangovers that stuff gives...

        Your head the morning after a skin full of NBA -->

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "Your head the morning after a skin full of NBA -->"

          No real aficionado would refer to it as NBA. It;s Nukie Broon (which fits the icon better too)

          Of course, now that's not even brewed in Geordieland, let alone Newcastle, it's not the same anyway, so re-branding as NBA might not be a bad thing.

  11. John 110
    Pint

    Heard in the pub I used to work in (working class - Scottish)

    "Could you fit a nip in there?"

    "Aye"

    "Well top it up then, I asked for a Pint"

    Tradition was to hand over the first pint while filling the rest, the punter would drink the first mouthful, then ask for a topup (used the honesty principle to ensure that the first mouthful wasn't pint-sized)

    Ah the seventies - where did they go?

    1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      Re: Heard in the pub I used to work in (working class - Scottish)

      "Could you fit a nip in there?"

      In the context of this article, possibly not the most politically correct phrase

    2. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Heard in the pub I used to work in (working class - Scottish)

      I first heard that expression in a film with Rik Mayall - Couples & Robbers.

    3. Identity

      Re: Heard in the pub I used to work in (working class - Scottish)

      | Ah the seventies - where did they go?

      They're hiding under the eighties.

  12. Dr_N

    Beer Bores

    [yawn]

  13. Alister

    a last squirt of foam ensures the perfect head.

    You always need a last squirt for good head...

  14. Kaltern

    Frothy foam finishes Friday fantastically.

    1. James 51

      Just a pity it's Tuesday.

  15. disgruntled yank

    Beg pardon?

    I thought that I was my own human-beer interface.

    1. Aladdin Sane

      Re: Beg pardon?

      Is it an interface, or merely a filter?

  16. BebopWeBop

    vagaries of the human/beer interface

    I thought that was the urinal?

  17. ForthIsNotDead
    Coat

    Too much head...

    ...er...

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Too much head...

      Can there be such a thing? Oh wait.. this is beer. Nevermind.

  18. TrumpSlurp the Troll
    Windows

    Geographical thing

    Used to be around Derbyshire and Nottinghmshire where they started to screw in the sparklers on the hand pump to get more head on the beer.

    Dahn sarf served nicely flat (sparkler often left off the pump) - as also found in proper pubs where the beer barrel was on a cold shelf and the beer was run into an enamel jug then poured into a glass. None of this beer engine crap.

    Get as far north as Manchester and the sound of a pint being pulled was more like that of a cat with the squitters (don't ask) with all the artificial fizz being forced in. Didn't seem to damage the taste, though.

    Ah, beer. Getting ugly men laid since history began. :-)

  19. Fuzz

    over engineered

    Anybody who's been to a cricket match or similar large event fuelled by beer will be familiar with the machines that pour 4 beers at a time into plastic cups.

    No tilting of the glass required as the nozzle reaches to the bottom of the cup.

  20. Stevie

    Bah!

    A fucking variable geometry vending machine is not a bartending robot!

    That would be either the half-man, half-segway thing from "Passengers" or a mobile Realdoll that would let you cop a look down the cleavage as she pours a pint from the beer engine using her deceptively strong arms.

    Enough with this bogus goalpost-shifting and playing-field shortening! There's enough of that going on in the A.I. and Nanotech fields.

    A robot is either an anthropomorphic machine indistinguishable from a human (or alternatively made of glass-like polymers) or a hulking bipedal death machine bristling with high cyclic-rate weapons of various calibres and fitted with chicken legs!

    If it could appear on a clipboard checlikst owned by Rimmer or Lister, it's a bloody vending machine!

    1. Chris G
      Pint

      Re: Bah!

      Great comment! Have a beer ( although it does look a bit weak)

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      "If it could appear on a clipboard checlikst owned by Rimmer or Lister, it's a bloody vending machine!"

      And based on the article, it doesn't do feedback or analysis, so is in no way a robot. It just follows a precise and pre-programmed sequence of events that requires each beer selections to be understood and consistent between deliveries. If they change to very different type of beer, it will need to be re-programmed for that beer because it can't learn from it's actions and results.

      And anyway, there's no such thing as a generally acceptable "perfect pint" because different beers and different people have their own standards of perfection. My perfect pint WILL NOT be designed and dictated by some marketdroid at $big_beer_co

    3. PhilipN Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      Agree somewhat less than robotic (like some barmaids I have known) and don't understand technical terms such as "variable" and "geometry" but might I suggest the magic is inside the spout.

      [ Cue Mel Smith "She's a bit loively tonoight" and pull out a shovel to clear the rising tide of foam. ]

      Which suggests the magic is inside the liquid stuff (but we all knew that).

      1. Stevie

        Re: Bah!

        don't understand technical terms such as "variable" and "geometry"

        From the article:

        First, the glass is tilted to the perfect angle for the initial pour. At the midway point the angle of pouring changes to avoid an over-froth scenario. Finally, the glass returns to vertical and a last squirt of foam ensures the perfect head*.

  21. Sam Therapy
    Pint

    Oddly reasonable post

    Beer is beer. Drink what you like. The only bad thing about beer is no beer at all.

  22. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
    Pint

    Empty Vessels

    Seeing the amount of beer that gets poured here in Canada & the amount of head that's scraped off & wasted during the pouring process makes me a little upset, especially when the amount of head left disappears seconds after it's finally put in front of you, leaving about a CM gap gets me even more irked..

    Especially when I poured beer back in the UK in my younger days with the glass tilted to the perfect angle for the initial pour etc etc etc. finishing with a quick top off of the head.

  23. Frederic Bloggs

    It's sooooo slooooow

    It's very slow, isn't it? Ok for an snazzy airport lounge, but virtually useless in an actual bar. Can you imagine the fights that are going to break out in the queue (assuming everyone is still sober enough to understand the queuing concept).

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    chiller!!

    An abomination sir! Beer should be taken at room temperature.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: chiller!!

      Cellar temperature.

      Room temperature beer would be unpleasant.

  25. Identity
    Coat

    Cat among the pigeons

    I read somewhere that the English bemoan the beer that's lost when the head is skimmed. The Germans bemoan the space in the the glass that the head takes up.

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