Imagine having sensors that tell you how much beer is left in your kegs, the location of each keg and the temperature inside them …
Wollongong entrepreneur Michael Burton has created “smart kegs” that he hopes will revolutionise brewing.
Binary Beers combines Burton’s background in computer science and engineering with his passion for home brewing, with the idea originally targetting home brewers.
“We wanted to find ways of telling them how much beer was left so that they don’t run out beer when they have guests around,’ Burton tells EIS News.
“Then we realised that this is actually an enormous problem that is going out around the entire beer industry. Beer kegs, especially in the craft beer industry are just running out and it can take days before a replacement beer arrives.
“Sometimes, the opposite happens where you have too many beers sitting around for too long and then the beer isn’t as fresh as it could be. That’s where this whole project came about.”
As he explains on his website: “Binary Beer takes the guesswork out of beer supply chain management to ensure that taps never run dry. We’re developing smart kegs that report how much beer is left and how the beer is being stored, no matter where they are in the field.”
Burton is working with a team of five University of Wollongong students – as part of the university’s start-up hub iAccelerate – to develop sensors that use a LoRAWAN network to transmit data about each keg.
LoRAWAN allows long-range communications via a private wireless sensor network, meaning there are no expensive telecommunications bills involved. The sensors cost as little as $30 each and can continue transmitting for three years or more on the power of a AAA battery.
“We set about developing sensors that attach to the beer keg that track the location and the temperature of the beer so we can guarantee the beer being sold is fresh,” Burton tells the Sydney Morning Herald.
The first of his “smart kegs” have been used by Wollongong craft brewery Five Barrel Brewing.
“We have been able to see some of the data on the kegs we have sent out, which shows the people we are dealing with are handling our beer appropriately which is nice to see,” brewer James O’Shea told the SMH. “The key with this is going to be the data and then the predictability of volumes and things like that. It will help venues keep a small inventory of products to make sure they don’t over order and it will help us in planning our production schedules.”
And now Burton is in talks with major brewers, including Heineken and AB InBev.
“It would be wonderful to work with some of Australia’s bigger brewers including CUB and Lion Nathan and start connecting our sensors to thousands of kegs at a time rather than two,” Burton notes.
Pictured: Five Barrel brewer James O’Shea, entrepreneur Michael Burton and iAccelerate’s James Ruel.
