I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

[Tapsucker]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... the-masses

I was at an event in San Jose years ago where they had a variation on this. You still had to pull your own, but it had some sort of throttle to help get a good pour. The best part was for $5 (I think) you could get a small sampler glass. The glass had a QR code the tap would scan. You were allowed one sample of as many beers as they had with that glass. There was probably around a dozen different beers. It actually made the experience very social since people were all milling around the machines waiting their turn and discussing the beers they were trying.

[anthony9]

I think this sounds nice, but it seems like people that ruin things would have no difficulty ruining this.

[Cass]

I've been to bars in Chicago and Syracuse that employ a self-serve tech. You have a little charge card that sits on a scan holder, you pour, and cash out at the end.

The one benefit which I appreciate as a cheap bugger is getting exactly the amount of beer you're paying for. I still get annoyed as beer prices have risen and glass sizes shrinking when I get short-poured at a bar.

[Craig]

There's one in New York too, though I didn't go when I was there recently.