Pico has recently introduced its new Model C brewing appliance, which builds on the technology created for its big brother, the Pico Model S (and its even bigger brother, the Zymatic). The company says this new machine is easier to use and more affordable. As of today (5/9/17), nearly $1.7 million [...]
This is amazing and could be revolutionary for waste reduction in at bars and breweries that serve bottles. Every time we find a new gadget, we like it better than the last. Basically, this machine has a slot where you insert your bottle. A few seconds later, voila, sand. That [...]
Tap Trail loves gadgets. Give them all to us. Keep innovating craft beer world and you'll keep us happy. Pack NW, right here in Bellingham, WA has been making awesome packs and tailored pack goods right in our backyard. They make a litany of goods, including wallets, packs, totes and [...]
Insert face palm. Craft beer has combined some interesting flavors and tastes over the years. It has inspired many a business and gadgets. A company in Germany, BierYoga, has started that combines two of our generations favorite hipster things: Beer and Yoga. According to its website, the idea is a [...]
We know you have a special someone to buy things for this season, so we've compiled a list of Tap Trail gifts from our breweries and beer bars. Flip through the list below, grab your Passport and head down down for a pint to grab them! Tap Trail Biker T's $22 [...]
We don't approve of drinking illegally in public, but if one were being a jerk and wanted to cause problems, you might look into getting a Trinken, The Ultimate Stealth Koozie. The Kickstarter campaign for this project allows the drinker to attach a coffee cup lid to the top of [...]
Yeah...I'm not particularly fond of this, but it's definitely...intriguing(?). BrewDog is releasing its beer, "The End of History", served in the carcass of a grey squirrel and is not only the most expensive beer in the world, it's the strongest at 55% ABV. The brewery teamed up with a taxidermist [...]
Beer uses water. Dependent on what beer you're brewing it can use lots of it. But, comparatively, beer uses much less water than many other drinks, including wine and juices. But at 2 gallons of water per ounce, a 16oz beer still uses 32 gallons of water per pint. That [...]
Any self respecting beer lover has at least peered through brewpub windows at the stainless hardware in the brewery, where the magic (blood, sweat, and tears) happens. Most of us have set foot in a real brewery to dream about what goes on inside those shiny vessels. Some of us [...]
Tap Trail's affinity for gadgets has brought you a long line of cool beer geeky things that are either potentially useless, or, if you're lucky, might even be a value added to your craft beer affinities. We've introduced you to a number of cool growlers over the past couple years. [...]
Wander Brewing’s new coolship (an anglicized term from the Dutch/Flemish word, koelschip) may not be the sexiest-looking piece of equipment in the brewery, but it’s arguably the most romantic. This large, shallow and open stainless steel vessel will be used to make spontaneously fermented ales, similar to how they’re made by [...]
There you are, texting away with your friends having a good old time and in an effort to spread good cheer you decide to place the standard two beer mugs clinking emoji. You click "send" and are happy with yourself. But then it occurs to you, "I don't drink beer out [...]
Like the Keurig before it, this new beer gadget hopes to snuff out any hope of "craft" beer. Just add water and whammo, there you have it, beer. Beer gadgetry has done it's best to bring craft beer to the masses and the Beer Bar from Soda Stream makes getting [...]
Some gadgets are greater than other gadgets. This is one of those cases. Six-pack rings have been the poster child for humanity's consumerism and waste. Saltwater Brewery out of Florida wanted to change that, so they developed a biodegradable and fish friendly six pack ring. The R&D required them to [...]
007 had some pretty cool gadgets. He had that car that did things. That watch that shot lasers...and some other things. What he failed to have was a beer briefcase. Granted you may take me to task because he was a fan of martinis and not beer. But that was [...]
File this under "Dreams Come True." The small town of Zalec, Slovenia has decided to build a public fountain. Sounds pretty mundane, right? Not when you consider that beer will be flowing from it instead of water! Instead of the fountain spraying beer into a bowl, like you're thinking about in your head, [...]
Christmas is rapidly approaching, but there’s still time to get that perfect gift for the beer lover on your list. Check out these ideas: DRINKING JACKET Hoodies are huge in the Pacific Northwest, but none of them are as functional as TV host Zane Lamprey’s Drinking Jacket (2.0), which is custom designed [...]
2016 is three weeks away. Tap Trail, 2015 has been a year for the books. But we think 2016 will be even better. And we want you to start it off right by ensuring you're sporting the best craft beer gear we have to offer. We teamed up with Damian Vines Photography to build [...]
We'd like to point out, once again, that we Tap Trailers love gadgets! Beer gadgets are even better. Beer gadgets allow us to reach our full human potential. The good people over at the American Homebrewers Association have posted a pretty amazing gadget that I hope to try one day: [...]
After reading Ariana’s post about the PicoBrew Pico homebrew system, I became intrigued by the machine, and I even considered purchasing one. When PicoBrew released the Zymatic in 2013, I found it interesting, but I didn’t even consider buying one because it was too expensive (roughly $2,000). PicoBrew’s recently released Pico, [...]
"What if you could explore fresh craft beer from breweries around the world, and what if you could brew it yourself customized to your own taste in your own home?" Ladies and gentlemen, put away your kettles and carboys because homebrewing just got a whole lot easier. A new device based out [...]
The first home brew shop I walked into in the late ’90s only had two types of generic beer yeast for sale, lager yeast and ale yeast, and both came in the dried form. As if that weren’t bad enough, most packets were out of date (or had no date), so viability [...]
The Tap Trail is a fan of gadgets. So much so, that we have an entire section of the website dedicated to them. Though this is more of a process than gadget, but close enough. Keep drinking craft beer lovers because this Danish festival will take all that urine you produced from [...]
This is probably the most comprehensive beer style guide you'll need. Go here to enlarge it and scope the details. Go here to buy it. This should be above your beer bottle collection or kegerator. Periodic Table of Beer Styles
Sierra Nevada is celebrating the release of it's Oktoberfest Beer with the release of an old-school video game. Head to the website, scroll down to the "Find Beers Near You" field and type in "Prost." Up will pop a video game where the goal is to collect water, hops, barley and yeast [...]
Craft beer has brought the beer gadgets and entrepreneurial minds out of the wood work [yeast cake?]. The BrewHug protects your 22oz bottles with an inflatable blanket. It's pretty simple really: Place two bombers in the BrewHug, wrap, seal and blow it up. It's good for land and sea. We know [...]
Craft beer loves it's many many gadgets. Some gadgets bring into question whether they are in the spirit of "craft." Working with your hands, mixing and parsing out the with the ingredients is all apart of homebrewing. It's definitely not as exacting as automating things. BrewBot wants to take the craft out of craft [...]
This new product hit kickstarter recently and promises to provide the ability to turn any cheap beer into a "...flavorful, well-balanced, craft beer." Apparently, all you need to do is add a couple drops of this miracle potion to any low priced beer brand and get a high-priced return. Now you [...]
You homebrew. You dream of one day owning your own brewery. Your dreams never come to fruition. Locally, home brewers might have a shot at getting their brew on tap at The Local's new Annex. The Local will be starting up the Bellingham Beer Lab once they complete their expansion. On [...]
Craft beer is big business, but let's not forget that it's also fun. The folks over at Paste Magazine put together a Fantasy Beer League and wrote a whole article about it. There's lots of words in it, so we took out a bunch of them and put the rules into [...]
There is beer gear everywhere attempting to make your craft drinking experience that much better (by the way, have you seen our gear?!) The folks at ManCan, think their growler is tops. The name is tacky. The product is not. This "manly" product apparently ignored 50% of their market and, in retrospect, [...]
So your buddy mistakenly buys Busch Light and brings it over to your house. She shows up, you frown at her, but then you remember. You have Fizzics! This gadget will give that light yellow beer a proper craft beer foamy head. Will that foamy head play a part in making your [...]
West coast breweries are stretching their wings and taking their wares to other parts of the US. Breweries like Stone, Green Flash and Sierra Nevada are opening up massive breweries in Virginia and North Carolina, due to the awesome tax breaks and opportunities to reach a new market. Then there are [...]
Lots of people save caps from the beer bottles they buy. This helps them remember their favorite beers. With over 3,500 breweries in the US, remembering your favorite breweries is a task. When someone offers to help you with it, you accept! The people at Bottle Cap Maps have come up with [...]
Hop Theory is a company that is raising funds on Kickstarter to make tea bags. Tea bags, filled with hops that you can steep in your beer. Think of it like extreme dry hopping. The bags are made with cascade hops, coriander and orange peels. It seems like a nice combination [...]
I never planned to be a growler collector, but I have somehow acquired 19 of them. Sure, a few were gifts and I won a few at various brewer’s night raffles, but I felt somewhat forced to buy the others. During my travels, sometimes I just stumble upon a new brewery [...]
How do you tell how much beer is left in your keg? Do you just open your kegerator, lift and guess? This company is proposing a brand new way to manage your homebrew with it's innovative "KegSmarts." It will tell you what's in the keg, how much is left, manage your keg's [...]
First there were bottles, than there were cans. As Tap Trailers know, cans are the new hot trend in craft beer. Now beer packaging is evolving yet again. Carlsberg is planning to produce the world's first fully biodegradable bottle. It will be made of "bio-based" materials. The bottle and cap would be wood [...]
Is your bike outfitted for Summer 2015? From "clever" to "questionable" we've put together a short list of interesting bike accessories to help you (and you beer) get around the trail this year. "Must Have" probably isn't the right description for many of these, but it would be sweet to [...]
