Comments on: Beer, delivered via water pipes?

Question: Beer, delivered via water pipes?

Alt F4 — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:12:36 -0800

I seem to remember hearing about a brewery in a European city using old utility pipes to deliver beer directly into peoples' houses. Did I make that up? A friend thinks so, and I agree: it sounds too good to be true. Has anybody else heard this?

By: huskerdont

huskerdont — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:15:26 -0800

Forgive my non-engineering, non-bartending mind, but wouldn't that wreck havoc on the carbonation?

By: beagle

beagle — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:17:53 -0800

Wikipedia sez:

Beer pipelines
Bars in the Veltins-Arena, a major football ground in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are interconnected by a 5 km long beer pipeline. It is the favourite method for distributing beer in such large stadiums, because the bars have to overcome big differences between demands during various stages of a match; this allows them to be supplied by a central tank.

By: bibbit

bibbit — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:17:54 -0800

I think there was a story in the past year or so about a woman who turned her water taps on only to find beer coming out. It was because construction in the building had mixed her pipes with a either a brewer or a bar, I forget. Might that be what you're thinking of? I'll see if I can find the article.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:18:56 -0800

bibbit's on to it. i recall the same...

By: snownoid

snownoid — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:19:18 -0800

It wasn't a brewery and it was an accident but do you mean this?

By: jclovebrew

jclovebrew — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:20:27 -0800

You may have made it up, but it might have been triggered by the story some months ago where a woman in Norway turned on her faucet and got beer instead of water.

By: jclovebrew

jclovebrew — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:20:55 -0800

Doh! Snownoid beat me to it!

By: popcassady

popcassady — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:21:47 -0800

More here.

By: bibbit

bibbit — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:21:47 -0800

And yeah, the story Snownoid linked to is what I was thinking about.

By: prentiz

prentiz — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:21:50 -0800

I seemed to recall a story about someone tapping into a pipe at the Guiness factory in Dublin - but my pathetic googling doesn't show anything up. This would have been very much without consent...

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:24:06 -0800

Perhaps you read this discussion on the Usenets.

By: Alt F4

Alt F4 — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:37:11 -0800

Snownoid's article nailed it. Beagle's trivia about the stadium was great, too (5km!), but not what I was thinking of. And Neiltupper's link is good, showing how a beer utility would have security issues.

wouldn't that wreck havoc on the carbonation ... yup. The article snownoid linked to said the beer ended up being flat.

Thanks, all.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:27:47 -0800

During Prohibition, a secret rubber hose pipeline through the sewers sneaked beer from a brewery to a warehouse where it could be packaged and shipped.

By: NekulturnY

NekulturnY — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:46:47 -0800

This café in Antwerp has a direct pipeline to the nearby De Koninck brewery. Is that what you're thinking of?