Quality Bearings Online is joining forces with Saltaire Brewery, beer experts of the North, and the School of Mechanical Engineering at Leeds University, masters of robotics, to create a robot capable of pulling the perfect Yorkshire pint.
The project, following proof of concept, will see a fully autonomous robot which will compete against an industry professional in a battle to see who can pull the best pint. The competition which will take place in early June 2017 at the Saltaire Brewery pub, The Brewery Tap, will include a taste test, a consistency test and a wastage test. An independent judging panel will have the enviable task of deciding the winner. The Panel, which will consist of Beer Industry Experts and two local celebrities, will be supported by a gathering of interested parties who will also be able to have their say in whether man or machine pulls The Perfect Pint.
Since the inception of the idea we all had something like this in mind:
But after just one meeting with the Students at Leeds University, the concept design has taken a step forward into the 21 st century. The students have come at this from a totally different, and more knowledgeable, angle. The design below, although they say preliminary, is far more than we expected to see.
As you can see, there’s a slight difference in our designs…
There is a lot to do to get this project across the finish line. But before any construction can begin the students will need to do a series of tests. I asked Ewen Gordon, Managing Director at Saltaire Brewery, what difficulties the students might face. He said, ‘Cask Ale is notoriously difficult to keep, and quantifying what is the perfect pint is going to be a momentous task for the students. They’ll have to spend many hours at the brewery learning about the beer to make sure that their project produces a pint to the Saltaire standard’.
The beer the students will be using all throughout this project is the Saltaire Blonde, courtesy of the brewery. The beer is a light ale which Ewen considers to be perfect for the students to use.
We asked Simon Riley, director of QBOL about the project. He said ‘We have strong ties with Leeds University and are delighted to be working with Saltaire Brewery which is a fantastic Yorkshire business. The project allows a team of talented students to demonstrate their skills in a surrounding most of us can relate to. I am very excited to see the finished results, both the Robot and a freshly pulled pint.’
You can also track their progress on our social media as listed below
Twitter:
@ThePintProject_
Facebook:
The Perfect Pint Project