Having been a barman in an ale bar for 8 years (part time), I pride myself on being able to pour a decent pint.
Popping caps off bottles one every 15 seconds and pouring half a pint of lager in a pint glass can be done by a seven year old with learning difficulties.
THAT thing is a 1/4 tonne of corporate willy waving, and not a very good attempt at it.
By Tony Smith, Editor, Reg HardwarePosted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:44 GMT
Why worry about Magners? Surely no one drinks it now it's stopped being fashionable among the trendy-wendies?
Re. Guiness... as long as it's quick. Anything's better than waiting two hundred years for some bar-monkey who's lapped up the adverts to finally hand over your beer...
By Bad BeaverPosted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:50 GMT
The girls behind the bar of my favourite pub are much nicer to look at. What a tremendous waste of time and talent just to create another machine that steals away human jobs.
By Nigel WhitfieldPosted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 16:04 GMT
Cynthia's Cyber Bar, in one of the railway arches around London Bridge/Bankside, used to have a robot that made cocktails.
You pressed a button on the bar for the one you wanted and it grabbed the ingredients, did the mixing and presented it to you. A bit more clever than taking a lid off a bottle.
Sadly Cynthia's is no more, but there's a picture on this page: http://www.strangestbooks.co.uk/page15.html
By Anonymous CowardPosted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 16:19 GMT
...i think i'd rather have Caroline / Carol. I bet she can open beer bottles and load the dishwasher, as well as a lot of other things to boot! (i'll let readers use their own imaginations here)
Maybe the robot could be re-trained to throw beer bottles at the annoying moron in the orange jumper.
By Anonymous CowardPosted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 17:47 GMT
Nothing, absolutely nothing, will replace the beer drinkers favourite of a barmaid who's all tits and legs... especially when they're foreign and are vaguely amused by your drunken regurgitating of corny old chatup lines having never heard them before! Well, it worked on my last (French) missus!
"Get your outer garment from the cloakroom love..."
By Glenn AlexanderPosted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 20:55 GMT
After a day of beating our collective heads against consumer-grade technology, do we really want to be served a drink by a machine (beyond the novelty value that will last about one visit to the bar)? Or do we want to see a human being, preferably an attractive one of our preferred gender?
By Winston SmithPosted Thursday 3rd July 2008 00:05 GMT
That'll be "Short Circuit", of course:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091949/
I'll be more impressed with this overpriced beer ad (the robot's overpriced, dunno about the beer) if it can gain self-awareness from a lightning bolt and learn to mix a gin and tonic by reading a bar manual.
By Craig McCormickPosted Thursday 3rd July 2008 01:58 GMT
I've personally poured and drank many, many pints of Guinness. I can definitely taste the difference in a poorly poured pint. It's not a case of lapping up adverts, it's doing something properly. Go to Dublin and tell them it doesn't matter how it's poured. Go on, I dare ya!
And it's a far better pint than any glass of urine coloured rubbish that comes out of the other taps.
Sorry fella, but your ignorance was just too annoying to leave,
The worst possible pint of Guinness is served in Toners. They just pull it straight in a full pint and then you have to watch it settle and then taste it. It tastes like metal filings mixed with the bitterness of disappointment. The 2/3 pint pause gives a decent head which doesn't immediately go nicotine brown and flatten to a millimetre in height.
Guinness have instituted a task force which goes round the pubs checking for clean beer lines and doing refresher pint pulling courses for the more imbecilic barmen.
By Andy WorthPosted Thursday 3rd July 2008 07:21 GMT
....I just want "Caroline from Asahi beer". She looks better, sounds better and I have no doubt could probably open bottles faster and pull a better pint.
By Tony Smith, Editor, Reg HardwarePosted Thursday 3rd July 2008 09:38 GMT
The reason there's a large head is because almost everyone who serves the stuff up pops the glass down flat and leaves the gas-propelled - nitro-keg, invented by Guiness, and a crime against decent ale - liquid to pour out of the tap.
Half a pint's worth of proper pulling experience tells you if you hold the glass at an angle, this is far less of a problem. And gets the beer to the thirsty punter (ie. me) much more quickly.
This is why I gave up drinking Guiness in pubs. Stick to Guiness Export, sold in bottles, pours a treat and is far more flavoursome.
This week I have mostly been drinking Roaring Meg:
By blackworxPosted Thursday 3rd July 2008 15:47 GMT
...To all the real ale reactionaries - keep flying the flag!
And why on earth would I want a drink poured for me by a lump of metal instead of a buxom wench, or at the very least a bitter and twisted, yet infinitely more entertaining career barman?
Mine's the leather jerkin with Male Chauvinist Pig painted on the back.
@ Adam Foxton - Hey, Laser lips! Your mother was a snowblower!
Comments on: Asahi premiers pint-pulling robo-barman
Rubbish #
By Ash Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:02 GMT
I'd be more impressed #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:02 GMT
WOW! #
By M Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:10 GMT
Thats one very expensive bottle opener #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:16 GMT
hm #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:17 GMT
*hand up* yes I want one. #
By Stu Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:19 GMT
10 points to the first to identify the source... #
By Adam Foxton Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:24 GMT
But can it put glasses in the dishwasher? #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:26 GMT
Stop everything right there! #
By Chris Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:37 GMT
@Stu #
By Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:44 GMT
Useless #
By Bad Beaver Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:50 GMT
A cold beer? #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 15:53 GMT
It's not the first one #
By Nigel Whitfield Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 16:04 GMT
Have we learned nothing? #
By Gianni Straniero Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 16:05 GMT
Agreed... #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 16:19 GMT
fifth element anyone? #
By David Wiernicki Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 16:49 GMT
Load of crap! #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 17:47 GMT
Just what we want! #
By Glenn Alexander Posted Wednesday 2nd July 2008 20:55 GMT
"Ice. Gin. A squeeze of lime." #
By Winston Smith Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 00:05 GMT
Since most "beer" is so crap... #
By Charles Manning Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 00:51 GMT
Re: Guinness @ Tony Smith #
By Craig McCormick Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 01:58 GMT
@Craig McC #
By Seán Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 06:27 GMT
Screw the robot.... #
By Andy Worth Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 07:21 GMT
Re: Guinness @ Tony Smith #
By Neil Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 08:26 GMT
@Tony Smith #
By Ash Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 08:54 GMT
Re. Guiness #
By Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 09:38 GMT
Congrats! #
By blackworx Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 15:47 GMT