Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Draftmark- Tap Beer at Home

A friend of mine recently told me about Bzz Agent, a site you can sign up for to be a part of new product campaigns and get to try things and review them. 

So right away I signed myself up because I love trying new things, I love voicing my opinion, and hey, I love free stuff! After completing some short easy surveys and telling them about myself, I was invited to join my first campaign for this Draftmark beer system. I was pumped! I love beer because hard alcohol is a bit much for me, and the bf also loves beer so we were pretty excited to try this thing, I had never even heard of it before this.

I got the package in the mail and look how cute with little bees on it :)


I knew immediately when I was going to try this beer machine- MY BIRTHDAY! What better time to enjoy fresh draught beer than when you are having a party, especially a birthday party at my own house with family over. I was so pumped! 

It came with some instructions on how to load the beer and use the machine as well as a card telling me where I can find the beer.

First things first, it told me to charge the battery. So I plugged in the A/C adapter to charge the battery- it lit up green right away and the instructions said a green light meant it was charged, so I assumed it had a charge before it got to me and it was ready to use.


I logged on to Draftmark's website, entered my birthday ( to prove I was over 21) and used their store locator to find out where I could buy the beer refill for my new machine- turns out the liquor store I always go to, right down the street carried the refills! WIN

On Saturday, the day before my party I went to the store and bought my beer refill. I picked up Shocktop, it is a beer I know I like and I figured others would too. The system is pretty new so right now there are only like four kinds of beer you can get but luckily there are two lights and two darks so there should be something for everyone. The other plus side is that the beer stays fresh in the system for up to 30 days! So you don't have to worry about drinking it all at once (although you can if you are a party animal)
The refill was $13.99 at my store which I felt was pretty reasonable for a gallon of draught beer. They are $5-7 when it's not happy hour at a restaurant.

Here is the refill, about as tall as my Keurig. I put it in the fridge the day before my party so it could chill.

Each bottle comes with its own spout too. 

The machine and the beer are labeled with pictures on how to load the beer into the system. It was VERY easy for me to figure out. I went outside to do it though because I didn't know if I would mess something up and make it spray or leak or anything. I put the battery in the machine, took it outside and loaded the beer into my Draftmark in about 30 seconds.

Outside I took a cup and poured a tiny taste just to see how it would come out and if it was good. It came out just fine and tasted yummy.

I then put the machine in my fridge and eagerly awaited my party so I could show everyone this cool new toy I had....That's when things went downhill....................


Everyone arrived and when I started offering drinks to people, lemonade, water, margaritas, or BEER ON TAP FROM MY VERY OWN FRIDGE...someone asked to try the beer, I was pumped, I went over to my fridge and took a cup to fill their beer...it trickled out a little beer and then NOTHING...umm what?
then I tried again, a little trickle and NOTHING.

:( I was confused and embarrassed and not sure what to do at this point, everyone was there, waiting for drinks and I had bragged up my machine.
I took it out of the fridge thinking I could use my magic birthday skills to make  it work, but now. I thought maybe it just needed a quick charge, so I ran around looking for the charger, I found it and plugged it in. My bf is really hand so he has this little machine that can check the voltage on things, he used it and saw the battery was in fact charging, but when we unplugged it from the charger it immediately lost all charge and w         as a dead battery...WHAT?! that isn't how this should work...

SO long story short, the battery that came with my new beer machine doesn't even work.

I think if I had a working battery if the beer would probably come out nice and fast and everyone would have had a great time at my party and I wouldn't have been embarrassed  And since it was a Sunday I had no other options to get them other beer, luckily we all enjoyed margaritas but still...I love the concept, I like the ease of using the machine and would theoretically like having draught beer at home...I do not like that it didn't work. I plan to contact Draftmark directly to see if they can help me because I don't even know where to get a replacement battery since it is unique to this product.


Disclaimer: I received the Draftmark beer system free but all opinions and experiences in this review are my own I was not compensated in any other way and the beer itself I purchased with my own money.








1 comment:

  1. aww that stinks! too bad it didn't work because it sounds like a cool idea!

    ReplyDelete