Beverage automation, DIY builds, bar economics: what we learn designing and running cocktail machines.
RSS feedHow to calibrate cocktail machine pumps properly - the weighing method, what makes flow drift, how often to re-measure, and how to do it on 40 pumps without losing an evening.
Read the articleWhy carbonated drinks fight back against pumps, what actually works for beer and wine, and where the honest boundary of a cocktail machine sits.
Read the articleThe three routes to owning one, what each really costs in money and time, and the questions to ask a vendor before you sign anything.
Read the articleDaily, weekly and seasonal cleaning for a drinks machine - what actually grows in the lines, why sugar is the real enemy, and a routine that takes ten minutes instead of an evening.
Read the articlePump count is a menu decision, not a hardware one. How to work out the number you need from the drinks you want to serve, and why six good lines beat twenty badly chosen ones.
Read the articleManual bar stocktakes measure the gap between what you bought and what is left. An automated bar measures what it actually poured - which changes what you can find out, and what you can fix.
Read the articleWristbands, top-up points, offline balances and refunds - a practical guide to cashless payment at festivals, including the failure modes nobody mentions in the sales deck.
Read the articleFestival sites lose connectivity, venues lose their router, and a bar that stops serving because a cloud endpoint is unreachable is a broken bar. What offline-first actually requires.
Read the articleWhat actually determines how much a festival bar sells - peak throughput, staff allocation, restocking under pressure - and how automation changes each of them.
Read the articleSelf-service ordering in a bar is not a website. Lighting, noise, one-handed use, queue pressure and a first-time user every single time - what that changes about the interface.
Read the articleA worked example of the economics of an automated cocktail bar: labour, pour cost, throughput and the break-even point - with the assumptions written out so you can substitute your own numbers.
Read the articlePumps, tubing, drivers, calibration and software - everything you need to build a working automated cocktail machine on a Raspberry Pi, and the mistakes that cost people a weekend.
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