Beer. At home. From a keg in your fridge. For less than a hundred bucks. Could this be the dream of every ale lover?
I have a confession to make: I’ve never liked beer. I like cider, but not beer. In fact, up until this test, I didn’t like beer.
It might seem strange that a person who didn’t like beer should be reviewing the Tap King, a beer keg with replaceable beer canisters, but I found myself liking beer the more I pulled the beer from the keg, let it sit in the glass, and then let the foamy liquid make its way through my lips.
But was this because of Tap King is a genuinely good product, or because I was changing as a person, that my tastebuds were becoming more mature?
From the experience of the past few days, I suspect it was the latter, and based on what people around the office are telling me from their experiences, and based on my own newbie “hello, yes, I’m new to this whole beer drinking” thing, I can safely say that no, the Tap King isn’t fantastic.
Let me explain.
Over the past few weeks, Lion – the owners of Tooheys, Hahn, James Boag, and James Squire – have been advertising a product that allows you to store a micro keg in your fridge and pull a beer with ease.
It’s called the “Tap King,” and was built by Australian packaging company Visy after what Lion says was “two years of extensive research and refinement,” resulting in a product that is essentially the Nespresso of beer appliances.
We’re not kidding, either.
The Tap King is a plastic micro keg tap head that uses a latch system to connect to 3.2 litre bottles of beer.
There are six varieties of beer you can buy at this point, all of them owned by Lion, with XXXX Gold, James Boag’s Premium Lager, Tooheys New, Tooheys Extra Dry, Hahn SuperDry Premium Low Carb, and James Squire Golden Ale.
We were curious if cider was coming to the Tap King system, but haven’t heard back from Lion’s people yet.
Once you’ve selected your beverage, you take the bottle, pull the lid off to reveal the connections underneath, align the arrow on the back of the bottle with the arrow on the back of the micro keg tap, push it down, and pull the latch, locking the tap on the head of the beer.
From there, it’s a pretty simple operation: lie the bottle back in your fridge, chill it for between six to nine hours, and when it’s cold enough, pull yourself a beer, holding the glass at an angle. Easy.
You’ll need a decent amount of space in your fridge, mind you, as it’s a relatively large device, but we were able to take up an entire level in the GadgetGuy fridge by placing it diagonally on the shelf.
Pulling the beer is as simple as pushing against the tap with a glass held underneath.
For the Tap King, beer is made by pulling a flat beer from the bottle and mixing it with an injection of CO2, similar to what a Sodastream does, except inside a small bottle.
In fact, every single Tap King replacement bottle contains 3.2 litres of alcohol – essentially ten 320ml drinks – with a carbon dioxide canister, and Lion includes a tool to help you remove the lid and CO2 canister for when you want to recycle the bottles. Nifty.
The most important part of the Tap King is flavour, so is it as good as a pub tap in your home?
I really cannot see this product taking off. Reasons are price, taste, fridge space (a lot of beer fridges have been turned off in the last few years due to electricity prices).
They are obviously looking for a gimmick to help try and boost market share. I don’t think this is the answer.
tried the tap king loved it nothing like a draft beer at home yes price is abit expensive but worth it
i have 2 of these in my fridge – with 2 different beers and love it. i am a 30+ married male with a kid. i don’t go to pubs. i drink whilst sitting at home, watching the footy or playing playstation. and it’s perfect for that
Just to let you all know the beer is already carbonated in the bottle, the CO2 cylinder is only there to top up the pressure in the bottle once you pour a beer. If this pressure is not maintained the beers will become progressively more flat as each one is poured.
bottle maker
Correct. The beer is already carbonated. The co2 simply pushes it out. On a side note, they are great for home brewing,
Bought one of these when they came out, really enjoying it. Bottles come in a convenient size even if your just using it as a casual beer drinker (3.2 litres in 3 weeks isn’t much). Despite the misleading bottle sizes if you do the maths I’ve always been able to find a bottle that’s cheaper per ml then buying a regular carton, or at least the same price. Hopefully it stays that way though because they are still new the refills seem to be on sale all the time.
Usually this has been from the cheaper beer ranges available but hey that’s what I get anyway. Have home brewed my own beers for about 15 years now If you like beer I’d recommend buying one.
Also out of all my friends and family who mostly love beer (and some home brew as well) we all find the taste of these mini kegs to be superior to bottled beer (of equivalent brand). The only problem is maybe the first beer is a little too gassy (I guess its over gassed at the start so it holds for longer over time). So don’t let this Leigh bloke put you off, this article is really very negative and I disagree with his opinion. As he says himself in the first paragraph he doesn’t know anything about or even like beer much so yes it is strange that you would write an article critiquing a new beer product, especially when its a negative one.
Is it a gimmick, yes an incredibly fun and cheap gimmick and something a lot of people have wanted for a while now. If you wanted to get one then I definitely recommend they are great fun and some good tasting beer.
I’m on my 6th James Squire 3.2l bottle and it tastes so good I havent tried the boags yet. Great product hope it stays around for a long time.
Just tried tap king w extra dry. Qaulity is about same in tastes. I suppose it crafty neat compare to having four long-neck beer bottles in the fridge shelf. Pity Lion didnt put on recycle scheme with Visy to reward users to return the cannisters. This gadget could have uses for the home brew enthusiasts.
Go look up tap a draft, this has been around already for years.
This is just a dispensing system using co2 not a gassing, you need to chill and let it sit over night at least, with that so the beer absorbs the co2
Bought a Tap King last week and love it. For anyone who prefers a draught or more ‘real ale’ taste it is great. I have always knocked most of the gas out of any bottled lager I have drunk and find the Tap king serves up the perfect amount of fizz. Just sayin’….
I received one for my birthday, beer tasted good but was too gassy and we spent more time waiting for froth to go.
I would not buy another one and I would not recommend Tap King for that reason. also stubbies are easier!
in any major city you can find bottleshops that sell “growlers”: takehome sealed flagons of actual tap beer that sure as hell tastes better and fresher than the equivalent bottle. not the cheap crap that’s available for tap king, admittedly, but still at a lower price than you’d pay at a pub despite generally being vastly superior beers to what your local offers.
Hard to keep tabs on how many drinks you’ve had especially when first couple of beers are frothy- pouring is inconsistent nearly flat by end of bottle. Too expensive. Definitely just a clever marketing ploy. Want my money back
If you don’t brew your own you deserve to drink this swill
Yes. You can use these for your own beer.
The cap is easily disassembled and the co2 can be swapped out. Refill the bottle with carbonated beer and your away.
Also, if you’re getting too much foam, the tap king needs more chilling. These dispensers have been setup for fairly cold beer.
One word…FLAT.
What a disappointment it is. You’re spot on gadget guy.
hey Mr Gadget Beer is always best in cold glasses and clean glasses the one in the pictures are not clean my tap king is great heaps of gas great for me
Trying to work out how to hack this to work with home-brew.
You’re wrong. The product is brilliant. Don’t know what people you got to test them but every person I’ve met who has had a beer from it has said it is much better than out of a bottle.
This is not a good product. The first beer is all head, the next 2 are good but after that the flow drops off and it takes an age to pour and the carbonation drops off. I’m throwing mine out.
I tryed extra dry, it pours great beer but doesn’t taste the same as the glass bottles… They should use glass instead of plastic and it might be a winner
anyone know why mine won’t pour? Tapped the new bottle yesterday then poured a beer today… got halfway through filling a scooner glass and it died in the ass.. not happy
A firm smooth action with the leaver is needed to get a good connection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=366508936811224
i was too slow on my second bottle and all the CO2 pressure leaked out over a day