Guide to buy a beer dispenser or shooter to enjoy the best draft beer at home

If you like beer and meetings with friends, surely you have ever thought of buying a beer dispenser or shooter. Well, today we are going to see all the information to buy the best one for us.

For all those who like beer, having at their disposal a device that is capable of making you cold, just as they do in a bar, is a real luxury.

In addition, when friends come, it is an ideal way to serve all the guests, since these devices have barrels of considerable quantities to be valid for a good number of people.

Having a good tap of beer in our house will allow us to enjoy a very fresh beer throughout the year, since it is served between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius, being much more comfortable than if we have them in glass bottles or cans. .

In addition, we are in a country like Spain with an important beer tradition and there are many who enjoy this drink with a certain bitter taste quite often.

Going to have, in our own home, a beer in the same way that our favorite barman serves it to us will be quite an experience.

That is why today we are going to see all the necessary information to be able to buy the beer tap that best suits you and your needs.

What is a beer shooter?

When we speak of a domestic beer tap, we refer to a portable electronic device in which there is a tap, a removable waste container, a circuit for the flow of beer and a tank to place a keg.

The most normal thing is that these barrels have a capacity from 2 to 6 liters, far from the 30 to 50 liters that professional or industrial beer dispensers have.

There are some that even have a separate ice compartment, an LED screen where we can see the temperature and pressure, an indicator of the optimal state of the beer and other types of extras, knowing that the more you have, the more expensive it is going to be.

How does a beer shooter work?

The way this type of device works is much simpler than you might imagine at first.

If we think about it coldly, we will surely reach the conclusion of its operation without having information about it.

• Once the faucet is plugged into the electrical network, we must put the barrel in the specialized compartment for it and, as usual, connect it to the faucet.
• If it did not come pressurized we would also have to connect the CO2 pressure pumpalthough normally this step does not have to be performed.
• Pressing the button to turn on the device, the beer already begins to flow through the circuit and will come out of the tap at the moment in which we activate the mechanism.
• All beer shooters have the ability not only to pour us into liquid, but also to provide us with a final piece of foam.

Types of beer shooters

Different types of beer shooters can be distinguished at a general level, not only domestic.

Those guys are:

• With pressurized barrel: they are the simplest and those that are usually used at a domestic level. They use barrels that contain beer already with the right pressure to serve it immediately.
• No pressurized barrel: these shooters are like the previous ones, except that they require the placement of a CO2 tank. For this reason they are more expensive, although they also have better quality beer.
• bar: obviously they are those who are in bars, restaurants, pubs and businesses of this type. Their barrels are usually very large, up to 50 liters, requiring prior installation to be able to work with them.

Advantages of having a beer tap

There are many advantages to having a beer tap in our house and at our disposal whenever we want.

Some of them are going to be obvious, but others may have gone a little more unnoticed.

We are talking about:

• we can take always cold beer without the need to do it in a bottle or can. We won’t have to go down to the bar.
• we will leave more economical than any of the other possibilities that we have talked about in the previous point.
• we will save enough fridge spacesince we all know what both cans and bottles occupy.
• at the ecological level we will generate less wasteso we are also helping the environment.

What should we look for when buying a beer shooter?

There are certain parameters that we must pay attention to when we go to buy a beer tap, since as in any type of purchase, we want to get it right and not have to feel disappointed once we have it at home.

This does not happen, these are the aspects that you should consider when you go to buy a model of this type of device:

• Cooling capacity: Most of the cheaper dispensers move between 3 and 4 degrees Celsius to launch the beer. Those more advanced, but also more expensive, expel the drink at 2 °C.
• Materials: As is more than evident, buying a plastic dispenser is not the same as buying one that is made of stainless steel or ceramic, as is the case with some models. Obviously, there is a difference in price from one to another, but in the event that it is a device that we are going to use on a regular basis, it will almost be better that it has the highest possible construction quality.
• Faucet: There are several types of taps, depending on the quality in which the beer is made, but this is something that is usually implicit in the price. What we advise you is that it be removable so that it is easier to clean it.
• The barrel: Although we can find different capacities, the barrel that is best suited for domestic use is one that has approximately 5 or 6 liters.

• Maintenance: One of the most expensive aspects of this type of device is the time they are capable of preserving the beer with all its properties. This usually ranges between 15 and 30 days. The longer the device is able to maintain the quality of the liquid, the more money we will have to pay.
• Compatibility: Although the vast majority of beer taps are compatible with universal keg models, it may be the case that a particular one only accepts those of its brand, something that seems to us to be a step backwards.
• Energy consumption: This is something that we will also have to analyze, since the price of electricity is not exactly cheap these days. If a draft beer consumes between 50 and 65 watts, it will be among the best in this regard.
• Additional features: if apart from what we have told you, it has other types of extras that make everything easier, we will not be able to censor it, since it is interesting. The problem here is that the price will surely rise.

With everything that we have told you, you will already be able to buy a beer tap that suits what you need and what you expect, so that when it arrives at your home it will not disappoint you.

If you have already bought one, you can tell us which one on our social networks, since we would love to know which one was your choice.