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Is skiing ready for the self-serve beer bar?

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
From Powder.com:

Is This Ski Resort RFID Beer Card the Future?

Well, how could this possibly go wrong? The guys and gals over at Pour My Beer, a company specializing in automated beer-serving devices, has proposed integrating the system with RFID passes, allowing skiers the chance to pour their own beers at the mid-mountain lodge and automatically charge it to a credit card. We skiers have a lot of redeeming virtue (appreciation of nature, ability to read weather forecasts, debatable good looks) but self-control has never been one of them. Let the games begin.
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I like to pay cash for beer; don't want a written record of those life choices floating around in the nerd-cloud.

Honestly, the Poconos could really use something like that just for litter-mitigation purposes. Alas, most people would still buy cheap cans of Keystone Light to keep in their pockets and the lifts would still look like this...

Blue Mtn Trash Bin.png
 

Christy

Angel Diva
If the beer pouring device is like the one I saw in the Japan Air lounge in the Tokyo airport, where it even tips your glass for you so you don't get too much of a head, I say bring it on. That thing was fascinating and cool.

Now that I'm thinking about futuristic food production devices in airport lounges, I think the pancake machine they have in the Alaska lounges would be awesome at a ski lodge cafeteria too.
 

badger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Boy, this idea seems not so great to me. My first thought is that people who might think twice about drinking on the slopes, will decide , " what the heck...it's easy with the pass RFID," and chose to pour when they would otherwise reconsider.

I've seen beer on chairlifts at 9 am. Drinking while skiing just does not seem the safest choice. I love a glass of wine or maybe even a half beer at a slopeside meal, but I will not ski afterwards unless I am certain it has not affected my response time and judgement.

A self-serve beer tap is like a drive - through liquor store. Too easy, and judgement goes by the wayside.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
We have a deposit on beer bottles or cans. So they don't usually get thrown away.

Presently you can buy beer or wine at the top of Tremblant on your pass if you have so linked to your credit card. So we've had it for a while really. You can only by in the bottle though and the cashier has to take the cap off.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
Years ago I commented on this: https://www.420friendlyskiresorttransportation.com.
Party buses that pick you up in Denver, take you to a dispensary, you smoke all the way to the resort and ski all day. I suspect those at the resort who would drink a beer will do so regardless of the payment method. I know a lot of folks who ski with a flask. It is what it is and has always been.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
I hope someone is watching the ages of the swipers. Otherwise it could be pretty easy to swipe a buddy's card . . .
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I have never been to a ski resort that didn't serve at the top - where the views are. If they have a lounge/restaurant they sell booze there. I have even been to a few resorts that truck plastic chairs and coolers up the mountain to a midpoint for spring skiing and call it a "beach"
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Or skiing in Europe, where it's quite normal to have gluwein before the 7+ mile ski down to the base. Bit of a thread drift but this came to mind.
Apres is another story altogether depending where you are!
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I don't see the difference of summit or mid-mountain alcohol access vs base access. One just means a skier goes in at the base has a bite or beverage and then takes the lift back up with alcohol in system as against consuming at the top/mid area and skiing down from there. Location is just that.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
Which I am sure happens far too often! Someday I will tell you all about skiing Heavenly (Tahoe) under the influence of LSD after an a hole spiked my morning coffee. I was saved by bad drug connections!
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I don't see the difference of summit or mid-mountain alcohol access vs base access. One just means a skier goes in at the base has a bite or beverage and then takes the lift back up with alcohol in system as against consuming at the top/mid area and skiing down from there. Location is just that.

I can’t disagree with this as a reality. But the message surely counts for something. And the message from mid-mountain or the summit is that drinking and skiing are okay. At least the message from the lodge can be interpreted as “après.”

[do you like how I figured out how to put that little accent in there?]. :wink:
 

KathrynC

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
At Bansko in Bulgaria, some of the bars have self-serve taps on the table. It isn't RFID linked, but you pay a deposit, pour as much as you like and settle up afterwards. Kind of fun for novelty value, but definitely evening only for me!

In Val D'Isere, there is a dance club part way down one of the pistes - the Folie Douce. It's like being in a dive nightclub in a University town pretty much all the time. Not my favourite place! They try to discourage people from skiing down - the building is also a gondola station so it is easy to take the gondola down. But of course people do ski down and the direct lines down from there are accident hotspots. I usually avoid that area after about 2pm.

There is a marked cultural difference between the US and Europe when it comes to drinking on the slopes I think. The US always seems very staid to me - although my own days of having more than a small beer with my lunch are long gone! I think that is partially cultural, and partially that day trip skiing in Europe is less common so many people are in resort for a week or more on vacation and not driving.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
The US always seems very staid to me .

Come to Killington during one of the spring skiing festivals and THEN say that. Watch out for drunken pond skimmers in bizarre costumes.

I’m pretty staid, I suppose. Or just, not much of a drinker!
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Skiing in Europe is a wonderful cultural experience... Going again late January-Feb next season ...very civilized and wine with lunch is almost expected!
 

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