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Next Level: Dogfish Head creates draft system straight from the barrel

Barrel-aged beer in a keg is so 2016. You can now drink barrel-aged beer tapped straight from the barrel. The future is now.

Delaware’s most “off-centered” brewery, Dogfish Head has teamed up with Annapolis, Maryland based AC Beverage in order to create a draft system you’ve never seen before. The system is called AeriAle, an innovative nitrogen-based draft system. We’re talking barrel to glass.

Rack AeriAle uses a Nitrogenator mixed gas system that provides a continuous supply of N2 gas, that feeds the oak barrels. A customized barrel extractor allows the beer to pumped under low N2 pressure to a heat exchanger which chills the beer to the desired temperature. From there, the beer is fed to a CellarStream inline liquid & gas infuser that pressurizes the beer to the set pounds per square inch. The CellarStream settings can be changed to match the style of beer being served.

The Rack AeriAle finished product is then integrated into a typical draft system using a slow pour style faucet (tap) with a restrictor disk which strips the gas while being poured.

“The process is like watching a theatrical performance in a glass as it creates a unique, cascading effect resulting in a thick creamy head that looks as appealing as it tastes. The retention of the head is achieved by the amount of gas infusion that can only be accomplished using a CellarStream and Nitrogenator as they are the heart and lungs of the Rack AeriAle system. –  Charles Kleinrichert, president of AC Beverage.

AC Beverage has been working with Dogfish Head since 1995. After working with Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione on various brewery projects, the team eventually arrived at this idea. The first system has been sold to Eataly Boston’s Terra Restaurant. The second will find a home at Dogfish Head’s Milton brewery.