Plaato Keg Management System
On the heels of their thoughtfully designed Wifi- enabled airlock, Norwegian homebrew equipment manufacturer Plaato is back with another digital problem solver. Anyone who does it regularly knows that checking on how much beer is left in a keg of homebrew is not as easy as it sounds. If you happen to serve from a keezer, you’re in luck, but if you use a common kegerator, getting a keg out and up for the ol’ lift test is generally more pain than it’s worth.
Plaato’s system solves that with a very low-profile (1" tall) scale that slides under kegs even in tight spaces. The unit connects to your local Wifi network and communicates with the Plaato app to provide you with plenty of details—including fridge temperature and current volume in the keg—as well as a number of alerts for special situations, such as liquid detection if it senses a leak. The unit can measure how much beer is dispensed in each pour, and it can even alert you any time beer is poured, if you’re concerned about gremlins raiding your keg when you’re not home. Additional alerts can notify you if your kegerator temperature moves outside a desired range.
Data arrive via the smartly designed Plaato app, which integrates any other Plaato devices you may have. The user interface is clean and easy to use.
A USB cord provides power, and the long, flat cable is designed to minimize impact to the seal of your cooler. The build of the unit itself is sturdy, with heavyweight plastic that feels up to the task. In our testing, the unit worked as advertised and needed no maintenance or troubleshooting. Set and forget.
Only one big question remains—is it worth $99 to have real-time information about a keg in your kegerator? If you’re a data junkie like we are, the answer is a no-brainer—of course, it’s worth it to have this volume of diverting info at your fingertips. But for everyday brewers stretching a budget, the utility of tracking pours and remotely monitoring temperature may be worth the cost of entry (manual systems with floating balls and magnets outside the keg are much less functional, but not much cheaper). With temperature controllers on keezers, the old phrase “trust, but verify” is apropos, and the Plaato Keg does just that—serves as a failsafe and early warning system. Now, we’re not sure how we lived without it. —JB