Meet the 'Google Analytics' of Beer

You know that bartender who’s always giving free samples and a “little extra” to his best customers? Well, he’s a problem – for the bar owner, that is.

"Over-pouring and theft are very big issues in the nightlife business," explains Ori Fingerer, co-founder and vice president of business development at Weissbeerger, one of Tel Aviv’s most unusual high-tech startups. The company aims to be the Google Analytics — of beer.

Weissbeerger’s flagship product, Alcohol Analytics, aims to track how much beer is being consumed in a bar, at what times, and which brands are the most popular. It works by attaching monitors to the beer taps. How much flows through which taps is recorded, analyzed and sent wirelessly to the cloud, where the bar owner can view what’s happening in real time through a mobile iPad app.

And because the Weissbeerger product is also hooked up to the point-of-sale system (i.e., the cash register), it can compare how much beer flows through the tap with the amount of money collected.

"It can say, for example, that last night, the bar poured 80 liters of beer, but received money for only 50 liters," Fingerer explains, adding that Alcohol Analytics can help owners reduce theft and waste by up to 12 percent.

Tracking and marketing smarts

However, spying on bartenders is not the main purpose of the system. Weissbeerger can bring to any place where beer is consumed – bars, hotels and restaurants – the same tracking and marketing smarts that supermarkets and stores have long had with "off-trade" brands (the business term for products that are not bought and consumed in the same place).

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Via ISRAEL21c