HEINEKEN UK – 2023

In the UK, enjoying a draught beer or cider is a cultural institution. One traditional that needed updating though was the old-fashioned equipment used to cool and serve the beers and ciders. Following in-depth research, HEINEKEN concluded that technical development and innovation was needed to:

• Improve the quality of the draught experience
• Reduce operational wastage
• Improve cost efficiencies
• Reduce the environmental impact

The result was HEINEKEN SmartDispense – technology that has revolutionised the way draught cider and beer is stored and served in pubs and bars across the UK for the last 10 years.

The unique cooling and insulation in the system from keg to tap keeps cider and beer below three degrees, keeping it cleaner for longer, allowing the SmartDispense Technicians to clean lines either every six or twelve weeks, as opposed to weekly in standard systems, in turn saving time and water.

SmartDispense pubs can also use the Cellar Manager tool, this monitors and works with their cellar cooling system to reduce energy waste and costs.

Since its launch in 2012, SmartDispense has continued to develop its offering and over the last ten years it has helped save more than 134 million pints of water and, in 2021 alone, more than 37 million pints.

Energy bills are a sizeable outgoing for pubs, so identifying savings can be hugely beneficial. No customer orders a warm pint, but cellar cooling can be a significant contributor to a pub’s carbon footprint. The SmartDispense system was the first draught dispense to only use energy-saving green cooling technology to chill beer and cider efficiently towards OºC. Coupled with extremely well insulated lines – known as pythons that deliver 20% less energy loss from keg coupler to tap – helps pubs to chill and serve great quality pints in a more sustainable way than ever before.