Skip to main content

Hopsy’s smaller countertop kegerator makes homebrewing even easier

Making beer at home is about to get a lot easier. Hopsy, a direct-to-consumer draft beer service, announced that it is making a new home draft beer machine. The best part: It fits right on your countertop like any other kitchen appliance. The Sub Compact, designed with German kitchen appliance manufacturer Krups, will be about as easy to use as a Keurig machine but will give you much more of a buzz.

The Sub Compact — a follow-up to Krups and Hopsy’s previous team up that produced the Sub Home Beer Dispenser — is compatible with two-liter mini-kegs, each of which can hold about 67 ounces of beer. Hopsy considers that to be about six servings. The brews will be provided by “award-winning breweries” so you can expect some high-quality drinks from your device. The beer chills in the keg at 35.6 degrees and remains fresh for about two weeks once it has been tapped.

Recommended Videos

Hopsy’s at-home kegerator is designed to be about as simple to use as possible. It’s essentially just plug-and-play. Place the mini-keg in the appliance, put the tub through the tap, close the door and pull the handle. That’s all there is to it. There is no need for CO2 cartridges or additional maintenance to operate the device, and Sub Compact includes its own refrigeration system to keep beer fresh and safe.

“The latest in on-demand tap beer technology, the Sub Compact is an essential countertop appliance for any beer drinker. It builds upon our original concept, but amazingly takes up 30 percent less space. Now we can serve up tap beer for the home, office or anywhere in the smallest, most elegant form factor on the market,” Sebastien Tron, Hopsy’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “For beer aficionados and casual drinkers, the Sub Compact brings the best taste and experience into the home with a rotation of beers recommended for you based on your preferences, including IPAs, crafts, lagers, and imports.”

The Sub Compact is already available for pre-order from Hopsy and early adopters will enjoy a significant discount on the device. The countertop kegerator can be pre-ordered for $150, a 50 percent savings off the retail price. When it hits retail, the device will jump up to $300. Mini-kegs for the Sub Compact can be had for $15 and up.

AJ Dellinger
AJ Dellinger is a freelance reporter from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. He has been published by…
This one upgrade would make all our homes even smarter
Amazon Echo Show 10 on a nightstand.

When we were kids, we imagined the smart home of the future would have silent but friendly robot butlers, magic ovens that opened to roll out a fully cooked meal, and flying cars. We’re still waiting for most of that to become truly tangible, but smart homes have come a long way from the limited utility of The Clapper.

Smart homes today are automated and can execute any number of tasks without input or button pressing from us humans: we have our lights set on schedules that align to sunrise and sunset, our smart home hubs talk to us and deliver news, weather, and traffic information. Our smart thermostats can detect when we’re home or not and lower the temperature to save energy. Even so, most smart homes still do require maintenance, upkeep, and adjustments to those schedules in order to keep things running smoothly. But one aspect of the smart home is being under-utilized and could help our smart homes operate even more cleverly and efficiently: the motion detector.

Read more
Is a robot vacuum that doesn’t auto-empty even worth it?
The iRobot Roomba i7 cleaning a living room.

When we imagine the future, we like to think of a legion of loyal, smart robots that serve us at our pleasure: Piloting us around in flying cars, cleaning for us, cooking for us, and handling all the daily domestic tasks we just don’t want to do. When it comes to robot vacuums, that means the emptying of the dustbin. While plenty of robot vacuums can now take care of that dirty little chore for you, there are many more that don’t. So as we march toward that promising future, is there still a place in the smart home for robot vacuums that don't empty themselves?
A decade of innovation

Anyone who's been following vacuum technology knows the last decade has been monumental. We went from having to haul out giant, heavy corded upright vacuums to clean our floors to the development of robot vacuums like the now-iconic Roomba (the iRobot Roomba j7+ is the company's newest, smartest bot). Those early days of automated vacuuming were more novelty than necessity, however, with the rolling robots bumping around, smashing into furniture and walls, leaving marks and dropping debris.

Read more
Renpho teams up with MyFitnessPal to make smart tracking that much easier
Hero image showing the MyFitnessPal app and a Runpho smart scale

Two health giants in the technology world, Renpho and MyFitnessPal, have announced a new way each company's products integrate with each other. Users will soon be able to sync their MyFitnessPal accounts with a variety of Renpho products.

Renpho was founded in 2015 to help people improve all aspects of their lives through its products. It created multiple smart scales and massage products so that users could track their body metrics and foods consumed, along with keeping their bodies well maintained. Renpho continues to innovate products in the health and wellness space today.

Read more