BeerTender from Heineken and Krups B95 Home Beer-Tap System

We followed all the instructions and the BeerTender works perfectly! My husband was dying for one, and I hesitated since I don't prefer Heineken, but once it's chilled to a perfect 36*, it's awesome.

Great conversation piece as well!

Honestly, I have a sneaking suspicion the problem is with the Heineken draught kegs but...

I really, really discourage anyone from getting this product. I absolutely loved the idea, and will say the quality and appearance of the Beer Tender itself is fantastic. But as many others have noted, you end up getting 80% foam and 20% beer per pour. I've tried all the tricks, tried all the techniques, different draught kegs, glasses, temperatures, even going so far as to not touch a new keg for 48 hours but EACH and EVERY pour runs at the 80/20 foam-to-beer ratio.

I would really love for this to work, because when you get the rare decent pour, as in the last 1-2 before the keg is tapped, it really does taste good. Seriously -- if Krups or Heineken wants to contact me to figure it out I would be happy to beta test.

I don't know if Heineken needs to fix how they're pressurizing the draught kegs, but for now this product really does not work at all. I wanted to love it, and would be thrilled if they get it working decently in the future and try it again. But for now -- skip it and save yourself the hassle.

Anyone know of an anternative?

I like many others read a lot of reviews before getting my BeerTender. I was worried that I was spending a lot of money for something cool, that would not function when I received it. I'll address some of the things I read about when I was researching.

First, the function that tells you how much beer is left occasionally is wrong. To fix it all you have to do is open the top, lift the keg up for five seconds and it resets and is now accurate. Many posted saying theirs never worked mine does just fine.

Second, does it do its job? Yes, it keeps a mini keg nice and cold and pours a decent glass of beer. You do need to make sure and open the tap all the way or you will get one foamy glass of beer though. Also the first glass always seems to be foamy. Remember this is supposed to be a draught beer so you will always have a bit of a head to it.

I'd like to point out like many others have, that this only accepts the Heineken mini kegs. You have to also have the tubes but they are easily purchased at Amazon I believe, it also comes with half a dozen in the box.

Like many others said, make sure you either pre-chill the keg in your fridge, or wait several hours for it to fully chill if you put a warm one in the BeerTender. Also be careful not to bang the keg while installing it or you will have a foamy pour the first couple of glasses.

This thing does take up a fair amount of room on the counter if you use the provided drip tray. Fortunately you can remove it if you want some extra room.

It is very quiet unless you put a warm keg in there, then you can hear a slight fan noise until it chills the keg, then you won't hear it any longer.

It definitely has a cool factor and everyone who sees it comments on it and wants to draw a pint.

The mini kegs appear to be recyclable.

Overall I'm happy with it, and would recommend it to others that either have an occasional Heineken or for those that entertain occasionally and don't want to deal with twenty beer bottles on the counters. This thing is great for a poker party.

Wow, if you want a nice frosty glass of foam, look no further than this keg! I stuck a brand new keg of Heineken, already cold, into this baby, tapped it and poured a nice pint of all foam that took 15 minutes to settle down into a quarter glass of beer. I poured 2 more glasses of foam, then let it sit for an hour. When I tried it again, I got 2 more glasses of foam.

I came back the next day and nothing but foam. I was tired of wasting all the beer in the keg so I thought it would be a good idea to shut the FoamTender down and retap the keg with the plastic one Heineken gives you that actually works. Bad idea. I took the FoamTender tap off and it started spewing beer 2 feet into the air. So here I am standing in my kitchen with a keg of Heiney in the FoamTender, spewing beer all over the place. I got a glass and started catching some of the beer while I was trying the drink the rest like a drinking fountain. I got my good Ohio State T-shirt drenched in beer, although that wouldn't be the first time.

When the keg finally calmed down, I ended up with only one pint of beer from the keg I paid $21 for. I can get 5 pints at happy hour in a bar for that much money. Deciding not to go through that again with another $21 keg, I calmly boxed up the BeerTender and took it back to the store. It was a little sad, because this seemed like it would be something really cool to have in my kitchen and show off to my friends.

If you buy one, just make sure you buy it from a place where you can return it.

Simple things than can ruin your experience with the BeerTender. Follow these, and you should be able to pour perfect two-finger-head beers on one pull.

First, they sell these mini kegs EVERYWHERE. Many times they are not refrigerated. Put it in your fridge overnight before you transfer it to the BeerTender, or buy it cold.

The keg is small, and keg-shaped. It tends to roll all over the place when you drive it home, knock around, etc. Even if you buy it cold, if its shook, you will have a FoamTender.

Safe bet: Always put that mini keg in the fridge overnight.

DON'T use the hardware that came with the keg to put it in the BeerTender. You need to use the supplied tube, and they can only be used once.

Keep your temp at the lowest setting (why not?), and wait for the keg to reach that temperature.

Rinse out a glass sunder cool water before you pour a beer.

IMPORTANT: This isn't a full sized keg. If you have poured from a full sized keg and tap system, your first instinct might be to ease into the pour by going slowly on the tap. DON'T! You need to quickly snap the tap back, not violently, but don't ease into it. Do the same to close it off, and you will notice a much better pour.

Your first (and maybe second) glasses will be foam, just as it is for any keg. If it goes much past that, you might have done something wrong.

This is actually all in the manual, but who reads those ;)