Draft Beer on Planes is Coming, Because You Put Up With a Lot

You put up with a lot when get on a plane. Airport security lines, expensive tickets, limited leg room, pretzel dinners, and burnt coffee. KLM Airlines is going to reward your patience. They are going to let you treat yourself like Donna Meagle starting in August when they introduce draft beer at 30,000 feet. 

This wasn't a small feat. It's not just installing a tap, loading up a keg, and printing up Mile High Draft Club member cards (not a thing, but it should be). The decreased air pressure at altitude means that traditional taps won't function. It'd be all head and no beer. They note that pressurized taps could do the trick, but CO2 canisters are banned on airplanes. Taps that use air pressure are too big to fit in the catering cart that's already bruising elbows en route to tossing some peanuts your way.

So the problem wasn't small. Engineers at longtime KLM partner Heineken took out the cooling apparatus from a pressurized tap and basically made the cart into a giant thermos for beer kegs, making crying babies not seem like such a big deal anymore.

That construction means a tap small enough to be functional, that still manages to deliver the taste of draft beer. Nice work everyone. This sounds like a real team effort that deserves a high-five train every time a flight with draft beers takes to the sky.