Beer

As pubs and bars in the UK get busier in the run up to Christmas, Barclaycard has uncorked a way to reduce the time people spend waiting to be served. Pay @ Pump is a beer pump that allows customers to pour their own pint and pay with a contactless card in as little as a minute.

Self-driving trucks have proven they're able to drive closer together than their human-controlled counterparts, but there's still one crucial test for the technology: Can it deliver beer? Otto, a subsidiary of Uber, has answered that question by delivering a shipment of Budweiser in Colorado.

Beer-brewing wastewater can't just be dumped in the sewer – it has to be filtered first, which can be expensive. Now, however, there may be a new use for the water. It could be used to grow a fungus that's in turn made into "green" battery electrodes. ​

Beer is one of, if not the, world's oldest prepared beverages. More evidence of this has now come to light with researchers having used ancient relics to piece together a 5,000-year-old beer-making practice, providing what is claimed to be the earliest direct evidence of beer brewing in China.

Six-pack rings that make their way into the ocean spell all kinds of trouble for its residents so one Florida-based craft brewery is turning this curse into a blessing, tying its six-packs together with en edible material for marine life to feast on.

Unlike wine, beer doesn't age well. While brewers do already perform tests to gauge freshness, those typically involve expensive gas chromatography equipment and take time to conduct. Soon, however, a simple color-changing sensor and an app may be all that's required.

Australian scientists have developed a type of gluten-free barley that has been used to produce the world's first barley-based gluten-free beer. The brew lands on the shelves of German supermarkets today.

Joining the Pico brewer on the crowdfunding circuit, the MiniBrew is another all-in-one countertop brewing system that makes brewing beer nearly as easy (though more time-consuming overall) as brewing coffee.

Seattle-based startup is rolling out its PicoBrew Pico automatic brewery aimed at the home brewer with little or no experience, but a desire to make craft beer.

Out of all the ways to show love and loyalty for one's favorite team(s), the latest may be the most flashy. The ePint Smart Beer Mug is designed to automatically light up in your team's colors every single time they score.

A beercycling project dubbed "From piss to pilsner" invited beer-swigging live music lovers at last week's Roskilde Festival to leave deposits for local farmers to use as fertilizer for barley crops grown to make beer.

Guinness, the Irish stout, is famously dark with a creamy head. It is also increasingly green. A newly-opened Guinness brewhouse has been awarded LEED Platinum certification. Brewhouse No. 4 at St. James’s Gate in Ireland was also awarded BREEAM Outstanding certification last year.