DRAFTMARK Tap System

This review is about a beer product. Please be responsible when drinking and stay off the roads. Have a sober designated driver or a cab do the driving.

This is a product that I was sent from www.bzzagent.com to do a review on. It is a beer tap system for your home in your refrigerator. The tap system comes with the tap machine, rechargeable battery, charger, instructions, registration card, and 4 different magnetic round discs to easily attach to the tap handle showing what flavor of beer you have in your tap system. 

As you can see they have 5 kinds of beer refills.

Budweiser, Michelob Amberbock, Shock Top Belgian White, Shock Top Wheat IPA, and Bass

This system itself is small enough to fit into your refrigerator on a shelf as you can see in the pictures within this review. That way you can keep your beer cold as you use the tap system. Now I am not one that goes out a lot to bars but I have been and had beer from a tap so I am not a newbie at this. 

First for the Pros to this unit. It is a nice size so it fits in most regular sized refrigerators without much trouble. You can also dispense a glass of beer without having to take the system out. Thus keeping your beer cold. The battery lasts a very long time on one single charge allowing for at least 2 refill bottles to be used. I only used 2 bottles in the unit. The refills are very easy to load if you follow the directions. I only had to follow them on the first refill. The second was a breeze to load without the instructions. I do like the fact that you do not have a bunch of bottles or cans in your fridge and the refills come in boxes so you can stack them using less room if you have a party. The system itself is not that costly and with many repeat uses from it averages out to costing much less than going out for a beer. The refills are around the same cost as most 12 packs and are self contained. And lets face it, the system looks cool in your home. The beer tasted like it was from a tap and did taste good and cold. This system would be the hit at any party.

Frosted Glass

Not a frosted glass

But now for a few Cons. No matter what I did or how cold I got the beer, it just kept putting out to much foam. I followed the directions over and over again. Tilted the glass, got the refill so cold it was close to feeling like it was freezing but it did not freeze, and even used a frosted glass. Kept the system in the fridge even when dispensing the beer. I made sure I was pulling the handle all the way and smoothly. I even let the refills sit for a day before using the system to make sure they were not shook up from traveling from the store. I could be still doing something wrong to cause this but for the life of me could not figure out how to get the foam down to an acceptable level. The refill bottles have a plastic liner bag inside that holds the beer and to me it seems to alter the taste a little in my opinion. Each refill bottle comes with its own dispense tap (yellow thing attached in picture below) that you load into the system first then put the bottle in so that each refill is not contaminated by the refill before it. 

Left - The system with refill loaded      Right - Refill only

You can go to www.draftmark.com to learn more about this system and where to get the refills in your area.

Useful Tip - I do kind of wish the unit had a flat top that you could order to sit on the system so you could maybe put a boxed refill on it or smaller refrigerator items on so for those that do not have the room can keep this in their fridge and still utilize the space around the system. You can see the dead space above my system in my fridge. I am not able to adjust my shelves to sit just above the system thus not having all that wasted space. 

At the time of this review, this product was just coming out into a few stores so getting the refills was kind of a hassle and a long drive but as it grows and becomes popular, the refills should be in a store of some kind near everyone. 

Left - Unfrosted Glass      Right - Frosted Glass

Is it worth the money? Well let me just say if you think you would use the system enough, like beer on tap and can deal with the extra foam and beer in a plastic bag then yes it is. I myself will use mine every now and then since I do have the system already, but do I plan to buy a new one if this one breaks? I do not think my husband and I drink enough on a regular basis for me to replace it. I do plan on having a get together and try it on my family to see if they like it and the taste. I have some family members that drink more on the weekends than I do.