|
System Review
bottomsupbeer.com
Bottoms Up replaces the beer faucet with a dispenser that fills the glass, automatically, from the bottom. A food-grade magnet covers a hole in the base of the glass. When you set the glass on the dispenser the filler head lifts the magnet, beer flows in, and the pour stops at a set level. Lift the glass and the magnet snaps back down. Nobody holds anything while it fills: set it and forget it. See it work.
"I invented Bottoms Up from the patrons' perspective. I always saw my service being slowed down by the need to pour beer and thought: what if the beers filled themselves?"
Josh Springer, Bottoms Up Inventor
Josh founded the company in 2008 in a garage next to his home in Washington state. Today Bottoms Up builds its systems in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, Indiana and ships all over the world.
It fills glasses perfectly over and over and over again. No more beer down the drain, no more training everyone how to pour a beer just for that training to go out the window the second they get in the weeds. 100% of the beer you buy makes it into the glass.
The beers fill themselves. One bartender, three beers and two cocktails, 33 seconds (watch it). The system effectively doubles the output of every bartender during every rush. Faster service means better customer service, better customer service means happier customers, happier customers spend more. Bottoms Up allows you to sell just a little more every day. Sell just a little more every day, make a lot more every year. See for yourself: Bottoms Up ROI Calculator.
The benefits go well beyond beer. Every pour leaves the customer with a magnet, the seal from the bottom of the vessel, and that magnet is a highly leverageable asset. Some operators sell it as ad space to nearby businesses; realtors, lawyers, and beverage brands all love it. Some charge up to a dollar a magnet, others just let a sponsor cover their magnet cost. Games and collectible sets keep guests in their seats longer and bring them back more often. And your own branding ends up holding a child's drawing on the family fridge, the second most visited spot in the home and the best place on earth to advertise food and drink.
Last but certainly not least, it is a magic show. Every pint perfectly underlit, a beacon of beer brilliance rising out of thin air. People will buy beers just to watch it work, for themselves and for other people.
While Bottoms Up is a magic show, it is not a magic box. If you have underlying issues it is not going to solve them for you. CO2 supply issues will still cause problems. If your cooler gets warm, you are still going to have foaming issues. Bottoms Up does have approximately a 10-15% bigger threshold for temperature issues, but temperatures outside of 38F will still cause problems.
One nice thing about this when compared to faucet-based systems: if a Bottoms Up system is not pouring properly, all you have to do is call tech support and we will help you get to the bottom of it ASAP. With a faucet-based system, an underlying issue can go undiagnosed for a long time, because draft beer foams, and that's just draft beer. There have been countless times when customers got a keg with a bad tap seal, called tech support because the system was foaming, got to the bottom of it, and got their money back for that keg. With faucets, that keg would have just gotten dumped down the drain.
Bottoms Up runs about twice a mid-range draft system and is on par with high-end faucet systems, plus recurring costs for vessels and magnets. Magnets start at ten cents per pour. At 2,500 pints a month with an average of $175 per keg and 20% waste, you stop losing about $880 a month in beer while spending $250 on magnets. A keg holds 124 pints, and at 20% waste only 99 of them reach a customer, so selling 2,500 pints takes 25 kegs instead of 20. Operators who ran their own numbers through the ROI calculator landed between $43,000 and $479,000 a year in bottom line benefit (their inputs and results). If you are leveraging the magnets well, the loyalty program covers your glassware: one case of 4,320 magnets earns a case of 16oz pint glasses. Plenty of our customers pay next to nothing for glass. We have never had anyone take longer than one year to get an ROI on their system.
Food and Beverage Tech Review named Bottoms Up its Draft Beer Dispensing Solution of the Year 2026. Their take: the magic trick gets the attention, but the hands-free pour is what pays.
Buy it if your bar gets rushes in any way, it will make sense for you. 9 in 10 of our customers are neighborhood spots with 2 to 8 taps (the counts). Run yours through the ROI calculator.
Skip it if your place is steady and slow with no rushes. Same if you'd rather a person poured every beer, or your keg yield is already above 80% and a take-home magnet with your brand living on all of your customers' refrigerators does nothing for you.
Is it good for a small bar?
A small bar is the typical customer. Most installs run 2 to 8 taps. The smaller the staff, the more a self-pouring tap is worth.
Is it a gimmick?
Could you call it a gimmick? Sure... Is it JUST a gimmick? Absolutely not. 922 venues reordered cups and magnets in the last 12 months. Just ask Bruce: he liked it so nice he bought it twice.
Can I get one at home?
Yes, with a catch. Bottoms Up does not sell "home units," but we do sell commercial units that can be used at home. The problem with home-style kegerators is that the refrigeration is garbage. So essentially, you're putting a Hemi in the chassis of a Pinto and expecting it to run well.
Can it pour Guinness and nitro beers?
Yes. Check it out: Can Bottoms Up pour nitro?
Doesn't a beer need a head?
The amount of foam on a beer is mainly a function of the temperature of the beer, the CO2 content in the beer, and the agitation during dispensing. The best way to get CO2 release is throughout the consumption of the beer instead of all at once during the pouring process: our magnets have a nucleation site around the edge that releases CO2 evenly over the course of consumption. A beer with 1/8" to 1/4" of head is the perfect beer. It is cold, has the perfect amount of CO2, and was dispensed at a good clip. Oh, and the glass is full, which people LOVE. Another thing to note is that every Bottoms Up beer will pass the napkin test.
What is the warranty?
Lifetime warranty on the dispenser and five years on refrigeration. On top of that, a 100% money-back guarantee you can exercise for one year if you are not happy with any aspect of the system. We want to be held as accountable as possible for your satisfaction. As of 2026 we have offered that guarantee for 15 years, and no one has ever taken us up on it.
Can I reuse the magnets?
Our magnets are rated for single use. If you reuse magnets they will warp, and the second you lose a beer because one fails, you have lost any value you gained by trying to reuse them. Including the cost of the magnet, you are already saving approximately 20 cents on every pint by using our system.
You should be putting value on the magnet so the customer wants to take it home and put it on the refrigerator, in turn advertising your brand where your customer goes to get food and drink.
Does it work with my existing draft setup?
It could. For long draw systems, often we can reuse your existing trunkline, gas supply system, and glycol chiller. For kegerators it's often best to sell what you have and purchase new. By the time you have converted your existing kegerator you have spent close to what you would have on a new one, and now you have an old draft box with a brand-new Bottoms Up system installed on it.
I found a used system. Will you support it?
We will do anything we can to support you in getting a Bottoms Up system up and running. After all, we sell glasses and magnets too! If you are looking at a used system, please reach out to us to see if it is something that can still be serviced (99% can). We recently had someone purchase some gen one equipment used and we couldn't help them get it running.
Can it pour soda or other drinks?
Yes. Sodas must be pre-mixed in containers and pre-carbonated. Still drinks can be dispensed in several ways: beverage pumps and nitrogen, to name a few.
Is the equipment NSF certified?
Yep, sure is!
What are Don't Poke points?
This is our loyalty program. We want to reward people for doing creative things with the magnets and leveraging them to promote and generate additional revenue for their business. The more magnets you use, the more stuff you get for free.
How do you handle tech support?
99% of issues can be handled with a phone call to our tech support team. From there, the dispensers are very easy to work on. You can completely disassemble the whole thing with a Phillips screwdriver and a 12-inch crescent wrench. The vast majority of our customers choose to do the work themselves purely for reasons of expedience. If it is necessary, we will get someone on site as soon as we possibly can.