Beer was reportedly invented sometime around 5, 000 B.C. So it’s shocking to think that refrigeration wasn’t invented until the 19th Century. Because that means that the majority of man drank warm beer for nearly 7, 000 years. Which is kind of gross. Nowadays we can all enjoy a cold beer whenever we want, and your correspondent might even be enjoying one right now, depending on whether or not your correspondent’s bosses are reading this. But we rely on electricity and refrigeration to keep our brews frosty. Four fellows in Denmark, however, have figured out how to keep beer cold, outside, without using any power. Their invention is called the eCool , and it delivers “year-round cool beers” without being plugged into anything except the earth. To install the roughly four-foot-long device, you bore a hole into the ground using a garden drill, though they advise that “[the eCool] can be installed with a shovel as well, if you’re a real man.” Once you’ve got the hole dug, you insert the cylindrical device into the ground, then load it with up to 24 cans of quaff. The earth then keeps the beer cool, and when you’re ready to have one, you turn a handcrank attached to a vertical conveyor that serves you up a fresh can. “Do something great for yourself and the environment, ” the eCool guys write. “It’s easy to install in the garden or terrace, and uses no electricity. With the eCool you can always drink a cold beer with good conscience.” What we’d like to see next: A bottle version, please! (more…)

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How to Keep Beer Cold, Outside, with No Electricity: The eCool