Even if your relationship with gambling sits somewhere between a once-a-year entry into the Melbourne Cup office sweeps and celebrating the rise of pokie-free pubs, Melbourne Festival has a game of roulette that might spark you interest. Tasmanian craft brewery Moo Brew has invented a beer can roulette vending machine, which has to be both the most innocuous new way to take a punt, and the most refreshing.
Even though they're confessing to it being the “world’s weirdest and least practical beer vending machine”, it’s also the best use of our country’s mechatronic engineering talent since the black box flight recorder was invented.
Photograph: suppplied
Simply pull the handle and the machine randomly spits out a beer of its choice from a selection of seven - six of which are Moo Brews, including their Belgian pale ale, pilsner, single hop and Hefeweizen, and one of which isn’t. And they're keeping tight-lipped on what the consolation prize brew is.
As far as gambling goes it’s pretty low-risk, and it's also a fun way to leave your beer order in the hands of the gods.
The machine will appear at the Melbourne Festival’s opening night party on October 4, before heading to the Garden State Hotel from October 6-21 and returning for the closing night party on the 22nd. After all the fun’s been had and drunk, the machine will find a permanent home in brewery owner David Walsh’s other little side project - Hobart’s sprawling Museum of Old and New Art.
So if it’s between losing all our moolah at the casino or winning a Moo from this wacky vending machine, well, you know where to find us, tin in hand.
Moo Brew’s roulette vending machine will be the Melbourne Festival’s opening and closing night parties, and the Garden State Hotel from October 6-21.
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