The turn of a tap on Friday propelled the Belgian city into the future — and sent its citizens to the bar — as dignitaries and drinkers celebrated a momentous innovation: the world’s first beer pipeline. “We wanted to avoid running big expensive tanker trucks back and forth transporting our beer,” Mr. Vanneste said. By Friday, over 1,000 gallons, or 12,000 bottles of beer, began flowing through the pipeline per hour. So Mr. Vanneste turned to another innovation his ancestors, who began operating the brewery in 1856, could never have dreamed of: the internet. Backers are to be rewarded “with free beer for life in proportion to their contribution,” Mr. Vanneste said.

Source: New York Times September 16, 2016 23:28 UTC