The Story of The Beer Gauge

The story of The Beer Gauge

Many years ago I was sitting in my favourite bar in Bali - The Reunion Club with a now good friend, Dave "Higgo" Higgins, whom I met at said bar.

One of the things that I love about Bali is their hospitality.  You can guarantee, you have no sooner started your Bintang before the staff are over asking you if you would like another beer.

With this question brings the challenge of having to pull your bottle of beer out of the Stubby Holder Pack to see how much beer you have left (yes us aussies are no good at knowing the answer to that just by feel and weight).  In Bali they are a very snug fit, so this can be a strenuous activity (especially when you are used to doing NOTHING while you are in Bali).

So my mate Higgo sitting next to me says, one day I am going to invent a stubby holder with a clear plastic viewing window down the front so I can see how much beer I have left.

I was straight onto it - what a brilliant idea.  I told him I would give him a window of 6 months and then if he had not created said invention, I was going to get on it.

Well 6 months came and went and I had not seen or heard Higgo mention anything about following through with his idea, so I got to work.

The concept of the clear plastic strip was good in theory, but not so in practicality as the plastic would not bond to the neoprene.  So after discussing and trialing several designs with the company in Perth that I had enlisted to produce the product we came up with the 3 hole design, which did the job perfect.

Now I did have a few people comment, wont the holes make the beer go warm, and my response to that has always been two fold - firstly no, the holes are not big enough to comprise the temperature of the beer, and secondly, if it does, you are not drinking your beer fast enough.😀

So The Beer Gauge was born and then I got to thinking that girls don't have stubby holders to fit their cruiser bottles, and not much later, The Girlie Gauge was born.

Now during this entire process, I never once mentioned to my mate Higgo that I was on the job, but rather when the first stubbies beer Gauge came off the production line several months later, I just posted one to him, no note or message he just received a Beer Gauge in the post.  I remember the message I got back off him “I can't believe you actually did that".

We have had a few success stories along the way.  The marketing team for Triple M which is a major Aussie radio station, got in contact with me as she was looking for something fun and quirky to put in their showbags at the Sydney Royal Easter show and the Brisbane Ekka.  So Triple M branded Beer Gauges went into all of those showbags.

There was also a TV show called Australias Best Beer Inventions and I was shortlisted for the first show with the promise to be featured on the second show.  Problem with that was that the first show was not too popular and they never went to air with another episode.

I have done many personalised for different business's, each with different sayings to stay on brand with that particular business.

I have trademark on The Beer Gauge and The Girlie Gauge logos and patent pending on the design.

My greater goal is to have an Aussie Beer Brand to take me onboard and be the stubby holder for their brand.  I can picture having to save a code off your box of beer to send in and claim your free branded Beer Gauge.

While You're Up!