喝酒喝出创意：美国男子发明自助啤酒机

How much do you hate waiting for another beer in a crowded bar?

你有多讨厌在拥挤的酒吧中等待啤酒？

It irked Josh Goodman enough to invent a pretty obvious solution -- self-service beer taps.

乔希·古德曼就非常厌烦这个，还因此发明了显而易见的解决之道：自助啤酒机。

Goodman, 36, recalled the exact moment in late 2008 when his frustration boiled over.

36岁的古德曼回忆起2008年末，他的挫折感达到了极点的那一刻。

"I was hanging out with my friends at a Baltimore sports bar before an Orioles game," he said. "We just couldn't get another beer served to us quickly."

“那是在一次金莺队比赛前，我和朋友去巴尔的摩（Baltimore）的一家运动酒吧打发时间，服务员迟迟不给我们上另一杯啤酒。”

Even more than being annoyed, Goodman was struck by how much money the bar must be losing. Almost immediately, he got to work on a self-service beer concept.

除了感到恼火，古德曼更震惊的是这样这家酒吧会损失多少收入。他几乎立即就有了研制自助啤酒机的想法。

Within a few months, Goodman had launched PourMyBeer in Chicago (where he'd relocated to be with his wife).

仅仅几个月后，古德曼就在芝加哥创立了PourMyBeer公司（为了与妻子生活在一起，他迁居到了芝加哥）。

He invested $20,000 of his own funds and partnered with a U.S. manufacturer to make beer tables with two to four self-service taps.

他自己投入了两万美元的资金并与一家美国制造商合伙生产带有两到四个自助啤酒龙头的啤酒桌。

In February 2009, Goodman landed his first client: A Baltimore tavern. He spent the next two years growing the business and adding more bars and restaurants.

2009年2月，古德曼有了第一位客户：巴尔的摩的一家酒馆。在之后的两年里，他不断拓展业务，增加了很多酒吧和餐厅客户。

In 2011, PourMyBeer introduced self-service "beer walls," which let people pour their own beer from taps on a wall.

2011年，PourMyBeer又开创自助“啤酒墙”，客人可以使用墙上的龙头自行倒啤酒。

PourMyBeer has expanded to over 200 restaurants and bars in 28 states and Canada. The concept will roll out in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport this week and in Italy and Brazil later this year.

PourMyBeer自助啤酒机已扩张至美国28个州和加拿大的200多家酒吧和餐馆，并计划本周入驻芝加哥奥黑尔国际机场，今年晚些时候进军意大利和巴西。

The tables start at $4,000 and the beer walls cost as much as $16,000. It generated more than $400,000 in sales in 2013 and doubled that in 2017. Goodman expects to take in close to $2 million in revenue this year -- which would make it the company's first profitable year.

啤酒桌起价4000美元，啤酒墙要价高达1.6万美元。2013年，PourMyBeer的销售额已超40万美元，在2017年更是翻番。今年古德曼预计将获得近200万美元的收入，这也将使他的公司迎来第一个盈利年。

"Our business customers tell us that they've cut down on waste and they're selling twice as much beer on average," said Goodman.

古德曼说，“商业用户告诉我们说浪费减少了，销售的啤酒量是平均销售量的两倍。”

Vocabulary

irk: 使恼怒，使厌烦

self-service: 自助

recall: 回想起，记起

boil over: (情绪) 失去控制，爆发

relocate: 迁移，重新安置

land: 赢得，获得

tavern: 酒馆

generate: 产生