Philips Perfect Draft Machine
Beer Budget Rating - £££
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Wide range of beers available
- Great features
- Trusted brand with great support
- Delivers a great quality pint
Cons
- Price per pint on the high side
- Limited to PD Kegs
- Large fridge needed for pre-chilling required
What is the Philips Perfect Draft Machine?
Philips infamous for TV’s and all wonder of house gadgets have used all their electronic expertise to bring to the market their 
Perfect Draft Machine and in all honesty, it’s not too far away from perfect.
Unlike other keg converters such as the Klarstein Home Beer Tap the Philips machine does not require CO2 cartridges as the appliance works using air pressure generated from an automatic pump. The air won’t come into direct contact with the beer either so ensures the beer is delivered at optimal quality.
Once you’re loaded up into the bay, the internal cooling system will chill your beer to a chilly 3°C. You can use your tap before it hits 3°C but you may find your beer is a little foamier.
The good thing about the Perfect Draft is that it utilises special kegs for use only in the machines. You will get somewhere roughly between 10-11 pints out of one 6-litre keg.
What about the Kegs?
I guess the snag here is that you can’t simply go down to your local supermarket and grab a standard 5-litre mini-keg as it won’t 
work in the machine which is a bit of a frustration. Nevertheless, the range of perfect draft kegs available is pretty good within the region of 60 different types available.
There’s everything from proper craft such as Tiny Rebel Cali pale to your more mainstream options such as Stella, Corona and Becks.
The Perfect Draft kegs are a little less value for money than the regular supermarket kegs. At the time of writing a 6L Stella Artois keg was around £31 meaning a cost per pint in the region of around £2.80.
The cost can be reduced by sending your kegs back after use and receiving beer token credit, more info on that here. This takes the cost down to around £2.40 per pint.
Essentially you have a higher cost per pint but you get access to a great range of beers and brands.
It will take you roughly 15 hours + to chill the beer sufficiently from room temperature. It’s one of the faster chilling machines but we always recommend chilling your keg in the fridge overnight (if it’s big enough for a 6L one!). That way, once you load it up it should only take an hour or so to chill for pouring.
The Perfect Draft also has a nice LED screen so you can check once it hits the pivotal 3 degrees. One great feature is that the screen will also indicate how many days of freshness you have left in your keg.
There’s also a handy beer level indicator which shows much volume of beer you have left. Similar to a digital dial that shows you how much fuel is left in your car. It’s a great feature for entertaining so you know when your keg is nearing the end of its life.
How does it work?
As you only can use specifically Perfect Draft kegs it’s a really simple process. Once you’ve connected the keg tap to the top of the keg, it’s a case of simply loading it in the bay. Then pull down the forks to load them in place and close the doors.
The below video shows you how really simple it is to use…
Beer Budget?
The Perfect Draft sits towards the top end of the market price-wise and gets a ‘£££’ rating from us
Get your’s here from Beerhawk
The Verdict
The machine will keep the beer fresh for at least 30 days and really does deliver a fantastic pint. It’s a great all-rounder and works well for entertaining or even just when you want a few casual drinks. You won’t have much maintenance to do and set-up is nice and easy. The only real main drawback that you are nearing the £3 a pint mark with the cost of the kegs.
If you are looking for something a little bit more professional why not check out the PerfectDraft Pro
