Posted on by Ryan Priore

Beer Coaster Design Challenge with Brew Gentleman

Location: Brew Gentleman

Chris and Ryan met Asa Foster, Co-founder of Brew Gentleman, at the Jellybox group build event supported by 3DPPGH, and we have been thinking of a way to work with Asa ever since. Asa and Brew Gentlemen generously hosted our 1st Beer Coaster Design Challenge! The winners took home awesome prizes like a growler of Brew Gentlemen beer (from Asa), filament and merch (from MatterHackers), and bragging rights within the ‘burgh. In addition, Asa gave us a nickel tour of the Brew Gentleman brewery, and we learned why Brew Gentleman is Ryan’s favorite Pittsburgh brewery.

Chris and Ryan raising a glass of General Braddock at Brew Gentleman’s very svelte taproom. [Photo credit: Chad Elish]

We did have a couple of rules… All beer coaster designs and prints must:

  • Use a Creative Commons license (CC BY)
  • Be either a 3.5” circle or 3.5” rounded square w/ 0.25” radius
  • Allow glassware to sit flat upon it
  • Incorporate the Brew Gentlemen logo

The design submissions were rather awesome: dual filament, resin encapsulated, motorized with LEDs, chocolate, and sintered sugar with a saki binder… I repeat, “sintered sugar with a saki binder”.

A special shout-out goes to Chad Elish for taking some really awesome photos of the event.

Click here for the Google photo album.

Congratulations to the award winners:

Left to right: Jeff Bearer (2nd place), Asa Foster, Dillon Nichols (1st place), Chris Yohe, and Ryan Priore [Photo credit: Chad Elish]

1st Place: Resin-filled Three River Topographical Coaster (Dillon Nichols)

Dillon 3D-printed a topographical map of Pittsburgh’s three rivers and then filled it with clear resin. It was so gorgeous that I could not imagine covering it with a beer glass… You can download his design on Thingiverse here.

Dillon’s 1st place coaster [Photo credit: Chad Elish]
Asa and Dillon holding his winning coaster entry [Photo credit: Chad Elish]

2nd Place: Spinning, LED-Flickering, Rule Trolling Coaster (Jeff Bearer)

Jeff took his design to another level with the incorporation of LEDs and a motor to spin the beer as if it were on display. You can download his design on Tinkercad here.

Asa and Jeff holding his winning coaster entry [Photo credit: Chad Elish]
Ryan was trying out the spin function of Jeff’s coaster [Photo credit: Chad Elish]

Other Designs

Ryan’s Filament-Swapped and Buzzed Two-Tone Coaster is a dual extrusion design that incorporated a filament containing remnants from beer brewing. You can download his design from Thingiverse here.