Sometimes, at Tulsa gear, we have to break from welding gear and air tool repair type things to enjoy the beauty of human ingenuity.

Air. It makes beer pour, keeps it fresh, and generally makes the sweet golden nectar of Bacchus palatable for lengthier periods of time than would usually be possible. Bless it.

We've seen a lot of charming kegerators and beer storage-and-pour-age devices in our time that not much causes an eyebrow to raise these days. The Germans were like, "hold our steins and watch this." They promptly got our attention.

Wacken Open Air Festival. It's the biggest heavy metal festival in the world. It's also in Germany, which happens to be a place where beer is consumed prolifically. At this festival, somewhere around 75,000 fans will consume the 400,000 liters of beer that pass through a newly installed beer pipeline.

In festivals past, they decided that trucking in kegs tore up the grounds too much. Naturally, they decided the best course of action was to install a seven-kilometer pipeline to get beer to the festival and leave the grounds undisturbed. They're pretty excited about it, too.

"Until this year, we always had to move dozens of barrels through the infield. This caused a lot of avoidable traffic. The new pipeline helps us to protect the floor," stated the festival website. Dozens is a presumed understatement.

Let's talk about how cool this is for gas and gear. In order to properly carbonate a liquid, it has to be cooled between 35 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously, the air pressure needs to remain consistent as well. Across the seven kilometer network of beer pipeline, it will maintain enough pressure to pour six beers in six seconds.

Over the course of the festival, participants will consume an average of about 5.1 liters of beer per person. It's buried deep enough in the ground that the grounds, used as farmland throughout the rest of the year, will remain perfect for sowing. Clever and environmentally conscious.

We think this was a well-warranted interruption from arc welder repair tips. Everyone deserves a beer break. Wacken Open Air fest has their gas and gear and priorities in right place and we salute them. Prost.