Restoration Note (2026): This post was originally published in 2008 and has been lightly updated for the archive. The Beer Pager website is no longer active, and I’ve added a few images + captions that were referenced in the original text. The opening image has been reconstructed from original assets.
Imagine that you’re at a rockin’ house party. For just a brief moment you set down your brewski to dance with that hottie who’s been giving you the eye, and minutes later you swagger back into the kitchen to get some ice cold relief, only to find yourself face to face with a sea of half-finished cans of beer. Which one is yours? In the past you had the difficult task of either finding a new beer or guessing which abandoned beverage is your own.
Don’t lose your suds again! The Beer Pager is the perfect gift for that forgetful someone who always misplaces their drink. If you can push a button, then you, my friend, have mastered the Beer Pager. Just drop your favorite beverage into the Beer Pager and you’re set to forget. Click the keychain-sized remote and the Beer Pager will proudly belch and flash colorful lights so you can easily find your drink anywhere.
About seven years ago, my dad was having a barbeque with a buddy of his and misplaced his beer. In that moment as they joked around, they envisioned a beer coozie that you could locate by remote control.
He quickly became obsessed with the idea of this novelty product, and started developing the Beer Pager. Since 2002 I’ve been hearing about it every time I would talk to him on the phone and have been subject to trying out the latest prototype over and over every time I would come back to visit my family.
After years of hard work, money, and overcoming setbacks, in the Fall of 2006 my Dad and his business partner Casey received the first shipment of ready to sell Beer Pagers from the manufacturer.
Since then, he’s been hitting product shows & conventions, swap meets and anything else he could do to try to promote and sell the thing. It’s been going GREAT so far and every year interest and awareness of the Beer Pager grows. He’s really done a fantastic job.
Of course when it was being developed, I was recruited to design the package and the designs on the coozie. It was and has been my first attempt at package design and working within the limitations of puff ink on black foam beer coozies.
The “fat guy” character I developed for my dad was a hit, and after designing the “Belcher” version, he commissioned me to develop a Golfer, Harley rider, and a Casino version as well.
In all this time I had never gone with my dad to any of the shows, swap meets, or conventions he goes to every weekend. So yesterday I decided to give it a try.
At 3:45am(!) Dad woke me up to get going, and we drove to Santa Ana, Ca. to set up at the Orange County Marketplace for the first weekend show of December. These pictures are from the event (The crazy kid who managed to sneak into some of these pictures is my little brother Cameron).
Anyway, I had a great time selling the Beer Pager, watching my dad give his pitches and watching people crowd around and laugh hysterically at his wacky invention.
I’ve always grown up feeling like I was the only really creative person in my family, so it was interesting to me when my dad created something completely kooky and strange out of nowhere like he did with the Beer Pager.
That said, people really seem to love the thing, and sales were actually very impressive. Also, to witness someone go from knowing nothing about how to develop and market a product to selling thousands of them every year is pretty inspiring to me. I only wish I had been more closely associated with the project from the beginning so that I could have all the experience my dad Casey now have.
Check out my dad’s site: http://www.beerpager.com to read more about it, see my work a little closer, and sample the sounds it makes. (Update: the original site is no longer active, but Beer Pagers still show up on eBay now and again.)
Thanks for reading!
Frank
5 Comments
Add Yours →Beep beep… I got to go Frank, something’s paging me.
That is pretty crazy. I must have wasted thousands of litres of beer because I couldn’t find my bottle at a party and just opened a new one.
ahaha these things are awesome frank. My weekend warrior uncle just bought a motorcycle and if he doesnt have a beer in his hand when you see him during family events you know somethings not right. totally getting him one for xmas.
In Sweden we just grab the one with the most beer left in it!
Which is pretty risky cos Swedes use “snus”, ie little pouches of tobacco tucked under the upper lip, that they then spit out in beer cans if they’re indoors.
I was just checking to see if a search for "incredible beer pager" brought me any info on the developer, and woot, what a find! This is awesome! I am enjoying the use of my own incredible beer pager right now, in fact actually *hoping* to lose track of it so I can seek it out by its sound!
I almost didn't comment, but then I realized that this post was from my birthday. Celebrate good times, eh? 🙂 Cheers. And my beer pager would like to add: "belch!"