Beverage dispensing container, apparatus, system and method

The present invention is directed to a beverage dispensing system comprising at least one beverage dispensing container, a computing device and a base unit upon or within which, in use, the at least one container is positioned. The at least one container comprises a reservoir of beverage, a communication element having storage means storing data indicative of the contents of the beverage dispensing container, a manually actuatable dispensing valve for selectively controlling the flow of beverage from the reservoir to a container outlet, and pressurising means arranged to pressurise the beverage against the dispensing valve such that when the dispensing valve is opened beverage flows from the reservoir and out of the container outlet. The base unit comprises at least one base-container transceiver for wirelessly reading data from and writing data to the communication element, at least one base-device transceiver for wirelessly communicating with the computing device, and a control unit for controlling the communication of data from the computing device to the communication element and vice-versa. The system is particularly suitable for storing and dispensing alcoholic beverages. RFID or NFC tags or labels and readers are used.