Draught Is My Craft: Troubleshooting Life from the Draught Technicians Perspective

This is a True story.  You will notice that I do not name the business, nor the town in which it is located. I do this to protect innocent parties. Crappy businesses often have employees, that either have nowhere else to go, or who are bullied into keeping their mouths shut. Furthermore, one or more of the businesses involved may have changed hands by the time I write this story. It would be completely unfair to disparage the new operator, without first seeing if they have made any changes. Usually they have.      In today's tale, I shall tell  of the Horror of the Five Keg Series.       I believe it was late Spring, when I was dispatched to a "Hotel", in a mid-sized city in Southern Ontario, on behalf of a local Craft Brewery. Like many cities of this size, in Ontario, it is fairly isolated. It has one or two smaller satellite cities, but for the most part, is surrounded by farmland or wilderness.  The city is an older one, founded as a...

  These are the rules that I follow, to guide the way in which I do this job. They have served me well. They have, and will continue to evolve. It may not even be a complete list, because after a while, some of the things we do are instinctual, and don't enter consciousness. I will try to revisit this list twice a year, and if I think of an addition or a tweak, I will put it in as soon as it comes to mind. I hope they serve you half as well as they have served me. 1. Always specify equipment capable of delivering 125% of Armageddon-level demand. Pretend St. Patrick's Day falls on Halloween, durring game 7 of a Stanly Cup final between the Leafs and the Penguins.  2. Whenever possible, pull two extra lines. 3. When estimating run lengths, labor hours,  or BTUs, Round up.  4. Drip trays are for drips, not dumps, pours, or send-backs. Only drips. Otherwise it would be called a pour tray.  5. When you are told over the phone that "the tap" is broken, it is never the...

At what temp should Draught be stored, and poured? This may not seem like a controversial subject, but for some reason, it is.  The issue is that the best temperature for tasting your beer often differs from the best temperature for pouring your beer. The bottom line is, beer that is properly carbonated needs to be below 40° f/4° c, to pour correctly. Some beers will even begin to act up at 39° f/3.5° c. Most literature on the subject says 38 degrees Fahrenheit or 3° c is your desired keg temperature. This is not false, nor is it entirely true.      Let me tell you what I think, and then defend it. Target your keg storage temperature for 2° c/ 36° f.      "That's too cold." drones Morgyn, who is my fictitious, archetype, Know-it-all.  This is mostly true, especially when you're talking about craft ales. Most experts will agree that the optimal flavor profile is found between 4° c/40° f and 7° c/48° f.. "But, what about light lagers,  Morgyn?"...

  As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, a lot of us have food on the brain. As well we should. When we are dealing with craft Brewers, and bar people, alone, it is never difficult to explain the concept of beer as food. Yet, for some strange reason, this is a difficult concept for chefs, and restaurant GM's to absorb, at times.    One great thing about this job is that you get to have the same conversation over and over again. "How is this great?", you might ask. It's great because you get to practice. How many times in your personal life have you walked away from an argument feeling like you've lost it, and an hour or so later thinking of the perfect retort. It is because we have the same arguments over and over, we get to develop the perfect retort in advance.      I will give you an example.  I was called to get a beer system running in a restaurant that was quite old, but had been purchased by a new owner. They were spending tens of thousa...

   I get a lot of confused calls from my customers, and from end users, asking me what the reading on the tank pressure gauge is actually telling them. Well, hopefully it's telling them a  truth. Unfortunately, like a lot of truths, it may not be the truth that they are hoping to hear.    What your gauge is telling you depends on the type of gauge, and what it is reporting on. The first question is, what sort of gas is in the tank? The second question is, what gauge are you looking at?  3rd, what does the gauge measure, and in what units?    The gases we most commonly interact with, as it pertains to beverage dispense, are carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2). Sometimes, we might be dealing with beer gas, AKA Aligal , AKA G-gas, these are simply Trade and Trademark names for specific Blends of CO2 and N2, which may or may not be the best choice for your beer system, but are often a "better" choice. I will tackle that one in a different blog, aft...

I do understand the dangers of generalizing. So, please understand that this is merely an observation, and of course, not everyone is always what they appear to be. Political correctness aside, and journalistic integrity intact, my experience as a Draught Equipment Technician has  taught me that, when approaching any sale, it helped to identify my customer. Knowing who my customer was, in terms of spending appetite, and risk tolerance, was absolutely instrumental in knowing how to approach a sale. And don't you dare recoil at the word sale. We all sell things. Politicians sell ideas and agendas. Religious folks sell "God". Most of my customers sell beer, other alcoholic beverages, not alcoholic craft-beverages, service, or like me, beverage equipment. Just because it is necessary, doesn't mean that it sells itself. I have found that there are three main personalities types, when it comes to decision makers, in restaurants. I am intentionally leaving out a fourth type,...