IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN POURING BEER CORRECTLY, LET'S FIND OUT IF YOU'RE RIGHT.

This may end up being controversial. But this is not a discussion of Art and style, this is a discussion about putting beer in a glass, rather than in a drain.

Something I was taught to do, fairly early on, in this business, was to watch bartenders pour beer. I have done this thousands of times. How many do you think actually do it correctly? 

    Fewer than 30%, for the most part. The most common mistakes are as follows

1. Touching the faucet to the glass and/or the beer. The faucet and the glass should never make physical contact. Nor should the tip of your faucet ever be submersed in beer or foam. The main reason for this is because after you pour your beer, the residual from that core is exposed to the air . Bacteria and yeast begin to Blue. Flies like to land on that residual beer. Then after an hour you dip that into somebody else's beverage.

 2. Opening the faucet and then without a glass underneath it. You've all seen this. Someone opens the faucet and then sweeps the glass underneath. The big problem with this, is the wasted product that goes right down the drain, during that half second of free pour.  Beer usually pours at about 2 oz a second. So for that half a second that the beer is pouring into the drip tray, you are wasting a full ounce of beer. Allowing 5% for waste, a 50L keg should produce at least 100 US pints or 80 imperial Pints.  This means that you are wasting 80 to 100 oz, per keg using this method.

3.  Opening/closing the faucet incorrectly.  This is one I see from people who have been "..pouring beer for 30 years!"  or who "Grew up in a bar!"  They grab the handle near the top, or by the very top, and then ease it open.  

Then they close it in a similar, leisurely manner.

  Please, NO!  I want to hit them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.  When you ease the faucet, for a short time at the beginning and end of the pour, the beer is squirting through a tiny gap, reminiscent of what water does when you put your thumb over the end of the garden hose.  Only with beer, this makes the CO2 angry, which produces a shot of foam at the start and end of the pour.  First, you needn't even grab the handle.  I want everyone to hold up their right hand, and make the L, but add your middle finger to the forefinger.  

Two fingers to open. Open it all the way, as quickly as possible.

All you need to close it is your thumb. And again, as quickly as possible.

4.  Throttling the faucet.  This is the foolhardy practice of trying to adjust the flow rate of the beer with the main lever. It simply doesn't work.

5.  Leaning on the faucet. For some reason, the guy who does this one is always the most heavy, ham-fisted individual on staff. 

     The constant pressure and weight that this place is on the faucet and Shank, as well as the tower structure, over time will cause major damage. If the faucet is old, worn, or slightly loose, this damage can occur rapidly and suddenly, or can affect the pour by tweaking faucet components out of alignment. 

6.  Frosty glassware

If you were to zoom in on the frosty inner surface of a frozen mug, the ice looks like thousands of tiny teeth. When beer is poured onto this, or over this, it causes an explosion of foam. The simple way around this is to store your glassware just above freezing, as it will still fog up when you take it out of the cooler. You can also give the interior of the glass a quick rinse.

7.  Dishwasher residue

 This usually results in flat beer, rather than excessive foaming. Detergents are designed to break surface tension, allowing oils and water to go into solution, and be washed away. Residues from these detergents will also prevent the formation of bubbles by destroying the surface tension that they require. 

8.  Attempting to pour through the problem.  Beer system malfunctions do not repair themselves. If the beer is foaming, tell the manager or owner that is responsible for having it fixed. As previously stated, you should be able to get a 95% keg yield from a healthy, correctly installed and maintained draft beer system. Remember that drip trays are to catch residual drips, not for pouring off foam.

9.  Head is our friend. Remember that half of flavor is smell. Fear that has a gently fizzing head will produce a better aroma, which makes the beer taste better. Furthermore, a beer with at least half an inch of head will stay fizzy longer, and not warm up as quickly. Stop scraping and dumping head that should be part of the finished pour. Additionally, most beer glassware is actually slightly larger than the volume of beer you are selling. A 16 oz pint glass is usually, actually 17 or 18 oz, if filled to the absolute rim. You are giving away free beer. You may notice that many beer glasses, especially those from Europe, have little fill lines about an inch or two below the rim. They might say something like 0.4L or 330 ml.this is the fill line for the liquid portion of the beer . Anything above this line should be head.

You will always run into those people who refuse to be taught. Ultimately, with such individuals, you are often forced to pour a perfect beer in front of them, and their manager. You have to prove that your method is the correct one . Also, be sure to ask them what the most temperamental beer is. And then stand your ground, but be professional.  Often, however you can avoid conflict with such people by approaching it as a new method. A friend of mine from turbotap taught me to describe it to the server as "learning to cross their arms in the opposite way. " It will feel funny at first, but you will get used to it. 

So during those hours, when you are not allowed behind the bar, sit and watch. It is a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert. Once your knowledge base is respected, in real terms, you are less likely to neat resistance in future interactions. 

As always, thank you for your time and attention. Please share this blog with anyone you think might enjoy it, and feel free to offer comments and insights. I still learn something everyday, and usually from people who regularly ask me for advice.

Cheers.

Dan Broaddus.