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

          I hate the word "tap." And I get it; people aren't going to change. It's the word they have always used. That does not mean that I am going to stop fighting. Just because people keep doing it, doesn't make it okay. Examples: racism, spousal abuse, child abuse, slavery, sex trafficking, murder, using the word "decimate" where they mean annihilate, massacre, or obliterate, listening to Nickelback... All of these things still happen, even though we all know how wrong they are. Consider this an official warning: If you, the Beer professional, continue to use the noun "tap" in  my presence, I will do my best to berate and belittle you, in the presence of your peers and underlings.      For you non-professionals and Newbies, I can sense the confusion and shock as it falls across your faces. How does this little, utilitarian word envoke such white-hot rage in the heart of an otherwise kind person?  The thing is, some...

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 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?"...

   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...

    For those of you who may live in the UK or Australia, growler has a different meaning here, in North America. In craft beer terms, a growler is a glass jug, usually 1/2 a gallon or 2L in volume, designed to be a reusable container, for the purchase of draft beer at your local brew pub. It is considered, by many, the best way to purchase fresh beer.      For those of you in North America, who don't understand why our Australian and British friends are snickering right now, do an internet search on British and Australian slang, regarding the word growler.      Devices like the Pegas, as well as other devices for counter pressure filling, and even faucet filling, prescribe to the notion but it is best to purge a growler with pure CO2 before filling it. The reasoning is that we don't want the beer to mingle with oxygen, as it will shorten the shelf life, and negatively affect the flavor. The science is sound, and they have been employing this meth...