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

   There are certain... Personalities... that we come across, and have to deal with,  while working within the restaurant, bar, and hospitality industries. I find that there are about 4 main types but I would classify as our nemesis', or at the very least, our frenemies. These are the people that make our lives difficult, day after day. However, these are also the people who keep us employed, as they continue to ignore our advice, and our warnings, resulting in ever larger invoices.      Today I will introduce you to the first, whom I have named Gui(Ghee).  If you are unfamiliar with this French origin nickname, it is the short form of Guillaume. If you live in the Southern United States, you might be familiar with the Spanish version, Guillermo. I imagine there are many other derivatives, but the name is not actually important. You may call this guy whatever you like. I don't wish to be gender biased here, but in my personal experience, this pers...

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...

  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...