What’s the most common mistake people make when pouring a pint of beer?

I think they keep their hand on the tap handle and they jiggle it. It creates more foam and super-carbonates the beer so you’re actually getting gassier and filled up faster. Another one is, if we’re looking at traditional pouring methods, people stick the nozzle right inside the glass. That, to me, is the absolute worst thing you can do, because beer is food. When you’re getting beer on the outside of the nozzle, you’re attracting airborne bacteria and then you’re putting that dirty tap back into someone else’s beer. To me, that’s just unhygienic.

How does a bar owner ensure his/her staff is pouring properly?

First of all, you have to train them and show them the right ways to pour first so you get rid of any of the bad habits that they may have. Then, once you have the right methods in place to make sure they’re pouring properly, you just audit them every once in awhile or you have someone do a mystery shop on them. It’s a way bar owners can increase their profitability – by understanding exactly how much beer to pour. If you’re missing two ounces of beer on every glass of beer, it could amount to tens of thousands of dollars per line, so in the greater scheme of things, that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars that you’re washing down the drain.

Do certain types of beer require different pouring techniques?

A beer’s carbonation will determine how you pour it. Beers that are re-fermented generally have a little higher carbonation inside the keg so you have to be a lot more careful with how you pour them, otherwise you’ll over-foam. Certain glasses dictate how you can pour. Guinness and Boddingtons and Caffrey’s almost require beer to go straight into the glass in either a two or three-step pour. Every beer has subtle differences. 

Why is clean glassware important?

It’s really an interesting comment because it’s not necessarily unclean; it’s just not beer clean. So it might be clean, but it may have too much residue on the inside. If there’s too much residue the typical telltale signs are that the bubbles are leaving the beer and clinging to the glass where the residue is. So what you’re, in essence, getting is a much flatter beer. Clean glassware means we’re getting nice clean, fresh beer in there, that’s lasting the carbonation all the way through from start to finish.

How does draft line cleaning affect the taste of the beer?

Beer is a food product, and it’s going to build up within the draft line. If you don’t take care of them and clean them every three to four weeks, you’ll leave protein, bacteria and yeast products in the beer line. Once those start to build up, they create off flavours and off tastes in beers. They can over-carbonate the beer too because the draft line is closing down and narrowing, which means it requires more pressure to get it through so it’s coming out foamy. Overall, people aren’t getting a good draft experience. One of the problems we’re having right now is draft has actually dropped over the last 10 years by three percentage points, so that means people aren’t having good experiences.

How can beer presentation affect a bar owner’s bottom line?

If people have bad experiences, they typically do one of two things. They’ll move from draft to bottled and draft is generally speaking, more profitable for the bar owner than bottled products are. Then what they do is they talk about it. People start realizing that this venue isn’t a place where they’re going to get good quality draft, so draft sales are going to drop off and eventually the bar owners are not going to clean their lines as much and it’s going to become a continuing circle. If they’re not enjoying the draft in a particular location, they’re going to leave. If they go someplace else, they’re going to take some friends with them and that just means a decline in traffic and a decline in income. So to me, having great quality beer means you’re going to bring more people in. It’s a way of increasing traffic, maintaining your customer base and showing them that you care for them. I think ultimately consumers want to know, as a bar owner or restaurateur, that we care for them.