Feeling the draft: new systems and equipment put draft beer center stage

Cheers, Oct, 2005 by Howard Riell

Advances in beer system technology are evolutionary, not revolutionary. In beer parlance, they come in more as a drip than a pour.

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But there have been incremental improvements. Self-cleaning, self-contained, smaller-footprint systems are making life easier in tight bar and restaurant environments. But perhaps the most important improvement in several years has been the so-called quick-fill systems that not only deliver colder beer into glasses and pitchers but also cut waste and thus save money. Other manufacturers have developed and are marketing systems that drop draft beer's temperature as low as 26 or 29 degrees.

At the same time, with food safety fervor at a fever pitch, cleaning products and procedures have moved solidly to the fore, with manufacturers helping out in several ways.

According to Curt Dollar, president of Berg Company in Madison, WI, the changes in draft systems have been gradual. "There have been some things out there, some small changes in the tap faucets, and some other small changes in beer pumps. But nothing significant besides this type of technology." Berg has been a manufacturer of liquor dispensers, beer equipment and beverage dispensing systems for the hospitality industry for over 30 years.

"The latest in beer system technology is the fast-fill devices that have hit the market in the last couple of years," says Dollar, whose company markets one. Berg's sister company, Dispensing Systems, has a nearly two-year-old product called a Mega-Tap that controls foaming by basically filling a glass from the bottom up. "In a typical keg we can get in excess of 98 percent yield, where the industry average is around 75 to 80 percent."

As Dollar explains, "We do two things: we deliver the beer to the bottom of the glass so that we can fill the glass very rapidly. We also use a pretty complex chamber that actually processes foam, and keeps it from not ending up in your cup."

BOTTOM LINE GAINS

Such a system can add "quite a bit" to operators' bottom line, adds Dollar. "You're adding approximately 20 percent more yield on a keg. There are 1,984 ounces of beer in a typical keg. If you consider that you're wasting, on average, 20 to 25 percent and that we can reduce that to less than 2 percent waste, that's a substantial savings." The system is also able to dispense into glasses at the rate of a pint within two seconds. Typically, he says, a pint would take from 12 to 14 seconds out of a standard faucet.

Derrick Gordy, business manager for Fizz Dispense Optimization Group in Adairsville, GA, says the industry is "still developing that trend of improved draft quality and diversification of draft offerings. I don't know if you'd call it a great [improvement], but it seems like we're doing a better job of it every day as time goes by."

Increasingly, Gordy says, Americans look at drinking draft beer as a sampling experience. "They're looking for something they don't have at home, something they can't get in the grocery or liquor store. Demand, I think, has driven this kind of variety. There are a lot of regional brewers, and the ones that don't have the high quality have fallen by the wayside in the last few years."

Changes Gordy has seen over the last couple of years have been on the dispensing side. "Brewers have been brewing good beer for years here in the U.S. The pursuit now--to dispense it and get it to the customer at that same level of quality--is still probably in its early stages. The focus is on how to do things properly. But we're still a little bit on the uphill slope."

According to Gordy, foamy beer wastes an average of 15 percent, or $10.50 per keg. At the rate of 25 kegs per month, that's $263. Flat beer, he adds, wastes an average of 10 percent, or $7 per keg--to $175 per month at the same 25-keg rate.

The basic idea is to ease the movement of draft beer from the kegs stocked in the back of the restaurant (for ease in deliveries) to bars, especially those in remote locations, such as dance floors. Now, operators can push beer nearly any distance they need to. "You're not limited by the length of run, or by having these short little boxes under-bar," Gordy says.

RETROFIT TECHNOLOGY

"Our technology is not a full-on system, but a retrofit technology," says Matthew Younkle, president and chief technology officer of Laminar Technologies in Chicago and the inventor of its TurboTap product. It's a nozzle, effectively, that attaches to existing beer systems and allows the retailer to pour beer more consistently and, if they choose, more quickly.

"Our nozzle fills glasses or pitchers from the bottom up," Younkle points out. "It doesn't always extend to the bottom of the cup or pitcher, but we like to get down there." Being "down there" accomplishes a couple of things, including removing a lot of trial-and-error pouring. "The way beer systems work nowadays, and the way you pour beer, there are literally a thousand different ways you can hold and tilt the cup. There are a lot of great bartenders out there, but there are also a lot of bartenders who are a little scared of draft beer."