Beer - the ultimate thirst quencher

Nation's Restaurant News, June 26, 1989

Beer -- the ultimate thirst quencher

Beer may be the drink of summer, but it takes promotion to really keep the brew flowing and the numbers high.

For example, CPI in Westhampton, N.Y., a posh beach resort, is jammed on normally slow Wednesday nights. That is Employees' Night, when the bar attracts young adults who work at other Hamptons night spots by discounts, prizes, t-shirts, and caps from the local Coors beer rep.

Go a little further down the road to Amagansett, another Hampton community, and at Oceans, there's a Wednesday night beauty contest that pumps up the libidos of the able-bodied.

Each week there is a Miss Hawaiian Tropics Corps Light, another beer promotion that transforms what might otherwise be an off-night at the cash register into one where the bells ring late and loud.

But promotions and entertainment aside, there is more than fun and games to seling beer. The basics count, perhaps more so than with any other alcoholic beverage, and the way a glass of beer is served can make the difference between one sale and a whole batch of sales.

Chris Stiglin, beverage manager for the Manhattan Ocean Beach Club in New York, emphasizes the fundamentals, along with some fundamental psychology.

"Beer," he stresses, "is the ultimate thirst quencher, particularly when it's served ice cold, and for draft beer, that means keeping the lines ice cold.

"The trick in pouring beer is to give people that nice one and three-quarter inches head, and if your system and pressure are well maintained, that's what you should get all the time. It's important to have nice, clean glasses, whether for bottled or draft beer, so that the bubbles don't stick to the side of the glass. We serve beer in clean, frosted glasses, and it comes to the customer looking really good."

Training is essential to Stiglin's beverage program, whether it be beer, wine, or spirits or food at the Ocean Club. Staffers are encouraged to taste the product, so that they can sell it better. "We have frequent tastings for waiters as well as bartenders, so that they are better able to sell a beer when they are asked their preferences, and they can say X beer is milder, has more of an amber color, and be able to suggest a good import that they've tried themselves."

Stiglin, who's worked in several bars in Manhattan and on nearby Staten Island, believes in the psychology of selling.

"If you're calling off a batch of beers for the customer, position on the list is all important. Say you're describing a half-dozen beers. The best sellers will be the first and last ones you name, because they're the ones the customer will be able to remember easily."

The best way of telling customers about beer, however, is a simple table tent or card, which can be presented by staff or fastened to the table. Information should include origin, style, description of taste, and appearance, and perhaps a food suggestion to match.

A good beer list opens a whole new dimension for a restaurant, appealing to beginners and seasoned beer drinkers alike as well as to the sophisticated customers who want to try new taste sensations.

It's nice to list a lot of beers, but this isn't always practical. Variety is more important, and while for many years Americans have been content with one style of beer, light-bodied pilsners, they are more experimental today.

A good list offers choice, and there's plenty of choice among today's domestics and imports.

Basically there are four types of beer in addition to the most familiar variety, pilsner, which is a larger. They are amber and dark lager, ale, stout and porter, and weiss beer, and a good list should include representation from all five groups.

Beers are broken into two categories, top-fermenting types, where yeast rises to the top, and bottom fermenting, where the yeast sinks to the bottom of the vat during brewing. Pilsner-type beers, named after the Czech town, where Pilsner Urrquell has been brewed for centuries, are the most common American type.

They are lagers, a generic term for bottom-fermented beers. Lagers, aged at cool temperatures, generally are light in taste and color.

PHOTO : Whether bottled or from the tap, beer flows more freely in summer