37/ Everything I Know About Pouring Beer
I decided to write a simple manual for all bartenders, in order to raise the quality of beer pouring here in Slovakia. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few establishments here that suffer from poor beer-pouring quality. Please, if you know of a bar, restaurant, or other establishment in your area that doesn't know how to handle beer, have them read this article. Together, we can broadly raise satisfaction, bring people back into society, and, hopefully, in the end, elevate the gastro sector here in Slovakia as a whole.
BEER IS NOT JUST BEER
My intention in this article is not to unify the method of pouring, but to show you a simple principle which, once you understand it, will let you understand much more quickly the beer you're currently pouring, and will let you train your own staff faster too. Every beer is, after all, different — brewed differently, of different quality — and each one calls for its own particular pouring style. As the bartender, you are the one who, through pouring, fine-tunes the final taste of the beer. The variety of flavors out there today is already huge. I myself work at an establishment that constantly rotates through seven different kinds of craft beers, and I see with my own eyes that diversity, which didn't used to exist. I see how a beer can be badly brewed, well brewed, and I see how, with every single one, I have to think about the right way to pour it.
SOFTEN THE TASTE, OR MAKE IT MORE BITTER?
There are three basic pouring styles: beer with wet foam, beer with dry foam, or beer with a "Pilsner head" (that's how I'll refer to it in this article, since this pouring style is essential for a properly poured Pilsner). When pouring with wet foam, we soften the beer's taste; when pouring with dry foam, the beer becomes a bit more bitter; with the "Pilsner head," the taste is softened while the final bitterness is emphasized.
A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE: BEER FIRST, THEN FOAM
Every type of tap handle really only offers two pouring options: either just beer, or just foam. Don't go looking for any other steps in between — in fact, it's exactly these steps that help you pour beer correctly. Whether you have a classic precision tap or a fast-flow lever used in larger establishments, always think only in terms of the step "beer" or the step "foam."
1/ Pouring with wet foam — First step. Into a clean, washed, wet glass, pour just beer at an angle, up to the rim line. The angle and the correct pressure set at the tap allow us to pour the beer as gently as possible into the glass. Here you need to realize that our goal is to pour the beer into the glass with as much of its natural CO2 preserved as possible — CO2 that every beer contains — and we must not knock the beer around right at the pour and strip it of its natural carbonation. Second step. If we've managed to pour the beer into the glass with as little foam formed as possible, we now top it off with just foam, all the way to the rim of the glass. I recommend overfilling by a millimeter so that the wet foam rises all the way to the very top of the glass. A trick to prevent losses while pouring is to cut the foam (level it off) with the straight handle of a soup spoon, as soon as possible after finishing the foam pour, while the foam is still rising up through the beer. In that case, you won't need to overfill much foam to get a smooth, even head. Simple: just beer, then just foam, and level it off.
2/ Pouring with dry foam. First step. Pour just beer up to three-quarters of the glass (0.4 l if you're pouring a 0.5 l beer), so that as little foam as possible forms. Second step. Top off with just foam, all the way to the rim of the glass, cut it, and wait a moment for the foam to "dry." Third step. Top off with just beer, up to the rim line. Simple: just beer, just foam, cut it, wait, and just beer up to the rim line.
3/ Pouring a Pilsner head. I use the two methods above most often — they're the fastest, most suitable for most beers, and involve the smallest losses. However, some beers practically demand a slightly more complex pouring method. Either the Pilsner I already mentioned, or beers that produce little foam. For the "Pilsner head," we first pour just foam for about 1 to 2 seconds, then just beer up to the rim line, and finally, underneath the beer's surface, we pour just foam. The foam needs to overflow the rim a bit more, in order to achieve the perfect shape. We do not cut this foam. The downside of this method is pouring several beers at once for larger groups.
LET'S CHOOSE THE RIGHT TACTIC
Pouring ten beers at once, without any of the foam collapsing, is demanding when using the Pilsner head method. Here, speed and dexterity are what matter, and unfortunately it often happens that a bartender deals with the problem for large groups by pouring 0.4 l instead of 0.5 l and foaming the beer up more. That's understandable, but it's more honest, if you pour beer this way, to reflect that fact in the establishment's price list. I've already seen a 0.47 l measure in some Pilsner-focused restaurants, and it made me happy. With wet foam or dry foam, the problem with larger orders disappears, because I first pour just beer into ten glasses, and only then top off just foam into all of them. This way, the bartender gains more time before the foam collapses.
TECHNICAL SETUP
As you can see, the actual pouring is no great science — anyone can master it, even a young part-time worker; all it takes is understanding the principle and getting a bit of practice. However, for only foam or only beer to come out of the tap, the draft system needs to be set up correctly. The basis is the right pressure and the right cold temperature. Nowadays, on the market, you can find every technical means of regulating beer temperature and pressure. Depending on your investment, you'll get either a perfect regulating draft system, or just a basic one. This article isn't aimed at large establishments, which already know how to, and have the resources to, get a perfect regulating draft system; I'd like to dedicate this article to smaller establishments, which are afraid to invest in a draft system, and of which there are more — so I'll only mention the cheaper solution options.
THE RIGHT BEER PRESSURE
Pressure is mainly a problem for establishments that try to pour multiple kinds of beer, have several taps, and push the beer through a single gas cylinder. From experience, I don't recommend pushing more than two beers through a single cylinder (through a single regulating valve).
Again, so that we understand the principle. Our goal, when setting the pressure, is to set it as low as possible, so that the beer still flows from the keg to the tap, but without pressure fluctuations. We must not overpressurize it and over-carbonate the beer while pouring. Otherwise, we're needlessly turning the beer into soda. The ideal pressure is around 1.5 to 1.8 atmospheres. (But everyone has to find their own lower limit.)
There are three types of pushing gases: air (compressor), CO2 gas, and beer gas (a gas mixture). Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Air is the cheapest; it doesn't carbonate the beer, but it also doesn't preserve the beer. A keg of beer will last you a maximum of 1 to 3 days. I therefore recommend air for establishments with fewer beers but a high volume of beer sold (it's not suitable for pushing craft, unpasteurized, unfiltered beers). CO2 is the best preservative, but it also over-carbonates the beer the most easily. With CO2, you have to have the pressure perfectly set to as low a value as possible. Then the beer won't get over-carbonated, and it will keep for 7-10 days once tapped. Beer gas is the best option for establishments that pour a lot of beer from a single cylinder. At high pressures, it doesn't over-carbonate the beer as much and lets you keep the beer tapped for 6-7 days. Beer gas allows you to pressurize the system up to 3 atmospheres.
Some establishments have no choice but to push beer at high pressure, whether due to finances or due to limited storage space. For bartenders at such establishments, I recommend "breaking up" the beer while pouring — that is, pouring it from a greater height into the corner of the bottom of a tilted glass, the same way you would pour bottled beer.
THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE
Beer is also sensitive to temperature. When it's warm, it foams up "like the devil"; when it's over-chilled, it won't foam "for the life of you." Again, every beer is different, brewed differently, differently sensitive to temperature, and it often happens, in establishments with multiple beers, that two out of ten either foam too much or not enough, and you simply always end up struggling when pouring one of them.
The solution is either to have multiple cooling circuits (an immense advantage when pouring "cut" beer blends), the most powerful beer cooler you can get, or to secure a refrigerated storage room, or to secure ice-cold glasses that will further chill the beer as it's poured.
The right temperature is therefore individual, and we each have to find the right one for our own beer, separately, for each one. It generally ranges from 4 to 8 degrees Celsius at the tap.
HYGIENE
A far from unimportant area of concern for a bartender working with beer must be hygiene. Whether it's care for the draft lines, the taps and couplers, or the cleanliness of the glasses themselves. I recommend cleaning the lines, couplers, and taps both chemically and mechanically (with a cleaning ball) at least once every two weeks. The taps need to be disassembled and their entire internal mechanism cleaned — this is where the most common problem causing degraded beer flavor is found.
We can reduce the buildup and settling of impurities by keeping the cooling equipment running continuously (24/7) and keeping the beer in the lines chilled even while the establishment is closed.
I recommend washing glasses by hand with a sponge and dish soap, and rinsing them thoroughly with a "glass rinser," or alternatively in a sink with cold water, so that they are perfectly clean (free of soap) and cold before pouring — otherwise, once the beer is poured, micro-bubbles will form on the glass. Micro-bubbles are a signal of micro dust particles, and are therefore a sign of a dirty glass. I don't like that — it doesn't change the taste, but it ruins the visual appeal 200%.
Washing beer glasses in a dishwasher is a sin! It will unnaturally warm your beer glass, which automatically changes the temperature of the beer as it's poured, and there is nothing worse than getting a warm glass of beer in your hands. At the end of your shift, feel free to wash all the glasses in the dishwasher.
CONCLUSION
There's nothing complicated about pouring beer — you just need to be aware of a few principles and understand how pressure, temperature, and cleanliness affect our beer. I hope this article helps many of you set up your draft system for your own satisfaction, and above all for your customers' satisfaction, and helps us bring people back from in front of the TV and the computer to in front of the tap once again, into the company of loved ones and friends, where we've all belonged since time immemorial. You can also find this article at www.projektz.sk, and you'll understand why I wrote it.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to meet you in person and tell you, show you, everything I know about pouring beer. You can find me pouring beer at Clock-Block, an establishment with an exceptional concept near Eurovea Park, across from Incheba in Bratislava. Stop by for a chat.
P.S.: Kofola and other non-alcoholic drinks can be poured nicely this way too. Let's make use of that.
Juraj Tušš
