So you’ve got your home bar taps installed and your lines are clean. Now you just need to pour your beer into a cold glass and you’re ready to go, right? Wrong! 
There is an art to pouring the perfect draft beer and chances are, you’re doing it incorrectly. We’ll teach you the proper way to pour so that you’ll not only look like a knowledgeable bartender but you’ll also keep your beer consistently tasting great.
Keep it Clean
Starting with a clean glass is imperative to a perfect pour and a great tasting beer. If that statement has you saying, “thanks Captain Obvious”, read on. Beer contains CO2 and that gas will leave the beer and stick to anything foreign on the glass surface, including things you generally can’t see, like detergent residue. Using the proper high heat equipment to clean beer glasses is always a good idea.
Here are a couple of ways that you can check the cleanliness of your glasses.
- Wet the inside of the glass with water and shake table salt inside the glass. The salt will only stick to the clean areas. If you’ve got spots where the salt won’t stick, then you have a dirty glass.
- Fill a glass with beer and look for any bubbles that are clinging to the sides or bottom of the glass and are rising to the top. If you see them, you have a dirty glass.
Practice Proper Form
It may sound trivial, but start by holding the glass at the proper angle – experts suggest 45 degrees. Don’t let the beer trickle out of the tap to avoid a head. Snap open the handle quickly and let the beer flow, allowing it to hit the middle of the glass. Once the beer reaches the halfway to 2/3 full mark, turn the glass upright to finish. This technique properly prevents too much head from forming too quickly. This tip goes for pouring from a bottle or can as well.
Always remember to keep the faucet out of the beer. There could be yeast or nasty bacteria on the mouth of the faucet that could contaminate your delicious brew. Not only is that practice unsanitary, but it’s unprofessional. If you follow the above steps, you won’t find that practice necessary to avoid an overabundance of foam.
Serve and Enjoy
You want to have a little bit of a head on your beer since it brings out the aroma and ultimately, the flavor of the beer. Depending on the brew, you want to have somewhere between ½ inch to ¾ inch head if using a pint glass. Heavier stouts may require a different, slower technique to get the proper pour. As a properly poured pint is consumed, you should see rings of foam on the inside of the glass. These rings are the sign of a good beer, a clean glass, and is said to bring good luck to the drinker.
Now that you know how to achieve the perfect pour, what do you do if you still have issues with temperature, color, smell, or anything else? You call Clean Beer. Contact us today and we can determine where your problems lie and fix them for you so you can always have the perfect beer in the comfort of your own home.