Draft beer is one of the big attractions to any bar worth its salt. People all around the globe are frequenting their favorite spots to get to cold, sudsy, refreshing beers from the tap. People love tap beer because they can try new flavors or go with their trusty favorites. The beer is cold, looks great in the mug, and always tastes good. This happens because the draft beer has been stored, taped, poured correctly. Here’s how to ensure that happens.
Three Keys for Storing Draft Beer
There are three keys to properly storing draft beer: maintaining correct temperature, correct pressure, and reducing agitation within the keg. If these factors are not properly accounted for, it can affect the quality and taste of the beer, reducing your guests experience and their likelihood to order again.
Keep the Keg at a Good Temperature
The first key is to find a good temperature for the beer. Most beer inside a draft beer keg is pasteurized, which means it’s important to keep it cold. High temperatures can causes excess foam, while low temperatures produce a flat taste because the flavor is not being released. To avoid either one of these scenarios, aim for 38 degrees Fahrenheit. If you go a tad lower, you won’t hurt the beer, but any higher may affect its quality.
Maintaining Correct Keg Pressure
The second key for storing draft beer properly is pressure. Pressure that is too low will make for a few glasses full of foam, ruining those glasses. Unfortunately, after that, the beer will begin to taste flat as the night progresses. Pressure that is too high will cause the beer to come out of the keg too quickly. This will have a reverse affect, starting off with flatter beer and eventually resulting in foamy pours at the end. Keeping the pressure around 10-12 PSI (for most American ales) should work. However, each brand and each beer is a little different. If you encounter a problem with a specific beer, try calling the distributor to find out what they recommend.
Let The Beer Settle First
The last key to delicious tap beer is to make sure that you are careful with your keg before you tap it. The less shaking and rolling it experiences the better the consistency of the beer will be. A keg of beer is like a can of beer or 2 liter of soda. It’s wise idea to let it settle once you get it into position before puncturing the seal. Make sure you are planning ahead so you can do this without losing business. If you do not do this, the agitated keg will release the wrong about of foam and will again give you an inconsistent and disappointing quality of beer throughout the duration of the keg. A F.O.B. detector is a great way to help with this issue.
Properly storing draft beer is an important bar best practice. It’s right up there with proper draft beer pouring, and regular beer line cleaning. At Clean Beer, in Milford, MA, we offer the full spectrum of servicing beer lines, from installation to cleaning and maintenance. We have recently installed systems at the Sam Adams Brewery in Boston and Foxwoods Casino, in Connecticut. We not only offer the full spectrum of servicing beer lines, we also sell new and used beer line equipment, ornate and imported dispense towers, and much more. Clean Beer is the home of the clean beer line experts, contact us about for installation, maintained, or our other services.