I am sure you have heard the old adage “you have to spend money to make money.” Well, I think dealing with draught beer falls into this category.
At most golf facilities beer would be the biggest beverage alcohol category, and within that draught beer would account for the largest dollar sales. If this sounds like your club then I have to ask the question: “how much do you actually know about draught beer and draught beer systems”?
Well, if you’re like me you probably feel pretty comfortable with your draught beer knowledge, after all I’ve been in the hospitality business for over 30 years and I went to school for it as well.
This past winter when I was looking into a way of growing our beer business, I was introduced to Certified Cicerone (beer sommelier) Steve Reilly from Better Beer.com and it was then that I realized I don’t know quite as much as I thought I did.
I sat in on one of Steve’s presentations to a class of college students, and after about 90 minutes I had a whole new respect for draught beer, and all of the intricacies that come along with dealing with the sensitive product that it is.
That’s right, I said sensitive. I had never looked at draught beer in this light before and I would guess that neither have most of you. The brew master makes the beer to specifications based on how he wants the end product to taste. Part of this calculation is how much carbonation is in the beer. It now makes sense that this is one of the reasons why it is so important that you use beer gas and not CO2, and that you need to make sure your lines are cleaned every four weeks and are cleaned properly.
Most package products are packaged with extra carbonation because the brew master expects that you are going to pour it into a glass, which will result in a loss of carbonation. If you drink directly from the can you are actually not consuming the product as the brew master intended.
With this new found knowledge of beer I felt it important that our team be equally as informed, so I booked Steve to come in and train our team. For our training program we started with classroom style training for the managers, then online staff training, all of which was conducted by Better Beer.com.
It was very simple to execute and manage from start to finish. For the managers’ training the focus was on proper handling of the kegs and keg system, as well as increasing profits through waste reduction, and hands on staff training. We also covered the importance of line cleaning and how to check to make sure your line cleaner is doing a good job.
The Better Beer.com program can also include Quality Certification and social media accreditation, monthly inspections, and a report card by a Better beer.com professional, ongoing web-based training, and brand specific education.
Needless to say, we hired Steve and his team to help us improve the draught beer experience that we give to our members. By doing so we are providing a better product and overall experience that we are banking on to grow our beer business. Although it is still early in the season, things are looking pretty good.
If you are looking at improving your beer experience, sales, or simply reducing waste, you should check out betterbeer.com and join the growing list of successful companies that have turned to them to help ensure they are provided the best beer experience possible.
