How to Improve Your Bar

Whether you own a brewery or a craft beer bar, your tap wall selection drives repeat customers to your business. Crafting a well-thought-out selection strategy will ensure your tap wall is an asset to the core of your business.

Like a business plan, a tap wall selection strategy is intended to be a living document, updated as various market factors change.

This is a guest post from our friends at PourMyBeer, a next-generation self-pour beverage system with over 8,000 taps in 24 countries. Having installed the most taps out of any self-pour tech providers in 2019 and 2020, PourMyBeer helps us understand the direct benefits of this technology.

As beverage companies continue to return to business as usual, innovative self-pour beverage technology could be a unique solution to decrease labor and increase profits. For customers self-pour beverage walls allow guests the freedom to pour their own beer, wine, cocktails, cold brew, and kombucha whenever they want and pay by the ounce. For operators self-serve technology increases beverage sales, simplifies operations, boosts serving efficiency, and reduces waste.

Here at PourMyBeer, we have seen the rise in self-service technology across all industries. In fact, a market analysis report done on the self-serve technology market size found, “The global self-service technology market size was valued at USD 28.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7% from 2020 to 2027.” Specifically, the restaurant industry has benefitted greatly from self-pour service. The reason why? This technology creates more efficient and simplified operations, saves operators money, and increases profits.

So, why should you consider self-pour beer? It just makes sense!

Let’s dive into four reasons why you should have a self-pour beer wall in your bar or brewery:

Last year, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced many bars, restaurants, taprooms, and breweries to shut down, changing the industry and drinking culture completely. As consumers were forced to drink at home, businesses turned to various strategies to keep the revenue flowing. One of these was serving batch cocktails to go.

According to a Bacardi Limited 2021 annual Cocktail Trends Report with external research commissioned by Nielsen CGA, ready-to-drink beverages such as canned cocktails grew 131 percent in the U.S. market.

Now, as people start safely returning to their barstools, they’re looking for more creative and experimental ways to consume their mixed drinks. Cocktails on tap are an innovative way to serve hard beverages — and they have a huge amount of benefits. From being more efficient than regular cocktails, to requiring fewer employees to serve, lowering operational costs, and increasing profits, cocktails on tap are a smart, viable strategy for any bar, restaurant, brewery, or taproom, especially as businesses across the country continue reopening.

Updated: 2/3/22

I’m sure I’m not alone in that when I’m out for a beer at a bar or brewery, I want something on draft. It’s a special experience to watch a beer poured with a perfect head then slid across the bar to my grasp. This feeling is why many people open bars and breweries in the first place — along with the love for the beer industry and craft beer.

In order to make the right decision for how to best serve up a frosty one at your venue, you have to know the pros and cons of different tap systems.

Whether you’re looking to install a totally new system, or upgrade your existing taps, there are a few options that range in monetary and spacial cost. The three systems we’ll be diving into are: the kegerator, direct draw, and long draw tap systems.