Sonya Hook reports on how keeping your cellar and equipment in good working order can make a major difference to your pub's profits.
The last thing a bar manager wants on a busy Saturday night shift is a lengthy delay behind the bar because a gas cylinder needs changing. Equally, getting complaints about the beer quality due to poorly-cleaned equipment is something no bartender will relish, whatever the time of day.
"A well-maintained cellar should help to significantly reduce the likelihood of this sort of thing happening," says Gavin Carlo, customer services delivery manager for dispense experts Innserve. "Every call we get to our technical services department from a licensee having problems is lost dispense time and, therefore, potentially lost business for them. So we encourage licensees to be proactive and to get proper training."
Innserve offers training to all its customers, sending out a technician who will deliver basic or advanced training on site, depending on the licensee's needs.
"The most common mistakes we see are around glass management, line cleaning, topping up remote coolers and maintaining cellar temperature by checking cellar temperature controls (CTC)," says Carlo. "If licensees could be more proactive about checking some of this small stuff they would avoid the danger of losing business on a busy Saturday night through malfunctioning equipment."
Good cellar maintenance is one element of cellar management, another is to ensure it contains the equipment that best suits your pub.
In the case of a pub that needs to change a gas cylinder at an inopportune moment, for example, customers can face a long wait while the heavy carbon dioxide cylinder is installed and then further delays as line pressure is reinstated.
CryoService is one company that claims its gas solutions can help to eradicate these incidents. The company's Accellarate system is cylinder free, which means an end to manual handling. CarboStore tanks, which can be supplied with a remote filling facility located on the outside wall of the venue, mean deliveries can be made without even entering the cellar. This system has also dramatically reduced the health and safety risks traditionally associated with drinks dispense gases, according to the company.
"Our Accellarate drinks dispense gas supply system is proving popular with leisure-sector clients for a number of reasons — health and safety, cost benefits with savings derived from operational and product quality improvements, as well as improved asset management," says Gary Creed, business manager of CryoService's leisure division.
Top tips from a Greene King expert
Maintaining cellar temperatures and ensuring that equipment is working correctly are essential if you want to provide customers with the perfect pint.
"The primary point about stocking cask ale is to make sure that you're prepared to follow some simple principles," says Greene King's quality manager Richard Maisonpierre.
"It's not difficult, but takes a little bit of effort. Licensees should motivate their staff to look after cask ale — this could include training days and regular tasting sessions.
"Staff should understand and appreciate the product and be able to really sell cask ale
to customers, not just let them buy it."
Maisonpierre recommends the following tips for stocking cask ale:
Cellar practice
• Keep cellar clean and tidy, clearing up spillages immediately.
• Clean lines at least every seven days.
• Remember to allow at least 24 hours and up to 48 hours for larger containers of keg beer to adjust to the cellar temperature.
• Always vent cask beers within two to four hours of stillaging and then condition at the correct cellar temperature for at least 72 hours to allow clarity, aroma and taste to develop correctly.
Cellar coolers
• Ensure this all-important equipment is serviced by a qualified engineer and is working correctly.
• Keep air vents clear of dust and fluff.
• Check air temperature daily and keep a record so that trends, up or down, can be monitored and action taken. Place two good quality thermometers in different areas at cask/keg height away from walls and not in the direct airflow from cooler.
Remote and ale Python coolers
• Keep air vents clear of dust and fluff.
• Check water/coolant levels at least weekly, topping up as necessary.
• Check operating temperature daily. If your unit is designed to have an ice bank, monitoring and identifying a reduction or lack of ice early in the day could save an entire busy day's trade with an early call to your cellar service department.
Dispense
• Part of the training is that staff understand that cask ale is a fresh, live product, which when served in good condition is the best drink the world. They should be able to talk it up and sell it, and pour a "perfect pint". Poor presentation and technique at this late stage can ruin all the good work that went in before.
• Check dispense temperatures daily.
• Always use a clean, cool, correctly branded glass for every serve.
Case study: Railway Hotel, Blandford, Dorset
Dispense company: IMI Cornelius
Customer: Nigel Jones, owner, Railway Hotel, Blandford, Dorset
Requirement: The Railway Hotel is an independent freehouse. It shows numerous sporting events simultaneously across its 22 television screens. It requires beverage dispense equipment capable of meeting high levels of demand in short time periods.
Solution: Cornelius delivered a holistic solution, which included glycol cooling, high-speed dispense systems and automatic keg changers to meet the needs of this busy venue.
Cornelius's fast-pour system was teamed with the company's automatic keg changeover device, which automatically changes a keg with a seamless switchover.
The system was customised for each beer to ensure a consistent taste, temperature, carbonation and head height.
The pub now benefits from quicker service and, according to Jones, it has recorded a 25% year-on-year increase in profits in sales of some lagers due to the optimisation of spend per head during peak times, and increased throughput speeds at the bar.
Cornelius's cask-ale Python controller also keeps real ale at optimum temperature, from cask to glass, and helps to ensure consistent quality, while the glycol cooling system reduces heat behind the bar, eradicating the need for flash coolers.
In addition, Cornelius's TwinIce technology was installed for draught ciders. TwinIce dispenses an extra-cold draught cider topped with a drinkable head of frozen cider crystals, freshly created out of the beverage itself. It has resulted in a two keg per week sales uplift for the cider category, according to Cornelius.