About draft beer. As a distributor sales rep I had the pleasure of selling company wares to restaurants, bars, pubs, schools any establishment that would use food service disposable products. Those wares included chemicals for cleaning.
Some of the chemicals were used for one purpose, like cleaning beer tap lines. The lines are the tubing from the keg in storage to the tap at the bar. As with some things in life the out of sight out of mind saying applied to many of the restaurants, bars and pubs when it came to tap lines. If my memory serves me correctly the tap lines were suppose to be cleaned once a week if not every day. Let me tell you that does not happen.
Anyway selling the chemicals allowed me to get a look at the tap lines. AAuugghhh! Yuck! Gross! Disgusting! In most of the lines mold and god knows what else was growing. Ever get something floating in your draft beer, or get a belly ache after a night of draft beer drinking. It's not the beer, it's what is in the line that gets loose and ends up in your glass. It's really disgusting and easily preventable. But out of sight out of mind.
The general attitude among the managers is saving money and if the public can't see it, don't spend money on it. That is why I drink beer from a bottle and not from a tap.
Quote from the Internet "Foamy draft beer can be caused by the build up of bacteria, yeast, mold, and beer stones within a beer line. Un-clean beer lines lower the quality and taste of beer. It is important to regularly clean beer lines, faucets, and keg couplers to ensure the dispense of high quality beer. "
"Regular cleaning of the beer line, faucet, and keg coupler is extremely important. If this is not done, bacteria, yeast, mold, and beer stone will build up and quickly degrade the quality of draft beer."
So there you have it actual quotes from the Internet that sort of back up what I said. The beer lines need to be cleaned.
Some of the chemicals were used for one purpose, like cleaning beer tap lines. The lines are the tubing from the keg in storage to the tap at the bar. As with some things in life the out of sight out of mind saying applied to many of the restaurants, bars and pubs when it came to tap lines. If my memory serves me correctly the tap lines were suppose to be cleaned once a week if not every day. Let me tell you that does not happen.
Anyway selling the chemicals allowed me to get a look at the tap lines. AAuugghhh! Yuck! Gross! Disgusting! In most of the lines mold and god knows what else was growing. Ever get something floating in your draft beer, or get a belly ache after a night of draft beer drinking. It's not the beer, it's what is in the line that gets loose and ends up in your glass. It's really disgusting and easily preventable. But out of sight out of mind.
The general attitude among the managers is saving money and if the public can't see it, don't spend money on it. That is why I drink beer from a bottle and not from a tap.
Quote from the Internet "Foamy draft beer can be caused by the build up of bacteria, yeast, mold, and beer stones within a beer line. Un-clean beer lines lower the quality and taste of beer. It is important to regularly clean beer lines, faucets, and keg couplers to ensure the dispense of high quality beer. "
"Regular cleaning of the beer line, faucet, and keg coupler is extremely important. If this is not done, bacteria, yeast, mold, and beer stone will build up and quickly degrade the quality of draft beer."
So there you have it actual quotes from the Internet that sort of back up what I said. The beer lines need to be cleaned.
6 comments:
To think how much of that stuff got in my stomach... just during my college years alone.
"That which does not kill me makes me stronger".
Anyhoo, I am sure I ingest quite a few things I would rather not think about!
Your facts are exactly correct.
I have my own keg set up and I care for it myself. I know exactly how it should work and it always does.
Draft beer, from a properly cared for set up tastes fantastic.
I used to avoid keg beer because I always felt crappy after drinking it. At one point I thought it was a quantity issue, but now that I know what can happen to unpasturized beer, particularly in the service lines, so I'm totally with you. When I'm out, unless I'm in an establishment that I know well, I drink bottle only.
I clean my lines between each keg, or once a month - whichever is first. I don't buy the cleaning products anymore because my keg guy told me white vinegar works fine - and so far he's right.
I've heard all the bad stuff in the lines is organic and mostly bad for taste and quality (foam, dead beer, etc)... but who really knows.
I can definitely tell when pubs do not clean their lines-- there's a distinct bad taste to the beer.
Sounds like everyone is an afficiando (sp?) of Draft beer. Cheers!
I have a mold allergy that triggers asthma... so I have a pretty sensitive means of knowing when a bar doesn't clean its lines. The worst culprits? Places that have long stretches of time between dispensing beer like events at hotels where they might only use their lines during the weekends and music venues that might not have shows for a few days at a time. There's nothing running through the tap for a stretch of time which gives bacteria and molds time to build up in the warm, damp, dark lines. Happy drinking!
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