Respecting beer doesn’t mean your restaurant or bar has to jettison its popular wine-by-the-glass program.  We’re not alcohol segregationists here at BeerAdvocate Magazine.  But you should stop and spend a little time thinking about the role beer plays in your establishment.  Do you spend more time contemplating dishwasher clogs?  That’s not entirely surprising.  Bar owners are busy people and many simply pick the six or eight most popular draft brands and call it a day.  In the spirit of promoting beer and your sales, here is a six-pack of ideas on how you can improve your beer program.

Number 1: Provide Beer Menus

It’s the first question beer lovers have upon entering any bar or restaurant: what’s on tap?  For all of the regularity, it’s surprising how difficult the question is to answer.  Customers shouldn’t have to make a breeze-by of the tap handles just to hunt down their selections.  So create a beer menu, it doesn’t have to be fancy.  Good beer guides include an updated list of available beers, a concise description of each beer or style, and the price.  The best beer guides describe the brewing process and how to taste and enjoy beer.  At Sheffield’s in Chicago, the handy beer guide offers straightforward descriptions and also provides a glossary of technical terms associated with brewing and enjoying beer.  At Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia, the faded beer guides avoid beer descriptions, opting instead for style notes and notices for upcoming events.

Number 2: Use Proper Glassware

Bar owners have slowly come to realize that beer’s inherent beauty is something they can both appreciate and sell.  Where simple Shaker pint glasses once ruled the bar, a bevy of oddly shaped glassware now matches the great range of beers available.  The value of putting on a show when presenting beer cannot be understated.  Big, shapely hefe-weizen glasses and rolling strong ale snifters make instant impressions on nearby customers.  Beer is a multi-sensory experience and the process of promoting beer doesn’t end when the customer orders.

Number 3: Train Your Staff

Smart breweries, wholesalers, and restaurateurs know that servers are the frontline soldiers in the war for better beer sales.  Owners expect the waitstaff to know the food menu, so why shouldn’t they be able to describe the available beers?  No need for a long soliloquy on the gentle interplay of malts and hops, just some straight facts.  First, know what is available.  I’m amazed at how often when I ask what’s available, the response comes back, “We have everything.”  Excellent, I’ll take the Thomas Hardy 1975 vintage.  Second, servers should never simply ask, “Light or dark?”  Servers should know the list, where the beers hail from, and be able to offer some quick descriptive thoughts.

Number 4: Offer Samples

This could just as easily fit under server training as it’s another way to interact with customers.  The best servers can sense when a customer wants to trade-up to a better beer.  Consumers who practice beer monogamy are not adventurous by nature so we need to strike when the chance presents itself.  Offering a sample to customers who pause over a beer list is good business.  Samples also give servers the chance to test out their beer knowledge and shine.

Number 5: Add A Local Draft Line

It’s as simple as it sounds.  If you’re like most bars, you offer a few macro standards on tap and round out the selection with Guinness, Bass, Harp, and maybe even Stella Artois.  Why send all your love to cash-flush European conglomerates when you can support your local brewery?  You know who I’m talking about.  Your local brewer is the guy who comes in every other week begging for a line.  Why not give him a shot?  Which brings us to…

Number 6: Hold Beer Events

Beer events were once the limited province of beer bars.  Now, every establishment can get a piece of the action.  Breweries and wholesalers know the value of direct sales and they now devote greater resources to promoting beer events in bars and restaurants, ranging from simple on-premise tastings to six-course beer dinners.  You don’t have to handle the details all yourself.  Contact your local brewery or wholesaler to gauge their interest.  Check out The Map Room’s Beer School or the Brickskeller’s popular education series for more ideas.

With a little time and effort, you can hopefully advocate for beer and raise your sales at the same time.  Beer lovers will be sure to tip accordingly.

–Article appeared in the April 2007 issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine.

Combine my recent foray into regular online posting, a full-time job, and a recent two-week vacation to Japan and you end up with the first posts in over a month. I use this site primarily as a place for previously published articles and as a medium for shorter pieces that don’t make it into print. Along these lines, I hope to have a few articles published here on the beer-related Japan adventures, of which there were a very memorable few. Suffice it to say, Yo-Ho Brewing and the Baird Brewery pretty much sustained me while traveling.

While away I received an unusual critique of a recent article I wrote. Some readers may know that I write the monthly ‘Defending Beer’ column in Beer Advocate Magazine. I use the column as a way to offer critical thoughts on the industry that I believe we don’t see enough of in beer writing. The column has generated some positive and a lot of less-than-glowing responses. Of the price creep article, one retailer wondered whether I even lived in the real world.

I recently wrote an article on judging beer and how consumers can critically view the myriad awards brewers tout on their bottles and six-packs. Putting aside the content (pick up the May 2007 issue of Beer Advocate Magazine or see the article to be posted here in a month or two), I briefly focused on one particular private tasting group, excerpted here:

Consumers also need to be discerning about contests sponsored by private organizations. Of these events, perhaps the best known is the World Beer Championships run by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago. BTI’s medal-based competition is run a bit differently from other events, with less weight placed on style adherence and more on a brewer’s creativity within a certain category. In a laudable twist, the institute’s respectable panel of judges tastes products throughout the year instead of packing all beer judging into less than a week of sessions.

The way an organization awards medals can also be a telling aspect of how consumers should value the honor when choosing a beer. The BTI contest employs the familiar 100-point scale to score beers and awards platinum (96-100), gold (90-95), silver (86-89), and bronze medals (80-84). Beers that fall below 80 points receive a ‘not recommended’ finding. Of the 1650 beers in BTI’s database, only 53 have been rated below 80 points and would fail to snag at least a bronze medal. The BTI event reminds me of a little of a correspondence school where you mail a check for fifty bucks and they send you back a medical degree.

So upon my return from Japan, I received a package from BTI in the mail. The contents revealed a letter from Jerald O’Kennard, Director of BTI and the World Beer Championships. In the letter, O’Kennard congratulated me on my article and announced that BTI had awarded me a bronze medal for my “bronzy efforts in journalism.” I’ve attached a photo of my award. O’Kennard assured me “an invoice for $50 will be sent to you shortly.” Kudos to the folks at BTI for having a sense of humor in letting me know they hated my column.