How many times have you experienced the following scenario: you order one of your favorite craft beers at a bar or restaurant, only to receive a flat, poor-tasting, hardly recognizable version of the beverage you ordered? Experienced beer drinkers may recognize this as a result of improperly maintained draft lines or dirty glassware, but what about someone who’s new to craft beer? A bad experience could easily turn someone against that particular beer, beer style or brewery.
Enter New York State Brewers Association’s (NYSBA) Draft Beer Quality Certification Program, the first of its kind in the U.S. The purpose of the program, which launched on January 21, 2016, is to ensure that retailers are serving the best quality draft beer to the consumer. A retailer must pass a rigorous inspection by the NYSBA before they can be considered a Certified Draft Establishment. They will then receive a quality seal for their door so that customers know that they will be receiving fresh beer poured from a clean draft system. The NYSBA then promotes these businesses on their website as certified establishments.
Another component of this program is the certification of draft line cleaners. The NYSBA’s certification adheres to the standards set in the Brewers Association Draught Beer Quality Manual; for example, draft lines should be cleaned and maintained at least once every two weeks, and an acid cleaning should be performed every three months. Individuals can become certified line cleaners after successfully completing a written exam and performance evaluation, and the certification remains valid for two years. Retailers can find a list of certified line cleaners for hire on the NYSBA website.
Why Draft Beer Quality Matters
Within days of installing a clean draft system, yeast and bacteria enter the system and begin feeding on the beer, thus attaching themselves to the draft lines. Minerals can leach out of the beer and leave deposits on draft lines and fixtures. Bacteria and mold can also contaminate the draft system, affecting the flavor of the beer and potentially making the consumer ill. An uneducated beer drinker could then blame the beer, not realizing the dirty draft system is at fault.
Possible clues to a draft system in need of a cleaning include odd “floaties” in a beer, cloudiness in what should be a clear beer or other unusual flavors. Depending on the type of bacteria present it’s not uncommon for a contaminated beer to have a tart, sour or even butterscotch flavor.
Brewers spend a lot of time creating and perfecting their recipes. They know how each beer should taste and how they want it to be presented to the consumer.
Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association, states that they “got behind this program because we feel that it’s really important that the beer that’s in the glass for the consumer is the beer that was meant to be in that glass when it left the brewery. Beer goes through so much from the time the brewer brews it to the time it reaches the consumer’s glass, and dirty tap lines can disrupt the whole process.”
In agreement with Leone, John Carr, founder of Adirondack Brewery believes that it’s a “great leadership position the New York State Brewers Association has taken by recognizing that this is an extremely important link in real, true, quality beer. If you miss this one link, which is the last step, anything else that happens prior to this really doesn’t matter, because if it’s a bad line, a dirty line, it’s going to ruin the beer.”
After the beer leaves the brewery for distribution, the quality presented to the consumer is unfortunately out of the brewer’s hands, and so properly maintaining the draft systems at various establishments is crucial to the brewery’s reputation.
However, improperly cleaned draft systems reflect poorly on the restaurant or bar serving the beer as well. As the popularity of craft beer increases, so does the number of educated craft beer drinkers. Carr notes that beer consumers are becoming very knowledgeable, and “they’re really beginning to recognize the difference between very good, fresh, local beer and maybe a beer that’s old or out of code, and not as good.” Craft beer connoisseurs clearly want the best quality for their money, and “to ruin it with the last few feet of a piece of plastic pipe is really frustrating, and I think the consumers are starting to recognize that,” concludes Carr.
Everyone is a winner as a result of this initiative by the New York State Brewers Association. The consumer wins because they know they’re receiving the highest quality craft beer possible. The brewery wins because their beer is being presented to the customer as it was intended. And, the Certified Draft Establishment wins because high-quality beer poured from a clean draft system creates happy, repeat customers.
As craft beer lovers, let’s hope that New York’s initiative motivates other states to create similar programs to ensure that establishments serving craft beer are properly maintaining their draft systems. Craft beer deserves to be enjoyed as the brewer intended.
[Note: NYSBA’s Draft Quality Program is being slowly implemented across New York state. The program is beginning in the Albany region, and should then be available to the rest of the state.]
CraftBeer.com is fully dedicated to small and independent U.S. breweries. We are published by the Brewers Association, the not-for-profit trade group dedicated to promoting and protecting America’s small and independent craft brewers. Stories and opinions shared on CraftBeer.com do not imply endorsement by or positions taken by the Brewers Association or its members.
Share Post