How to get fresh beer on tap?

Awesome app but unfortunately the only place in my area that utilizes it is Whole Foods. If more bars got on board with this, it'd be a winner.

 

I think it is pretty much a given that you will get the freshest beer that the bar has. However, the bar may not always have the freshest beer in the area. Hopefully you go to this bar for reasons other than expecting the most virgin product. Interaction and stuff.
I do not understand when bars became responsible for their distributors abilities.

Beg to differ. Many to most kegs in the market now are dated--much more than are bottles, even from the same brewery.

 

Ironically, the establishment you chose doesn't actually use the keg level feature. Either that, or they switched every single tap just before you shot the picture; all the kegs are at 100%...

 

Just checked the Pittsburgh Area with this and nobody seems to give a shit about fresh beer around here. DAMN shame...

 

For the love of God, there are people's faces on that tap list.

 

This is a similar situation to finding cask ale in prime condition.The key is turnover and the pub should only offer as many beers as can be sold within three or four days.It improves over this time scale but much after that..........
With keg the beer doesn't go off as such but hops can fade.It all hinges on the bar owner beeping careful watch over his stock.The more lines the harder that gets.

 

Which is a great illustration for why there can be too many taps in a bar.

 

A lot of rural pubs have more beers available at weekends than in the week because that's when the bulk of beer is sold.When a beer runs out early in the week it isn't replaced until the approach of the weekend.That means the remaining beer is turned over faster.

 

One thing I'd add to some of the tips here, such as getting a sense of how rapidly the kegs turn over and asking to sample before deciding, is look at the number of taps. Too many taps is a bad sign. If some bar proudly announces "100 taps" they won't see me as a customer since I generally won't even go in to check out the list.

Similarly, whether you think tipping is a good idea or not, in the US it's the norm and servers like getting good tips, so ask how long the beers that interest you hve been on tap, if the server knows or voluntarily goes to ask, treat that as part of quality of service when deciding on a tip. Doing that every time you go in does get noticed and remembered at places where they care about providing good food, good beer and good service.

 

I just threw out a google search for digital pour and just chose one, just using that as an example. and I'm pretty sure that was just before an event started.

Usually not the case for these lists, but it was a Beer Pro/am where homebrewers did collabs with breweries.

 

Given the prominence of the pictures of the people in that image, I'm relieved to hear you say that... however, I did notice that DigitalPour claims to have "social media integration" and allows patrons to see their avatar appear on the menu. In some ways it's just the world in which we live. I can be a curmudgeon.

 

Just because a beer was just put on tap doesn't always mean it will be fresher. I know of bars getting in 4+ month old IPAs. Best bet is to go to your local brewery.

 

Yea usually there's a streaming bar on the top of the list, that shows who is checking in their beers on Untappd. At least Bailey's Taproom in Portland does. Unfortunately it's just the world we live in.

 

I don't see anything wrong with simply asking "Is it fresh?" I do it all the time at my regular haunt. Results may vary.

 

Go to the breweries taproom.

 

I have my doubts about large tap bars, Yard House in Raleigh must have close to 130 beers on tap. There is no way in hell to keep all those beers rotating smoothly, some of those beers will most likely die on tap. I also ask for a sample before I buy a full pour, you never know, beers I like and know and very good beers sometimes tilt. I bought a growler of Ithaca Flower Power on Growler when visiting my son in NY, and I poured out the whole thing, it was old, stale and very oxidized.

 

Most bartenders wouldn't know unless they date them when tapped. They could change a keg on first shift and your there at 8 pm that night so who would know. One thing that's unclear to me is how long will that keg last before it tapped? It could sit at the Distributor for 3 months, it could sit for 2 days. Could sit at the bar the same amount of time. I'm sure the local bar I go to that the local taps will be the oldest, they're always on sale and still they move very slowly, so anyone from out of town who tries these brews won't like them I'd bet. They are middling beers to begin with, more symbolic than a money maker I'm sure. Best way to get fresh beer is to go to a brew pub where they brew the beer.

 

Hey I know one of those guys.

 

I'm a freak about fresh IPA. These are my three strategies, nothing terribly original, but they work for me:

Brewery Taprooms - They are great because they usually only offer their beers so the turnover is quick. I know for a fact that Bear Republic burns through multiple kegs of Racer 5 every day. A beer bar might have twenty IPAs to choose from but that pretty much ensures that the least popular ones stick around for a while.

New Beers - New beers are always fresh. It requires some work, but now a days there are enough seasonal, new, and one off beers that you stand a pretty good chance of being able to find one on any given weekend. Apex just went on tap two weeks ago, Hop Hunter only became available (near me) yesterday.

Paying Attention to Tap Lists - I've got a couple of nice beer bars around me that rotate their taps frequently. It pays to check out their websites every few days and see if something is new. Usually that particular kind of beer-geek bar is stocking kegs from low volume breweries and, though I may be wrong, I don't believe they spend much time sitting in warehouses.

 

Context is everything. Knowing that was a homebrewer event, it's cool and totally different from Untappd profiles going on the board on a normal day. (And since I'm typing this on a beer forum and my avatar is to the left, I shouldn't be so sensitive.)