Who's responsible for dirty beer lines?

I personally take offense for your use of terminology "craft" vs "kraft" ... Kraft Mac and Cheese is amazing! LOL but seriously typically it depends on the state and the distributors in the state. Some states the bars themselves are in charge of cleaning the lines or getting them cleaned but in most it's the distributors that send someone to do it. They keep a regular schedule of cleaning the lines... As for dirty glassware well that is all on the bar, so if you get a dirty glass send it back... I can't imagine that you expect brewers to show up at all the accounts that have their beer on tap and inspect the glassware. Bigger problem would be old beer that didn't move not dirty tap lines.

 

So the Wine makers are doing a better job of making sure their tap lines are clean? Would you expect the wine makers to go around to various accounts to make sure there isn't an open bottle of their wine sitting on the shelf for too long?

 

Dirty lines are the fault of the establishment. Bar, brewery or otherwise. I suppose a brewery could look into complaints if they get wind of their beer not being served properly. I am sure there are a lot of bars that are jumping on the craft bandwagon for business purposes and don't assume their clientele are as discerning as folks that just want to pound back beer. But I can usually sniff this out with a look at the tap list and a question or two for the bartender. For example asking which beer is the tap labeled "Founder's Stout". Answer- " It's a Stout. It's dark". Thanks, sweetie.

 

I used to run operations for a retailer, and I had the in bev distributors set my weekly pallet displays for all beers, not just theirs. Sure. I bought alot if product from them, but I would have done that anyway. Like I said, if a retailer doesn't know how to dictate some terms to the vendor, they're in the wrong line of work.

 

Point taken, however I used the word MOST-certainly not the norm. I haven't seen the Avery rep checking lines in NC lately-- have you had experience with them in N J?

 

I email breweries all the time about improper serving vessels, or frozen mugs, but in more serious matters, when a beer sucks, or feels old or dirty. I'll give them a quick email. Responses and thanks every time. They tend to state that theyll send their rep out there to check into things. Which can really just mean that they call up the place or get a distributor to fix it. Speak with your wallet though. Let places know you wont be going back because of the selection or lack of care

 

Yeah, I'm not sure how big a problem this really is. The breweries around here -- or at least the ones I frequent -- care about their lines' cleanliness. (Hell, CCB keeps a public, visible tote board in its main tasting room showing when the lines there were cleaned.) The top-notch taphouses and craft-beer-centric restaurants do as well. Those non-breweries tend to take advantage of distributors' line-cleaning programs. I suspect tthe distributors also do a terrific job cleaning the lines of their biggest accounts (e.g., think casual restaurant chains) ... places I'm not likely to go for beer.

The experience I've had in my travels across the country is that the places that come highly recommended here do good jobs with their dispensing systems. The few problems I've had over the last few years have been when lines haven't been fully flushed after a cleaning. Bartender blows through some beer (which sometimes makes my heart sad; it undoubtedly makes the owner's heart and wallet sad) and ... problem solved.

 

There are issues with what you are asking.

First - Some Breweries (even "Craft Breweries" distribute nationally. There is no way for them to monitor the dispensing locations with brewery representatives.

Second - The retail establishment is responsible for cleaning beer lines just like they are responsible for having clean glass ware.

Third - The server, bartender is responsible for notifying management of problems.

Fourth - The client is responsible for notifying the server or management if they detect a problem and, if that problem is not addressed; finding a new place to drink.

Some establishments get their distributors to install their lines and taps and assume from this that they will service that equipment for life. That, is a gross (literally) misunderstanding.

 

What I could glean from what you go on and on about is that you have about four to five very different conversations all trying to be squished into hating dirty tap lines.
Each one of these separate conversations tells me you have much to learn because it's on you to tell the manager on duty that what you just got poured tastes like carbonated baby vomit. I'm not here as a brewer to hold your hand through this process that is on you to start and finish.

But, if you just want to talk about dirty tap lines. It's really quite simple and it goes like this.
This problem of dirty tap lines and the responsibility for cleaning them always falls back on the owner of the establishment for not setting up a strict schedule for cleaning and maintenance and then abiding by it. it also begs the issue that, as a consumer, you should be aware that if you discover that this is an issue with a place that serves beer that you might want. It is entirely on you to be aware that this bar is trying to be too many things and has spread themselves out too thin.
Because the plain truth of beer that goes out to market here is: Unless the brewery self distributes. Their ability to control what happens to their product, and how it is served essentially ends the second their product leaves the breweries property.

 

Just to show how fragmented alcohol laws are across the country it is illegal for distributors to clean lines besides when the product is first placed( viewed as almost pay to play). The burden lies on the bar or restaurant who are required to do it 2x a month but most never do except for those who give a shit and the chains that are buttoned up and run well. I think the distributors a few years back were trying to get the law passed so the onus laid on them but I believed it fizzled out and I haven't heard anything as to why.

 

This is different from state to state. In states that have adopted CFR 27 part 6, "industry members" (i.e. distributor or wholesaler) can provide draft cleaning services. Some states do not allow even this, though.

It's ultimately up to the retailer. You can't blame a butcher or the farmer if the steak is overcooked. Preparing beer for consumption (tapping, pouring, cleaning and preparing glassware, choosing glassware etc etc) is what you're paying that extra for on draft. It's up the the retailer to ensure that their establishment is creating the best experience for their customers at the end of the day, and this means ensuring that your draft lines are cleaned and properly maintained either by your establishment or by someone that does it for you, just like it means making sure that you're cleaning glassware right, pouring beer right and ensuring that your staff understands what they are slinging across the bar.

Brewers DO care - in fact they care very much - but they can't realistically babysit every single account. And the sad fact is that many accounts just simply don't give a crap as long as they are moving product and nobody is complaining.

 

Shit I left out an important part...I meant to say in MA in my first sentence.

 

Oh, wordy, wordy scattergun OP. Where do I start...

First, you and I seem to inhabit different universes. Or at least very different places with substantially different beer cultures. The only times in my adult life I've attributed bad tasting beer and/or feeling sick to unclean tap lines, it's been from BMOC at places where, truth be told, I should have known better than to drink there in the first place. In my part of the world, craft beer is sold on draught in the opposite kinds of places--places that emphasize quality and work hard to maintain their reputation.

Second, it seems strange to me the way you jump right from your bogey-man (dirty tap lines) to the cause being the expansion of the craft beer industry and the solution being making the brewers responsible for line hygiene. I'm not sure your dots connect--in either direction.

Here's a simple solution with dots that directly connect: if you receive a bad beer and suspect the establishment's line aren't clean, don't drink the beer and don't ever go back. That way, you've used good ol' American ingenuity--the marketplace--to place responsibility where it belongs

 

I do earnestly hope that someone who works in sales for a brewery hard facts you on your strange command of reality here. Because it is indeed a strange one.

 

My query is whether craft beer was an American "creation" and according to definitions I've seen (personally I think the term is utterly meaningless when put to the test) "craft" brewers simply produce under 6 million barrels a year.
Looking at the most talked about "craft" beer , IPA takes the helm. But countless brewers have been making these for a couple of centuries. The small brewery movement seems to have originated in the UK following the liberation of homebrewing in 1963 and the individuals moving up from homebrewing. Many of the early names on the US scene learned their craft in Europe.
The only thing American about "craft" brewing is the name.It's as American as apple pie and baseball, others had them first but Americans put their own twist on them.
Many of my transatlantic friends seem to think that US brewing is changing but that European brewing is static.Yet we have many more new breweries per capita over here.
I'm not in any way denigrating the US beer scene, it's dynamic and exciting.America effectively began with a clean sheet unlike their European counterparts , enabling an immense diversity . Better ? I have more than enough beers on my doorstep to see me out.And it's cask too.

There you are. I've made your day for you as requested

 

Beer originated in 9500 BC, and it was all small breweries until very, very recently. Hammurabi didn't have refrigerated trucks to ship 10,000 cases of Bud Light 1,000 miles. And the recipes varied widely from village to village most of the time, too. Craft beer was just a resumption of the ancient craft practiced by small brewers worldwide over the centuries. But it's happening in the face of the ease by which any brewer can ship beer anywhere, an ease which certainly facilitated so much consolidation into the Macros. So, craft beer indeed is not new, it's just a resumption of a long-practiced craft that fell out of practice for many decades, especially in the US. I do remember the days you could only get Iron Horse in Pittsburgh, Olympia in Washington, Coors in Colorado, Genny in Buffalo, etc.

 

What your analysis seems to miss is that what you are calling "craft" never fell out of practice in places like the UK and Germany. Places which, as @marquis points out, became the source of inspiration for those early brewers in the US who started brewing flavorful beers that they remembered having in places like the UK and Germany but couldn't get in the US.

 

I would think hugely-popular swill like Carling, Otinger, and Jupiter, when they were gaining market dominance, must have put some kind of commercial crimp on the number of good local brews in Europe.

 

So what? Seems irrelevant to the point that what you are calling "craft" did not originate in the US and that @marquis is correct in pointing out that what we have now is an American twist to what has been going on elsewhere for centuries, i.e., local brewers practicing their craft and thriving.

 

I never said craft beer "originated" in the US, and when I called the US craft beer revolution a "resumption," I was obviously toning down the "creation" claim. We are getting a bit OT here, so back to the "Dirty Tap Lines" discussion: Regardless of how original the US craft beer phenomenon is, it is certainly excellent enough to warrant some kind of voluntary quality control system, as with French wine. And who cares if the UK system is corrupt? There will always be corruption in regulatory systems. But you don't repeal drunk driving laws because there are still drunk drivers out there. That's a lousy argument.