My Beer Menu (Needs Help)

Keep your draft local with at least one IPA

Keep your bottles to a list with shelf life of a year or more.

Cut the Cider back to no more than Two or Three.

Look at sales history for what not to buy again.

Go have a beer at successful competitors to see what craft sells well before placing many more orders.

Learn to spell cask. And be sure everything else is accurate as well.

Good luck!

 

Look through your sales records see what is actually selling. Talk to your guests and find out what they are looking for. If some of the seasonal stuff you have is on draft talk to your beer reps they may take it back and give you credit( if not drop the price and move it quickly) lastly educate your staff on what you would like them to sell make a game of it clear out the slow movers.

 

What drtth said, plus don't keep those big bottles that exceed $30...unless they actually move fast. Most of us here don't know your local beers, but they should sell well if they're fresh and familiar.

 

Smoked Hefeweizen? Ewww. Other than that, everything seems fine, although I agree with drtth that you should cut back your cider options. Also, I found Dupont's Posca Rustica to be an underwhelming Gruit (just my opinion) and people don't often buy 750s of Gruit anyway. Prof. Fritz Briem's 13th Century Gruit, if you can get it, comes in a 500 mL (16.9 oz) bottle and is a better representation of a Gruit IMO. That might sell a bit better if you intend on keeping the Gruit option, which I think you should since they're not so easy to come by.

 

I would offer more than one IPA.

 

I think the best way to do it would be to expand your bottle selection. Vitus won't sell as well as their Hefeweizen. I'd make that swap.
I don't see any Sierra Nevada outside of Bigfoot which won't move a ton. Every beer bar should at least carry their Pale Ale. Remember, people will drink 1-2 barleywines but a lot more pale ales.
You have a nice variety of styles which is excellent.
Your draft selection is local-geared which is good as well.
I'd look into what Russian River kegs you can get your hands on. They will sell out very quickly in that market.
Your prices on the whole aren't out of line but some are peculiar. I think the Guiness draft is kind of high and the Bigfoot kind of low. Lolita is pretty high as well. That beer is a shelf turd around here.
As others have said, take away 2-4 of your slower moving ciders and replace them with beer.
And last and probably most importantly, educate your staff. At least get them to be able to give recommendations. If someone comes in and asks for a Blue Moon, your staff should immediately know to recommend a good wheat beer instead.

 

Also, not sure if it is on there in person, but you should consider adding the ABV and IBUS to the information for each beer

 

I imagine the market's a bit flooded up there. Might be smart to differentiate by offering something other places don't. I don't know what that would be, but maybe something like offering beers only from sustainable breweries, or all organic, or some other hippie shit. You should have plenty of places to chose from in your region alone.

 

What do you other BAers think about barleywine and quads on a menu? I'm not typically looking for something that "big" at a bar.

And replace the Guinness with a good local stout (maybe an oatmeal stout).

 

I think the reason the Guinness is $7 is because it's a 20 oz pour.

 

Also, I'm not sure how it is in Oregon, but some areas of the country let the small, local brewerys skip the 3 tiered distro system and sell/deliver directly to the bars (usually in a beat up old minivan!). This would be a great way to bring costs down. Maybe call around to a bunch and get details/pricing. Then go for some tastings with your manager to see what you like.

 

I would highly recommend doing some serious happy hour specials on the excess inventory currently clogging your storage space. You could see if the distributor will take them back, but I have no idea what your distributor is like and if that is a possibility. Taking a loss on old stock is going to seriously hurt the bottom line, and letting it sit longer in order to try and sell it next year will hurt your rep. Your instincts about rewriting the menu are probably correct; you don't want to take a several thousand dollar loss just to do a menu rewrite. Try to sell through the old stock by discounting it.

What kind of place is it? Are you food-centric, or is it more of a beer/wine/cocktail bar?

 

Agree with the happy hour. A local place around here always has blow the tap nights where the stuff they want to get rid of is $2 off per pint.

 

"I am a cocktail bartender with a little knowledge of beer but not much.."

Learn how to serve beer correctly. Glassware, temp, pour etc.

Learn to love beer yourself and the rest will follow.

 

my first move would be to try to get rid of whatever's going to go bad soon. generally speaking, lighter beers in color and alcohol content turn faster than bigger beers, with the exception of IPA's which you'll want to serve as fresh as possible to get the most volatile flavor and aroma out of the hops. push the cask because you don't want that up for more than a few days. i've gone into places with two week old casks and their double IPA on cask will drink like bad flemish reds. not a good time.

bare minimum would be to keep an IPA or two on tap at all times. two would be better. one or two belgian/farmhouse styles would help round out the selection and allow you to offer interesting stuff to the hop-impaired. getting a local stout for the nitro line would probably help a lot, and i'd imagine you'll move more of it if people think it's more interesting than guinness. rotating your lines by season isn't a bad way to go for the rest of the tap lineup. a good rule of thumb to start with is dark/malty/high ABV in the winter and then lighter/crisper during the summer.

I'd try to avoid lighter or hoppier beers in bottles unless you think they'll move quickly. if your bottles are going to sit around longer, you'll want them to be able to hold up a bit better. If not, then it doesn't really matter.

you probably should cut back on the ciders. in a more beer-centric place, cider basically exists for people who absolutely can't stand beer for whatever reason and need something to drink that won't make them look totally out of place. offering a bunch will probably take a chunk of your sales away from beer.

good luck with everything, and be sure to clean your lines every two weeks!

 

On a draft list I like to see bars with a good range of local, fresh beers (I think it's silly to displace a great local IPA with something from another city/region unless you know people are going to be interested in it and it is just that good to warrant it), at least 2 or 3 imports (Belgian, German, etc) and 1 or 2 bigger, more specialty brews. I think that's a great way to cover all bases of the craft beer consumer and ensure quick turnover of beers.

As for bottles, I would side heavily on bottles that can hold up to aging. If you're going to carry stuff like IPAs in the bottle, it'd better be something ubiquitous (in Chicago that would be something like Alpha King or Daisy Cutter).

Good luck!