25 Open Taps...How would you split them up?

One Nitro would be nice as stated by others. The best place near me has 12 rotational beers and more times than not they are all pale ales, its drives me nuts. I am not like the majority, I do not care for real hoppy beers.

 

all about dat gose, bout dat gose no session

 

Huh?

 

I actually do this for a living.
A few things to keep in mind:
-Go local. I set up draft bars that open with 60-100 draft lines. I usually strive for 35-50% local offerings. Building relationships in your community will prove invaluable over time.
-Represent a wide variety of styles. Pale Lagers, Wheat beers, Ciders and IPAs (in that order) are the best selling styles at the bar i work for. That's pretty much universal, in 5 states, over a variety of demographics. Granted the PNW has a longer craft history and a better collective palate, but in the industry it is important to avoid the "no" vote.
-Remember to carry popular national brands (Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, New Belgium, etc.). People that post in forums on BeerAdvocate will likely not represent your target market. This is a very small segment of the craft drinking community. The majority of people will either (a) not like sour beer or BA stouts or (b) not want to pay $8-$10 a pour for a beer.
-Remember that the more you support a brewery's core lineup, the more access you'll have to their one-offs and highly anticipated seasonals. If you want HopSlam, make sure you carry Two Hearted and Oberon.
-Also rememeber that distributor reps do not have your bar's interest at heart. They will push their agenda on you, trying for product placement and whatever has this months' highest commission.

 

I might be in the minority but I'm going somewhere that emphasizes quality over local options. I don't care where it's from, I just want the best beer possible.

 

Like @smakawhat said, maybe focus more on other aspects like styles. variety of styles. perhaps double up on ones that are selling well.

Don't get carried away with the buy local mentality.

Have a few regional crafts, national ones, and good imports from Belgium, Germany, etc.

 

I think a lot of people think as you do, and there's a very vocal "buy local" minority. As long as a few taps are local, those folks will still be able to drink their values.

 

definitely add a nitro tap!!!

 

Love it! I would go to a bar with this tap selection any night of the week.

 

I'm curious more about the industry as a whole...

What's the availability for casks? It's my preferred method, but I very rarely see them.

 

Casks are great, but storage and service of them makes for a real headache most of the time. At my bar we've talked about the possibility of them, and while it would be awesome, we don't have the space and logistically casked ale would be a huge problem if we want to serve it correctly.

 

As bad as that was, it still made me laugh.

 

Well you guys obviously arent from the PNW.

In the PNW quality = local.

 

FWIW, I would be more concerned about having a proper array of styles represented rather than arbitrarily limiting yourself by assigning X taps per region.

We have 22 taps, all of which rotate, and I feel like we're fairly successful at keeping a good variety (local BAs can chime in and disagree with me if they want), so take this for what it's worth. We're also in a fairly similar market as far as local drinking habits and dstyle preferences are concerned. Anyway, here's what we shoot for:

1-2 Pale Ales / session IPAs
2-3 IPAs
2-3 IIPAs
2-4 dark beers depending on the season (currently a baltic porter, imperial coffee stout, and a doppelbock)
1-2 "classic belgian styles" like dubbels, saisons, quads, etc
2-3 sour/wild ales
3-4 seasonals
1 barleywine or other strong ale
1 "wild card" from the often overlooked styles like an amber, ESB, or red ale
2-4 "easy drinkers" like pils, kolsch, vienna lager, cream ale, etc, depending on the season

Beyond that, we also have 1 dedicated gluten-free line (almost always Harvester), 1 dedicated cider line, and 1 cask engine.

That said, we do want to support our local brewers, so the selection almost always includes 10-12 Oregon breweries. Currently we have:

12 OR
3 CA
2 WA
1 IL
2 Belgium

As luck would have it, the Gluten-free line, Cider, and cask are all Oregon at the moment, but that isn't always the case.

One other suggestion I strongly recommend is to create a spreadsheet to track when the kegs were tapped, when they blew, and whether there were any issues (diacetyl, overcarbonation, etc). It's a lot easier and more diplomatic when you can deflect a sales rep by saying, "Sorry, but our customers just didn't respond to that beer. According to the spreadsheet it took 12 days to go through a keg last time." Or, "Sorry, but the last 3 kegs we've had from that brewery were all diacetyl bombs, so unless you bring me a fresh sample I'm going to have to pass."

 

Definitely dedicate one or more taps to only sour beers as I hear it can be a pain to switch back from sour to regular beer.

 

As a local BA, yes, I agree that you guys do a fine job with your drafts. I mean you are one of the best beer bars in the country.

 

That's a nice lineup. Although I'd have fewer IPAs and easy drinkers, and more wild cards and international beers.

 

Might as well do 1 Cider, 1 O'douls, and 1 Zima ......ZING!

J/k that looks pretty good to me.

 

We have 20 (granted we are in WV) taps and break it up like this:

2 aal's (bud lt and yuengling)
Just pointing out this is a necessary evil
Anywhere from 8-12 local taps depending on availability and season.
One cider
The rest are filled with regional brews from pa, new york, kentucky, ohio etc...

Works well for us but we are in the beer worlds ass end over here. Can't even get stone

 

I'm inclined to agree, but after 8 years of tracking sales and responding to what what sells I think we've found a spread that resonates pretty well with our customers. Like it or not, having a bar in Portland pretty much forces you to have ~25% of your taps dedicated to IPAs and IIPAs or else people will bitch about the lack of hoppy options.

Imports are also a tough sell here. When you can get incredibly good Belgian-style ales from the likes of pFriem, Upright, and Th Commons for $4-5/pint it's hard to convince people to spend $6 on an 8-12oz glass of something like St Bernardus or DuPont. One local bar opened a couple years ago with the intention of being "all Belgian", and they quickly learned the same lesson. Their line-up is still focused on Belgian styles, but the vast majority of them are local interpretations of the styles. They also caved and added an IPA or two to the menu as well in order to cater to folks who don't like saisons and whatnot.

The selection also swings with the seasons; at the moment we are a little heavier on big, dark, and/or strong offerings than we would be in July.

edit:

After looking at the list, it's a bit more diverse than I thought at the moment. Notincluding the Gluten-free or cider we've got the following on tap right now:

4 IPAs
2 IIPAs
2 Pumpkin beers (left over from pre-Thanksgiving growler special)
1 Pale Ale
1 Berliner Weisse
1 Dark Sour
1 Faro
1 Brett Saison
1 Belgian Pale
1 Vienna Lager
1 Baltic Porter
1 Doppelbock
1 Imperial Stout
1 Old Ale
1 Barleywine

I guess if none of that strikes your fancy you could always grab something from the bottle shop and have a bartender crack that....