Putting 40 beers on draft and need help

The OP has dropped enough locational clues that this thread is probably more of a marketing move than actually seeking advice. I'll echo others that installing 40 taps before you know what to do with them sounds like really poor business planning.

 

There are a few beers you should consider having pretty much all the time. IPAs don't go well with many types of food, but in CA you'll probably be expected to have an IPA-heavy list. I would keep these craft standards on pretty much all the time, or at least as much as possible:

Allagash White
Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier
Victory Prima Pils
Anchor Steam
Firestone Walker DBA
21st Amendment Bitter American
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Stone IPA
Lagunitas IPA or Sucks
Ballast Point Sculpin
Russian River Pliny the Elder*
Bear Republic Racer X*
Drake's Denogginizer*
North Coast Old Rasputin

* I don't know how easy the Pliny, Denogginizer, or Racer X would be to get on a regular basis, but you could rotate those along with other Cali Double IPAs like Double Jack, Stone Ruination, etc. I wouldn't offer them all at the same time, maybe feature 2 DIPAs at a time.

Since you're going for sort of a catch-all food menu, a catch-all beer list makes sense. This way, you have a nice variety of styles, and plenty of approachable craft offerings.

As for BMCs and import macros, I think it would be wise to keep some on tap, along with some crafty offerings, particularly since college kids make up a sizable chunk of your clientele. Something like:

Pabst Blue Ribbon
Budweiser
Bud Light
Bud Light Lime
Coors Light
Miller Lite
Michelob Ultra
Shock Top
Blue Moon
Stella Artois
Newcastle Brown Ale
Smithwick's
Harp
Guinness

These cover roughly 25-30 of your 40 taps. I would reserve a few of the others for seasonals - Sam Adams seasonals, Sierra Nevada seasonals, and a couple of local breweries that put out a solid line of seasonal beers. It's nice to walk into a bar that has seasonal offerings, and even nicer to walk into a bar that has multiple seasonal offerings.

Then, keep the last 5-10 taps for some high-end stuff. Constantly rotate the geeky stuff, and the geeks will come. For starters, get some Alesmith stuff like Speedway and Wee Heavy. Firestone Walker's Proprieter's Reserve, especially Parabola and Anniversary beers. Russian River sours. Kern River Citra and Bourbon Barrel Stout. Lost Abbey Angel's Share, Deliverance, and Cuvee de Tomme. Research what beers are made in California that people geek out over, and try to offer a few of them as often as possible.

 

Take the following with a large quantity of salt. It's only a personal opinion.

1. Your description of food you serve matched my original (unstated) expectations pretty well. If you specialized in a particular regional cuisine, this approach would not be necessary. Being at a college location in CA is helpful in that you'll always have the buzz if successful, bringing in more customers.
2. Ignore the nay-sayers. Yes, 40 taps is a lot as a start. Going from 8 to 20 is a big step and going to 40 is a huge step. Perhaps, just as a transitional solution, you may want to step up to 20, relegate all BMC to bottle/can (but keeping Guiness on tap, of course) and try to build relationships with a couple of breweries before jumping off the cliff to full 40. This way, you can build up the beer rep so that people will be coming in for beer, then expanding to full 40 will look like a response to customer demand.
3. I presume "barley" above stands for "barleywine". Most beer is "barley". Barleywine is strong enough that alcohol content approaches or surpasses that of wine. Seeing this suggests that the call to hire a "beer guy" is a good idea. I took it for granted that you'd have one already, but it looks like that presumption was wrong. This is important not just to have an in-house specialist, but it will help you prevent being pushed around by distributors who will try to sell you stuff you don't want. And The Beer Guy can wear multiple hats--select the beers, choose appropriate glassware, deal with some distro issues, try to contact breweries directly, watch trends at your bar closely so that you don't waste money buying beer no one drinks, train the bartenders on proper craft etiquette (some breweries might help with that two). But he can't just be a BA craft enthusiast. He has to know his way around the bar, even if he will not be involved in serving (all the duties do add up to full time, but he has to know the business end).
4. Glassware is going to cost a bundle. One commenter suggested that beer snobs will sneer at good beer served in the wrong vehicle. That may be true, but the number of beer snobs is not as high as they might think of themselves. Still, you will need to revamp that area, which is a hidden cost I'm sure was not fully budgeted for. This is yet another reason why you might want to delay jumping to full 40, to amortize that cost over time, and to bring in a specialist. You'll need enough glassware to cover each style of beer for 2 hours (figure about 1.5 hours for customers plus another half-hour for washing/cooling--don't want beer being poured into a glass that's just come out of an industrial dishwasher) and add another 20% for breakage. Some breweries will let you have their branded glassware at a discount (not sure what the prices might be), but I would not count on that or on the freebies. People will disagree--I guarantee that--but I would suggest five basic types for starters, including a basic beer glass (pint or 20 oz), pilsner, IPA (hourglass or "bulb" design), a bowl or tulip (you can't have every conceivable glass for different Belgian ales, as each brewery recommends their own glassware, and bolws can double for other styles as well), and mugs (for German/English styles, but also perhaps as the larger or smaller substitute for the basic glass). My guess is that the basic glass, IPA and Pilsner should cover about 20-25% each, but that's just a guess. Again, starting slow would allow you to gauge the interest better, so that you can make future buys based on interest. Customers will be more forgiving for potentially inappropriate glassware if they know you're still building and learning with them. And for god's sake, don't frost the glasses and mugs!
5.Food pairings--there is much debate over which beer goes with which food. Not having the full menu, it's hard to make any recommendations blindly, even though this is close to my interests. But there is a reasonable shortcut--when you look at BA beer reviews, note that there is a "food pairing" section in the extreme right-hand column. It's a bit overbroad and I would debate some of the recommendation, but it certainly provides a free basis to start from. One thing to remember, though, is that just because both the food and the beer style may have their origin in the same country does not mean that they should be served together (and vice versa). Most customers will just ask for whatever they want, but some will ask for advice and, in some cases, you might want to have your people volunteer advice if the customer's choices are clashing (gently--never tell them that they are wrong!).
6. Let me throw out one more idea: Not only promote brewery "tap takeovers", but bring in brewery reps to talk about their beer with customers when you do that. Make that a feature. I see very little of that. People doing beer tastings in stores may represent the individual breweries but they are primarily salesmen who know very little about what they are serving. I'm often surprised how resistant they are to answering basic questions (like what hops are used). This is another area where "The Beer Guy" could be instrumental. And with putting yourself out there as a beer place with 40 taps means that you have to show that you care about beer and about beer drinkers. This is one way to do it. And the beauty of it is that it will cost you nothing! (unless you want to give a small honorarium to the guys from the brewery to make the trip worth their while) And, as I said before, establishing a relationship with a brewery will put you on their short list for sending out limited releases and specials.

I'm out. Good to know that my initial guess on the business type was correct, but this about taps out my business "expertise". I mostly do different type of consulting.

 

Don't know. I always take people seriously until they prove otherwise. See just above on 40 taps. If this were to be just a marketing ploy, it would actually backfire, but the location clues were not dropped until people asked. YMMV

 

Reading all these responses, I am becoming much more thankful to be living in a place where 40 craft taps isn't abnormal for bars or restaurants (even for the ones that don't know what to do with them).
It sounds like you already have a start. I'd suggest largely representing local breweries and carrying a variety of styles. Make some trips to nearby brewpubs to figure out what to put on tap. Discuss with your kitchen staff what goes well with your food offerings. Host regular tastings that pair your food with specific beers or ask a brewery or distribution representative to make an appearance at an event if you really want to get serious about it.

 

Here's an idea for a fellow Southern Californian: target your market. Hire a beer guy whose job it will be to curate the tap line-up to hit your target. Rotate handles on a regular basis. Try to keep a good variety of styles on. Go to local beer-centric restaurants and bars and see what they are pouring.

This almost seemed like a fake question since the answer seems like plain old common sense... until I saw the OP added more later in the thread.

 

Thumbs up on first graf--we may be spoiled, but 40 just doesn't sound like much for a watering hole any more.

Not sure about the brewpub as a guide--remember that brewpubs push their own beer (that's what they have to sell) and don't always do it as a service to customers. Besides, they are not all created equal.

I just slapped myself that I forgot to mention beer-food link-up in the already long post just before reading yours. Yes, specific beer-food tastings/pairings are a good idea. That is, have dishes designed to go with specific beers (e.g., use wit to cook a mussels appetizer and then serve it with more wit--I'm just saying that because this was perfect use for a half-case of wit I had that I did not like, so this is a tried idea). You can put beer recommendations in the menu (yet another use of The Beer Guy). And, by working with a brewery, the chef can compose dishes that incorporate specific beers, giving yet another subtle marketing angle (see the mussels idea above).

 

Better than hiring a consultant would be hiring a full time "beer guy". Employ this person as a bar tender or even manager but a major part of their responsibility should be selecting beers, dealing with distributors and ensuring beer quality (clean glasses, clean lines). Make sure it is someone who is genuinely a beer geek and knows WAY more than you do about beer, but also make sure it is someone with industry experience. Hiring someone who has never bought beer on a retail level before would be a big mistake even if they are really passionate. Pay should be based on experience, but from what I've seen these sort of jobs are highly sought after by the people who are best at them and don't tend to demand particularly high pay. If you can give your beer guy some prime time hours as a bartender, the tips would probably be the best financial incentive.

 

I guess my 2nd post was TL/DR

If he's a "beer guy" no need to have him (her) as a bartender. Any idiot can be taught to pour beer. Bartenders do more than that. And "beer guy" should not be working on tips--his job is to keep the beer flowing into the taps. Besides, taking prime hours would piss off other bartenders who are supposed to be trained by this person. I was thinking of more of a semi-management position, with the full understanding that s/he'd be using the position to jump to some other industry position later, once the place is well established (consulting makes sense in this context, but would actually cost more than a full-timer for a year+). It's a combination expertise/communication, not grunt work necessarily.

 

I don't think 40 is overkill "if" you truly know your patronage will support that. But having that based on a thought can lead to easy failure.

 

I would suggest a portion of your tap selection from local breweries.

 

this. asking "what kind of beers do i serve in my restaurant" tells me that you don't know beer as well as you'd need to manage 40 tap lines adequately.

 

Didn't see your post, I was responding to the OP's last post.

I see what you are saying about the role of the beer guy, but I think it is more effective if the beer person works as a bartender as well. You can't manage something if you aren't there to see it put into effect. I would agree that you wouldn't want to just put the beer person in to bartend during prime time, I more meant they should work part time as a bartender in general, including some prime hours so that they can make some decent money. Being there to set an example for the other servers as to how the beer is handled and discussed with customers as well as being there to see what gets a good response and what people are asking for is vital, in my opinion, to being able to handle the back end of determining beer selection and ensuring an adequately educated staff.

My suggestion is more for a long term position, while yours is more of a temporary consultant. Both work, and the OP clearly needs one or the other, but in either case I would say that he needs someone in a position like what I am describing in the long term to keep things going smoothly.

 

I would look at the best beer bars and see what works for you.

http://draftmag.com/features/america-100-best-beer-bars-2013/

 

That's a much better idea. You can always grow later. You can never truly know what a market will buy from you until you actually sell to that market.

I don't know what you'd pay someone to consult, but I think your better bet would be to hire a bar manager that has experience running a beer bar. It's always glaringly obvious when a restaurant with a good tap list isn't run properly. Ignorant staff is a failing of management; you want your day-to-day manager to be able to consistently reinforce your expectations for handling the beer.