Self-service beer taps coming your way

Wasted beer? If the taps are metered, then whatever is wasted is paid for... so, why would the bar care?

 

I have to kindly disagree in this case. Ordering a beer is just simply not necessarily an "inherently social process" like you make it out to be, any more than buying a lotto ticket or pack of cigs at circle K. Pouring a beer requires even less skill than a chain coffee store barista, and there's no need to go through some mandatory tipping practice in that situation. We could easily have more bars that offer self-pour or just pay at a counter where a "pour person" pours pints of beer just as a coffee shop cashier pours black coffee. The process could be improved significantly and I'm surprised more places haven't tried these alternative models yet. Many of us are tired of the traditional server/waiter model at beer places. I wish more places would try these alternative models and give consumers an actual choice in the matter.

 

I'd rather be served by a robot than some hipster/self-appointed "beer sommelier" prevalent at places favored by beer geeks.

 

Fully agree! It's amusing when some bring up the abstract point about how it matters that the bartender's knowledge is a big deal to them... yet they gloss over the fact that this is so incredibly uncommon in the real world.

 

Yeah, don't get me wrong - I appreciate prompt, friendly service just as much as anyone else. But chances are, I know more about the beer at the bar & have heard enough bartender BS & tall tales to last me a lifetime. I don't need someone to hold my hand & "guide" me what to drink.

 

In Oregon it's mandatory that someone else (a gas station attendant) fills your tank with gasoline. Its an easy job that anyone could do, but it's hardly an inconvenience and it helps provide someone with a bit of extra income. It is a harmless law that helps provide for those in need. I don't agree with your logic. Drinking beer in public is one of the most social processes that humans still engage in, it is inherently social. When you buy a lotto ticket you are scratching a ticket, that is a process in which you only engage yourself and it provides little opportunity for human interaction. Your analogy is terrible. Alcoholic consumption has, for the entirety of it's history, been done primarily in a social setting or FOR a social setting. "Beer" is "brewed" all across Sub-Saharan Africa for family gatherings. Tongans have an alcoholic drink they brew for family and social gatherings and have for all of their recordable history. Every Super Bowl commercial tonight that involved beer represented it as a social drink (except for the horse + puppy one). It is a social lubricant, it allows both introverts and extroverts to socialize together. I have never in my life waited for more than 5 minutes to be poured a drink. Interestingly the only bar I have waited for much longer was a cocktail bar, and cocktails are complex drinks that I prefer are not pre made for me by a computer. If the bar is busy enough for a line, the same line will be waiting to pour themselves a beer with a 4 finger head. Anyway, saying that going to a bar isn't social is ludicrous. I don't think consumers need the choice. I think that people need to buck the fuck up, be socially responsible, and acknowledge that bartenders are a part of our social fabric. And don't call a bartender a "pour person." Bartenders in this wonderful industry are extremely knowledgable and help provide an edifying experience. End Rant/

 

I was at a chili's in East Texas, Marshall I think and some of the tables in the bar area had a tap at their table. novel, but I would be concerned about how well the lines were maintained, and also were they refrigerated up to the table from where ever they were sourced from

 

It appears you're confused or you took little care in reading what I wrote. Nowhere did I say the consumption of alcohol is not a social process, nor that sharing drinks with others at a bar is not a social process. If you're going to be critical of others, at least get their point right, otherwise you're attacking a straw man.

I clearly said that the ordering of a beer is not necessarily an inherently social process - quoted above for accuracy. Often it is as clean and impersonal as ordering any number of other items from someone behind a counter. It need not be socially engaging. I clearly and carefully used the words 'not necessarily'. Sure, at some places you chit chat, talk about personal stuff, etc. But often it is not, and quite often it is just a quick transaction where drink and money exchange hands. There are already beer bars here in the U.S. that are switching to alternative models such as having most patrons ordering at a counter and taking their own drinks to their own tables. Great. Heck, this already exists in Britain and in other European countries. There are patrons seated at a bar who want to be social with employees, but many exercise the option to just order at the counter and take their drinks to their own table to drink in solitude or with friends. I would love for such an option to be more common here in the U.S. so that consumers can have a choice. Same for the self-pour. Let us have a choice. Don't worry, you'll always have your "full service" places. That won't die out.

I have respect for upscale cocktail bar bartenders because that does require a range of knowledge and skill. But "bartenders" at beer bars where they just pour beer, or beer and wine, is an entirely different set of "skills". In that case they are aptly describable as "pour persons" and heck I might agree that my barista analogy is inadequate in this example because the barista requires a lot more knowledge and skill to do their job.

As aside, the gas station attendant is a superfluous job that is a burden on consumers that should not be there. If you're going to defend that example, any agreement on the more controversial topics is unlikely - and not just with me. Guess what would happen if consumers were given the choice of full service gas (at a suitably higher price to pay for that employee) and self-serve at a lower price.

Perhaps you could elaborate on what you meant when you said that "consumers don't need the choice" in question, a bar with self-pour and ones without. Why deny the choice? I know you made your preference clear, but why do you not want others to have a choice?

 

Just a thought. Perhaps, in states with Dram Shop laws, ordering another beer is in both a social process and a quasi-legal (pre-legal?) process as it gives the order taker an opportunity to assess the customer's state of inebriation before agreeing to fill the order and serve another beer.

 

Possibly. I've been to places that have the self-pour already and there's a sort of roaming supervisor type of employee that hovers. It isn't purely independent self-serve.

 

Do you by chance work in the buggy whip business? I think the fact that I can grab my beer and not wait trying to flag down a bartender is great. That being said though, the obvious downside is the lack of selections with these table tap and vending machine things.

 

I would think the vending machine would lead to problems with the beer being shaken up on the way out of the machine. Don't try that with any nitro beers, for certain!

 

Maybe they are just rating beers on BA?

 

I hear Hooters and the Tilted Kilt are going to implement this self pour system nationwide.

 

They had this at the LA Couny Fair. It was pretty much the same as going up to a bar. Where I did enjoy this service was at the City Tavern in Culver City. They had four taps on the booths when you order food that were equipped with Anchor Steam. In that situation I did enjoy the taps because booth service is sometimes slow and hard to order another round. Quite frankly in certain situation I can see this working out and others dont think it would

 

Might as well stay home and drink. I don't want to go to a bar and pour my own beer just like I don't want to go to a restaurant and cook my own food.

 

No, the correct analogy would be whether you would go to a cafeteria or all-you-can-eat buffet. You're not being asked to brew your own beer.

 

My fridge has cold bottles and cans. No need to go to a bar for that.

 

Where did he say he was brewing it? Shops aren't selling kegs of beer to people to be used as nightstands...

 

He didn't, and that was precisely the point. Did you read his post? He compared pouring beer in a glass from a tap to cooking dinner. No. Cooking dinner is like brewing beer. Pouring beer into a glass is like putting food on your plate. Get it?