Cellar to Glass: High speed dispense
The three-second pint of lager is here. Drinks Dispense Group has launched ExacTap - which it claims to be the world's fastest beer dispense system.
Aimed at pub and bar operators with fast-moving, high-volume beer sales, the ExacTap pours each pint to the exact serving size with a pre-measured head on each - at the touch of a button. It is available with single or dual dispense for greater product choice, and can be set up as part of the bar or as a mobile unit.
Kelly Kay has been using the ExacTap at her Manchester pub since last October - and says she couldn't do without it. Kelly runs the landmark Trafford Hotel at the top of Sir Matt Busby Way, a long throw-in from Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, and every time there's a home fixture the pub is packed with hundreds of supporters.
"Trade is at an extremely high volume for a few hours at a time when Manchester United are playing at home," says Kelly. "This means I need to serve my customers as quickly as possible and the ExacTap is about 10 times quicker than traditional pumps and enables me to run the pub far more easily on match days.
"Customers have spread the word that you can get served quickly at peak times in the Trafford Hotel so that means the pub is busier than ever - in fact there is always a queue of people trying to get in on matchdays."
Kelly uses two ExacTap systems at one end of the bar exclusively to sell Foster's Lager.
"Foster's is extremely popular at the pub and having the two ExacTaps away from the main area of the bar frees up my staff to take care of the other customers."
The ExacTap also forms part of a specially designed system at SA Brain's Old Arcade in Cardiff city centre, which the brewer describes as possibly the busiest pub in Wales when the national rugby team is playing at home.
As a pub operator that has maintained its own in-house technical services team, Brains prides itself on driving beer quality forward through tailor-made dispense systems geared to the needs of the particular pub.
At the Old Arcade all the keg beer taps have been converted to a faster pour which dispenses pints in eight to 10 seconds. But on the busiest match days something more is needed to keep the beer flowing, as sales and marketing director Richard Davies explains.
"The Old Arcade opens up onto the street and the upper half of the pub's frontage folds back to create a serving area that allows us to operate a limited additional bar. To do this, separate equipment has been installed as well as an ExacTap," Richard says. "It works well in an environment that's dedicated to serving beer."
