Make yours a top cellar at Christmas
Festive trading provides a special challenge over and above all the other pressures facing pubs this year.
Dan Unwin of cellar services champion Innserve offers our Sell More, Save More pubs the following quick tips on making sure their sales - and their equipment - don't suffer from a big freeze this Christmas…
1. Planning - always number one
This year Christmas falls on a Thursday in the middle of a week. This is the most difficult delivery time for this holiday as the normal delivery week is compressed into a much smaller time window. If cold weather is on the cards plan your deliveries, stock and preventive actions by using the tips below to make sure your bar keeps dispensing.
2. Deliveries
Plan your stock and deliveries so that beer and cider can go straight into the cellar. Make sure you know when you will get deliveries as your normal delivery day could be a national holiday such as Christmas Day itself. Kegs and casks should never be stored outside or exposed to the elements for long periods as they can freeze, drastically affecting drink quality. Beer may also take time to warm up from ambient (possibly below 5 centigrade) in the cellar before it can be dispensed properly - allow up to 48 hours for the containers to acclimatise.
3. Container size
Make sure you have the right stock in the right sized containers. This can mean upsizing kegs and casks to make the most effective use of space in the cellar, for instance from nine or 11 gallon containers to 18, 22 or even 36 gallons. This also prevents you having to find space for the extra containers. Also, remember that Christmas week is often a short week for deliveries from many breweries.
4. Rotate stock
Make sure you use stock in correct date rotation to ensure the beer that has had the longest time in the cellar and date code is used before serving new deliveries.
5. Cellar cooling
Check your cellar cooling is working properly. It should give a cellar temperature of 10 to 12 degrees centigrade and run for a maximum of 16 hours out of every 24 hours. Make sure fan grills are free from dirt and if there is a fan or "heat dump" outside the pub make sure nothing is stored nearby. Leave it switched on at all times - the control system will call in the cooling when required.
6. Keep the cold air in
Cellar cooling is designed to keep the cellar space cool. It is not designed to cool the rest of the pub! Keep doors and windows closed as much as possible.
7. Line cleaning
Line cleaning should be undertaken every week with a recommended line cleaner. At Christmas it is best to clean the lines the weekend before the Christmas peak and then the weekend between Christmas and New Year. Avoid cleaning your lines on the "peak trading days", so there is no risk of interruption to beer dispense when you are busy.
8. Remote cooler care
Keep the area around the remote free from stored items such as crisps, nuts and bottled drinks. Space is there for a reason - to enable air to circulate around the unit. Half covering the grills on the side means half the cooling capacity. They are designed to run all the time so make sure they are kept switched on.
Check the remote is topped up with water. There is a top-up point on the top of the cooler with an overflow. The water should just cover the ice bank and coils. If there is a glycol top-up point make sure the unit is topped up with the correct strength of glycol.
9. Shelf coolers
Some outlets have additional shelf coolers behind the bar for extra cold products. These units normally have a fan grill in the front (facing the barstaff). These grills can easily become blocked up by dust and spillages. They should be kept clean with a soft brush or, ideally, a vacuum cleaner. Check the unit is topped up with water - there is a topping-up point in the top and an overflow. Again, they are designed to run all the time so make sure they are kept switched on.
10 Manual Handling
High beer stocks sold over a short period can mean a storage challenge. Avoid stacking kegs and casks on top of each other unless you have a properly safety assessed system. During cellar cleaning, avoid water spillages outside as these can freeze, causing a safety hazard.
