FEATURE: Why a pub should consider self-pour beer taps

Experiential offerings are particularly in vogue. Think shuffleboard, arcade games, cocktail bars posing as post offices from the 1940s and so on.

But one offer that combines beer – obviously the backbone of any pub – and pouring it yourself as a customer could be a clincher.

There may not be an abundance of pubs or bars where a customer could find self-pour beer taps but they are out there and they’re in growth.

Ardent Pub Group, which was JKS Pubs until founder and managing director Dom Jacobs acquired the pubs side of the London-based business in early December last year, has three sites – all of which offer self-pour beer taps.

Its pubs: the George in Fitzrovia, the Cadogan Arms in Chelsea and the Hound in Chiswick use self-pour taps that allows private parties to effectively buy a 30-litre keg of Guinness for themselves.

The pubco brought the self-pour taps online two to three years ago and Jacobs explains a major benefit of using Guinness over other products is the competitive edge it creates between drinkers.

The popular stout has the ‘perfect pour’ ethos that customers want to perform themselves, he says, and “there’s a novelty factor in having a go at pouring a great Guinness. People have been practising at home since Covid using the Nitrosurge device that allows a can to replicate the kegged version to some extent.

“Customers have a few practice rounds and although our staff members can pour the perfect pint, you don’t need a PhD to do it. [Customers] get a little tutorial before they start from one of our team members and that’s part of the theatre.”

Likewise, Phil Neale, co-owner of Southwark pub the Thirsty Bear who is also managing director of tech expert Tabology, says pouring it as a customer is not difficult: “The taps are set to pour pretty slowly so it’s fairly easy. We still get people who pour a pint that looks like it needs a flake but that’s part of the fun of it.”

Meanwhile, Peter Robinson, who is UK & European director of sales and operations at Drink Command – a business that installs self-pour beer machines at pubs – such as Brigadiers in London and the Tap House in Manchester – theatres, stadiums across the UK and the rest of the world, also crows about the fun aspect.

He says: “It’s very simple. As a customer, you choose your product, choose how many of that product you want, you hit pay and pay and pour it yourself.

“It’s a massive cost-saving measure and, as an operator, you might get a better margin and you get better revenue from it but it’s seen as an experience.”

Guinness appears to be the front-runner as the drink for self-pour systems and that’s down to its popularity.

Robinson adds the way it works is the customer pours their own Guinness – and of course there’s an art to it – but there’s no wastage even if a wannabe bartender gets their pour wrong because the machine uses an ultrasonic flow meter that measures how much is poured – so even if the drink is gassy, like a lager could be, it only measures the liquid so foamy heads don’t count and the customer can continue their pour and not be charged extra.

“The only time you’re ever going to lose as a customer is if you literally pour the beer down the drain,” he says. “I know from running bars my whole life that with a 50-litre keg, if you get 80 to 81 pints, a licensee is doing pretty well because of staff wastage, tasters for customers, etc, but with this system, you should get paid for every single drop and that means the full 88 pints, and if people don’t pull a whole pint, you’ll get paid for a little bit more too.

“From an operating point of view, your gross profit margin could be 5% to 10% better on literally every keg.”

Although Guinness is the only option groups can buy as a self-pour option at Ardent Pub Group’s sites, Jacobs adds the business can offer other beers but only uses the famed stout because “it has to be a beer that everyone will want to drink because you need to buy an entire keg – and it’s the most universally popular beer”.

“[Guinness] also tends to follow sports events, particularly rugby and horse racing, they go hand in hand,” he explains.

The pricing works out slightly more favourably for the customer with it being marginally cheaper than the pint for pint cost but it’s not a big difference.

Never over-charged

With every keg being 30 litres, if poured perfectly, customers can expect to get as many as 52 pints from each vessel.

Jacobs explains further on the choice of Guinness: “It’s a smaller keg than the usual 50 litres because you want to be promoting responsible drinking and a 30-litre keg is plenty for a large group – and we’d rather they drink the keg and then come to buy top-up pints from the bar.”

Neale says at the Thirsty Bear, the beers on offer are changed frequently but, in December last year, customers had the option of pouring Freedom Pilsner, Beavertown Neck Oil, Beavertown Gamma Ray, Hepcat, Efes and Jubel.

Since going free-of-tie in March 2024 – having installed its first self-serve taps in 2012 – the site has increased its beer range since but some of its more niche craft offerings are available on the bar instead.

On the potential for operators and customers losing money over wasted beer through poor pouring, Neale adds: “Customers are only charged for the liquid that comes out of the tap, so they are never over-charged. The system is verified by the national measurement office (now part of the Office for Product Safety & Standards) to dispense with an accuracy of within 0.5%, which equates to less than 3ml so customers can be assured they are getting what they have paid for.”

Neale says the tech used at the Thirsty Bear is from his company Tabology. Its hospitality EPoS, which is the main product now, started as the built-in EPoS for its self-serve beer system.

He says an integrated system rather than multiple stand-alone systems is important because this avoids sales having to be keyed into tills at the end of the day, keeps stock tracked and means reporting takes place in one place.

The self-service system works from a flow meter and valve installed in the beer line that communicates with the EPoS system so all sales from the taps are recorded alongside all other sales. The taps can be triggered by linking them to a tab on the EPoS or by giving the customer a card that they place down on a reader at the table while some other venues take contactless payments directly at the tap.

Drink Command has in excess of 500 taps across the UK on all on-trade and off-trade venues. Robinson says in terms of pubs and bars, it’s quite small now with about 15 to 20 sites and that equals about 100 to 130 taps in total but there’s a big play about to take place in which the business will install a total of 600 taps in 159 venues by February 2026 for Diageo in pubs, bars and restaurants.

He adds: “Diageo has put a big investment into the Premier League so they want to be in more sports pubs and want people drinking Guinness so they’re going to target those areas.”

No pub operator should consider adding self-pour taps and the fact beer must be sold in thirds, halves or pints is an important aspect to remember versus the freedom allowed in other countries – however, there are certainly a host of reasons to add the equipment and get your self-serve operation up and running.

When Jacobs and his team were looking at group packages a few years ago, offering self-pour taps seemed to be a natural progression. He explains: “Without a doubt, it takes a bit of pressure off the bar as well. So, when you have an extremely busy night, it means everyone gets a better experience.

“If [a customer] wants to drink pints of Guinness, it takes a certain amount of time to pour one so it’s a way of relieving pressure.”

The private bar and dining room on the first floor of the George, which is nicknamed The Gluepot, has a font in the corner where customers can pour their own pints while other sites have a transportable ‘kegerator’, which is a piece of kit that can be moved to various parts of business to self-pour beer.

“I wouldn’t say it sells out all the time – it depends on the group but it is particularly popular around sporting events,” Jacobs admits. “If there’s a group of 10 to 20 guys who’ve booked an area to watch the Six Nations or something, it’s always going to be a popular and the same goes for Cheltenham, which is coming up in March.”

Aside from easing pressure on the bar and giving customers a novelty value and some extra fun, Jacobs states the self-pour taps mean there is a commitment to spend beforehand – with the potential for further top-up pints at the bar.

Robinson agrees that a minimal number of staff are needed to make sure the self-pour system works well and cites that as a cost saving. He says: “There’s the increase of gross profit margin due to the removal of human error and accurate calibration of the system, and zero cash handling – customers can pay with credit/debit card and also a pre-loaded card too, which promotes loyalty to a pub.

“There’s increased spend per head through reduced customer waiting time and ease of use, and it’s a great USP.

“It can be either a fixed tap wall or used as a mobile counter and there are a variety of modes to distinguish between individual purchasers and group parties, for example. It’s a point of difference. Every sector wants new tech. We’re no different in our sector.”

However, Neale argues he never really thought of the fact it gives staff more time to work on other things as the main benefit. “Venues probably can make some savings [in that way] but it’s important to have staff out explaining the system and helping customers, particularly on arrival,” he says.

“In the Thirsty Bear, where the taps are on the tables and combined with iPad menus, the benefit is really the guest experience. Once you have a table, there is no need to keep getting up to queue at the bar, instead you can spend more time enjoying yourself with the people you came out to see.”

Tough hole

The future for self-pour beer taps appears to be a positive story – those that have them already are more than happy with their performance and say they not only attract new customers but retain a number of them as well.

Robinson says: “The industry is in a tough hole and it’s sad to see. If we can give some tech and enable the sector to improve and get extra revenue then that’s great. The way every sector is in the world, tech is going to be implemented more and more.”

Neale adds: “Self-pour is already a big concept in the US and it will continue to grow.

“In the UK, we have to work with the legislation but there are ways of doing that. For example, with contactless payment at the tap, the customer needs to select a measure so they can be charged the correct amount – this works well with how the system has to be used over here so is generally what we recommend to UK venues. It is still important to ensure licensing regulations are upheld though, so this set up does require a bit more monitoring.

“If, or when, there is an update in the legislation, we could see it take off here a lot more.”