On a recent trip to Charlotte, NC, I had my first experience with a self-pour beer bar. Taproom Social, which opened in March 2019, is located in Uptown Charlotte. The idea is simple – rather than having a bartender pour you a beer, you pour it yourself. Upon entering Taproom Social, you surrender your credit card in exchange for a wrist band. The wrist band contains a chip, which is your passport to the ~40 beers on tap. There are, in fact, 50 taps, but some dispense other alcoholic beverages such as wine and cider.
Having obtained your wristband, it is simply a case of deciding which beer you are going to drink. The taps are lined against one wall, and are organized according to style – Lager, IPA, Sours etc. each tap has a screen that provides key information about the beer – the brewery, the name of the beer, its style, price per ounce, and ABV. Tap on the screen and a description of the beer’s flavor profile appears. You then activate the tap, by placing the chip in your wrist band up to the screen. Next, you pour your beer. After pouring, the screen indicates the volume of beer you just poured, as well as the total volume for your entire visit.
According to a recent piece by Neda Ulaby on NPR.org, self-pour taps are becoming more ubiquitous. The number of establishments selling self-pour beer increased from approximately 80 in 2016 to over 400 today. When you consider the size off the US market, that is a minuscule number. Installing self-pour taps can be an expensive undertaking. A 24-tap system cost Walters Sports Bar in Washington, D.C. around $100,000.
Self-pour taps provide a number of advantages for bars. For example, they allow bars to save on labor costs, an increasingly important issue as more states introduce higher minimum wage rates. One vendor of self-pour tap systems touts a 20% reduction in labor costs, a 45% increase in sales and a 50% increase in profits. In one comparative trial, over a three day period, a self-pour system sold 400% more beer than the traditional selling method. This was achieved with 50% less staff. The fact that customers provide a driver’s license when they first arrive at self-pour establishments also allows bars to collect potentially useful data (zip code, gender, age etc.) on customers and their drinking habits. Fatty’s Taphouse in Stanford, VA is another established that has installed self-pour beer taps. The $65,000 cost of the system was recouped within six months, as weekly beer sales increased from $2,000 to $8,000. You can hear about the benefits of Fatty’s self-pour system in a YouTube video here. In There are a number of companies providing self-serve taps technology to bars. These include Drink Command, I Pour It, and Pour My Beer.
Benefits to customers include reduced wait time and flexibility. Customers do not have to pour themselves a whole beer. This can be particularly attractive to craft beer drinkers who often like to sample a beer before committing to a full glass. At First Draft & Kitchen in Minneapolis, MN, General Manager Ashley Hauf estimates that most customers try between six to nine beers per visit, pouring an average of 4.5 ounces per taste. Having to get a bartender’s attention is also eliminated by self-serve systems, thus removing one of the most frustrating aspects of drinking in a busy bar.
Self-pour systems are not yet mainstream. Once they become more ubiquitous and more people have the opportunity to try them it will be interesting to see if the novelty wears off, or if these systems will have real staying power. Personally, I can see the appeal of bars with self-pour systems, especially the fact that the time trying to get a bartender to serve you is eliminated . So how ubiquitous will self-pour beer systems become? Will the prove to be no more than a fad? Or, once they catch on, will they be here to stay? Only time will tell.