| Brewery advice... 17:44 - Jul 21 with 3421 views | Bluefish |
I am soon to open a bar, it is a sports pavilion where our pitches and 3g are we are opening it as a football and family (we have over 50 teams at the club) bar hopefully open 7 days a week.
We are currently entertaining and pricing up breweries and want to canvass opinions.
The 2 easiest choices are marstons and Greene King. The outsiders are molson coors and Heineken. The Heineken set up is different in terms of installation but cant be used by other breweries in the future. They also seem expensive. We are starting with 4 pumps initially but without cask to start with.
What would you want to see as beer options?
Please remember we aren't having cask straight away until we have a definite idea of trade levels and that this is aimed at sports and families. |  |
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| Brewery advice... on 08:09 - Jul 22 with 484 views | Meadowlark |
I am not your typical customer, so this won't be much help, but I will not drink keg beers. I will only drink cask ales, hand-pump pulled, and I would prefer not to drink anything from Greene King. If I were to enter your bar, I would have a quick scan of what is available, then leave.
I also understand that "real-ale" is not everyone's choice, (although I believe that this is down to dodgy pints being served} takes more looking after and needs to be consumed regularly to keep fresh. So your "no-cask" decision is probably wise, but perhaps as a guest on busy weekends?
This is nothing personal. I do it in a lot of pubs too.
Good luck with the bar though. |  | | |
| Brewery advice... on 08:19 - Jul 22 with 475 views | Herbivore |
| Brewery advice... on 18:46 - Jul 21 by footers |
They are sh1t beers, tbf. |
They are indeed. I don't think I'd go to the pub to drink that crap to be honest, there isn't much point. I can drink crap lager at home. Pubs that are thriving are all about the craft. |  |
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| Brewery advice... on 08:23 - Jul 22 with 464 views | Bangor31 |
I havent read past your first post so apologies if the below has been said
I would personally use either Adnams or GK as small breweries like ours would struggle to offer a full range of beer and cider which you are looking for.
E.g. we only wholesale carlsberg, abk, aspall, and other ales.
Adnams are currently having some teething issues with their foreign beers such as Guinness but look to be getting over this.
GK have a great cellar service but id make sure you are free of tie on cask with any deal with them. Quite frankly their beer is dross and you could use a local ipswich brewer who would produce a far better product and likely at a better price.
Imo id go GK if you don't think you'll have cask for a while and id be more than happy to give you some prices to aim for with the beers your looking to get.
Whoever you do go for try to be free of tie in as much as possible as the mark up the give when you are bound is stressful. |  | | |
| Brewery advice... on 09:01 - Jul 22 with 430 views | portmanking |
If you want to offer a few different continental beers now and then, I would also thoroughly recommend investing in a Philips Perfect Draft machine. You can get kegs with 10-11 pints of high-end Belgian beer, as well as many other continental lagers and IPAs.
I've got one for my 'Man Cave' and it's absolutely fantastic. Many bars and cafes in Europe now have Perfect Draft machines. I think you can get trade prices on the kegs too.
EDIT: Just seen that you have a penchant for Kwak and the like - all of which are available on the PD machine. As well as Leffe, Tripel Karmeliet etc. [Post edited 22 Jul 2020 9:23]
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| Brewery advice... on 10:10 - Jul 22 with 403 views | X0Y0 |
Our business manages some pubs and it sounds like you're already on the right track.
As already referred to, play off the suppliers as much as possible - Matthew Clarke have been good in terms of long-term relationships and price matching.
Anything on tap should be guaranteed to sell quickly and entirely, otherwise wastage and spillage easily eat up profit. Use longer shelf-life items (bottles, cans) to offer premium products and specials which justify higher prices to cover higher costs and typically lower rate of sale. Test the range with bottles etc and strong performers can always move on to tap.
From those listed the GK line-up looked strongest, but I don't have a direct comparison for rate of sale across the offers. | | | |
| Brewery advice... on 15:28 - Jul 22 with 353 views | jontysnut |
I do a bit of non league travelling and its always a joy to find a clubhouse that has a decent choice rather than the usual Fosters, and Smiths. Quite a few have the opportunity to open during the week and for functions etc and can justify having cask ale. At worst I've sat in a container with a can. If there's no real ale on I'm happy to have a bottle and if it's something local then so much the better, Craft beer prices rather than craft beer itself is usually a sore point. See if a local brewer will sponsor one of your sides and get some of theirs in now and again. |  | | |
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