Benefits And ROI Of Regular Draft System Cleaning & Maintenance

As a Seattle draft beer installer and cleaner, Draft Punk follows Brewers Association guidelines in our draft line cleaning and maintenance of your dream draft system. One of the biggest returns for bar operations is money invested in keeping your draft lines clean. Brewers Association® recommends caustic cleaning cycles to be completed every two weeks with quarterly acid and caustic cycles and annual complete system deep cleaning. Critical to being able to serve an excellent glass of draft beer, cleaning costs are an investment with a high return. Studies have shown that following Brewers Association® guidelines can increase your draft beverage system profits five to seven percent! This can add up to a serious increase in annual profits and can completely eliminate the cost of your draft system maintenance.

Whether your beer line run is short or long, all are recommended to be cleaned bi-monthly, as mandated by the Brewers Association Draft Beer Quality Manual. The manual was created by large and small brewers, technical experts, and draft beer equipment suppliers, who have established line cleaning standards. The cost and benefits associated with line cleaning will be addressed in this blog.

The standards define the procedures, timing, equipment, and chemicals used to ensure that draft beer is served as the Brewer intended. A conservative estimate on revenue gained from the investment is twice the cost. The exact cost to clean every line can be precisely calculated and broken down into two components. These are the cost of beer lost during cleaning, and the cost for the service in terms of time, labor, and materials.

The average total cost (long draws and short) to clean one draft beer line is between six and twelve dollars. Several reasons exist for not cleaning draft beer lines as mandated by Brewers Association. Reasons vary depending on the state where a business is located. In some states a bar operator is required to pay for a line cleaning service, incurring the cost, and viewing beer purged from lines as a waste. In other states, the beer wholesaler provides line cleaning at no charge as an added value for product placement. Still, the bar operator views purged beer as a waste, and with multiple line cleaners from various wholesalers cleaning lines; an inconvenience and downtime. Lastly, no matter what state you're in, bar operators often do not understand why they should invest in this process, commonly due to a lack of knowledge.

The following scenario helps to explain the value of draft beer line cleaning.

A bar operator concerned about the cost of line cleaning elects to have draft beer lines cleaned monthly. This doubles the recommended time between cleanings. Beer spoilers, which include bacteria, yeast, and molds flourish in the beer lines and begin to impart an off-taste into all of the beers on tap.

The off-flavor will be noticeable in the light lagers and wheat beers with subtle flavor profiles; more robust ales and stouts will mask the off-taste. However, within a short amount of time, the flavor will be detected in all the beers on tap. Bar patrons drinking the lighter beers will taste the off-flavors produced by the beer spoilers and take one of four costly options:

1. Not order another draft (stop drinking).

2. Complaint to receive a refund or exchange for a different beer.

3. Switch to a bottle or can of beer.

4. Elect to drink elsewhere.

Assuming a pint of beer sells for $6.00, losing the revenue from just two-pint sales costs the operator more than proper line cleaning would have cost. Draft beer sales and revenue will continue to decrease with each day that passes without an effective line cleaning process. The realized cost of lost sales and customer goodwill is much greater to the operator than the cost to clean the line following the Brewers Association line cleaning standards.

The real cost of line cleaning – is NOT line cleaning. If you are in need of a draft system specialist and cleaner in the Seattle area, reach out to us at Draft Punk!