Draft Line Component Quality, And The Impact On Beverage Quality
With 30+ years in the craft beverage industry, and three years as a commercial brewer and Advanced Cicerone Certification, Draft Punk has a thorough understanding of craft beer and alternative beverages. We have done numerous high-quality installations, as well as countless system upgrades. Clean beer matters, and our draft systems are built to last, protecting delicate beverage aromas and flavors.
Draft Punk offers the highest quality draft line components to maximize system longevity, while maintaining the integrity of the products served. We are on-call for all established customers, handling all troubleshooting, questions, and repairs. We install, and deep clean beer tap systems to ensure optimum performance. We will not sell our clients parts we wouldn’t utilize in our own draft system. Here we explain the components of a draft beer system and the differences in quality.
Draft Punk only utilizes polyethylene tubing and stainless steel metal components in our draft beer system installations. Polyethylene tubing is rated for up to ten years, depending upon the cleaning regimen. Stainless steel components will last a lifetime. Commonly used vinyl tubing is only rated for one year, and becomes stained within 3-6 months, leading to a reduction in product quality. Yearly replacement of this inferior quality tubing is expensive and requires downtime, resulting in lost revenue.
Chrome plated metal components lose the plating quickly; and can flake off in customer’s glasses. There is an instant metallic off-flavor when products come in contact with brass, once it’s exposed. Brass is a soft metal susceptible to pitting. This results in increased area for bacterial build-up and biofilm formation. The beverage quality will subsequently decrease, and the taste of the product will be fouled. Brass components can lead to nucleation sites on surfaces due to pitting, which can cause foaming at the point of dispensing.
Old components and low-quality tubing will result in significant reduction in product quality over time. Poor quality vinyl tubing is fragile and susceptible to rupture, as well as increased oxygen infusion and Co2 loss in the tubing. Products will oxidize rapidly and lose carbonation. Polyethylene tubing will retain carbonation for longer while in tubing; and show much lower levels of oxygen ingress.
Polyethylene tubing is more durable, reduces kinking and potential rupture. It provides the draft system cleaner faster flow rates while using a recirculation pump. The increased flow rate while cleaning increases the mechanical action of the cleaning process, creating a cleaner system capable of boosting revenue by 5% to 7%.
Typically one quarter of restaurant revenue comes from draft beverage sales. Why not maximize profits and increase repeat sales with clean draft systems? Avoid costly equipment overhead, storage, and expensive training by outsourcing your draft system maintenance to a trusted company. Ensure staff safety and reduce liability due to Co2 and chemical exposure. Outsource your draft system maintenance to the best draft techs in the PNW! If you still want to do it yourself, Draft Punk can train your staff. Reach out to us with any questions.
Quality products, pristine draft beverage system, and proper staff training are all very important for your ongoing success. Let our Draft Punk system specialists help custom draft system design and installation, cleaning, training and system upgrades. We’ve got you covered!
