Tracking Poured vs sales

[BigWilley]

How are you tracking the amount of beer actually poured? Anyone using the inline flowmeters that can export data to your PC? Any better options? I used to use serving tank volumes at the beginning of each week measured against sales but am looking for something more accurate and flexible.Aslo does anyone have any reccomendations for remote temp. sensors. I want to put a probe in the glycol that chills the lines that can be read at the bar. Wireless would be ideal. Thanks.

[CallerFromLA]

Heya hiyas. From my experience, most restaurants and brewpubs do not track their beer spillage. Hell, most restaurants don't track anything. I have never seen anyone use those inline flowmeters, but I've always assumed that large places (like in Las Vegas) use them.

At my last place, we tracked it weekly, and if it became a problem, we could track it daily for troubleshooting. Things to look out for:
- Openness. Let your bartenders know the current beer spillage, and because they are good honest people, they'll know when to 'tighten up', or offer suggestions on solutions.
- Secrecy. Sometimes you should not tell your bartenders if you are tracking daily, as it could tip them off.
- Free pints. Let your bartenders pour X number of free pints daily. If you make that number 0, you may be setting unrealistic goals for your bartender. Free pints need to be entered into the POS system.
- Beer accounting. This includes large, small, sampler, growlers, and kitchen use.
- Beer pour lines. Make sure your bartenders pour the same amount of head consistently by using glassware with pour lines.
- Foam overload. Fix pouring problems promptly.
- Bottled beer. Track bottles separately from the taps.
- Calculating accuracy. When counting kegs, round to the 0.5 or 0.25 or 0.1, but if you have a lot of kegs, make sure you calculate your theoretical plus/minus accuracy. If your goal is 14%, and at the end of the week you find spillage is 17%, that may be okay if your plus/minus is 4%.


Cheers,
--Jake Tringali

[gitchegumee]

I've used the electronic flowmeters sold by Micromatic with poor results. (One of the only things I've ever had a problem with from them) We were required by the government to record every pour--problem was that these also counted the beer line cleaner and the rinse! They consisted of a plastic housing with a rotating element inside. It tended to clog with the dregs of the last beers poured from a serving tank and were difficult to unclog. They were not very reliable, either. This was 5 years ago and I don't see them offered on Micromatic's website. We replaced them with a German make (sorry-don't remember) that worked well. Just remember that the more complicated the system, the harder the fall! Good luck!