Determining Quantity of Flight Paddles

[sboyajian]

We are opening a brewery later this Fall. It has 75 inside seats (tables and bar), as well as some standing room floating bars. There are also 36 seats available on the front patio.

Our initial offering is 10 beers + 1 seltzer (base seltzer with optional flavorings).

We'd like to offer two flight sizes 5 and 10, but we honestly have no clue what is a reasonable number of each paddle style for this size tap room. What calculations have you all used to determine that? I don't want to have to turn people away if all are in use, however as they are being custom made, I also don't want to end up with twice as many as I'll ever use.

Thanks!

[3cargarbrew]

Do just the 5 beer flight. No one can drink 10 before they get hot, lose there head or some other malady. We are of similar size and have 12 boards.

When we first opened, the staff got flighted to death...but as we have now been open (less Covid) almost 2 years, just the weekend first couple hours are flight heavy. We have even done some “no flight” hours during Friday and Saturday night rush. If you offer a 10oz pour, along with your pints, you can usually talk someone into a beer.

We generally have between 12 &16 beers on tap any given day. When 12 flights have gone out, we usually go to the table and collect the boards. No one has ever complained.

We price our flights at $2.50 per pour for a 5oz pour of a standard ABV. It is the most expensive way to purchase a beer at our place and a lot of folks are good with a quick taste and then buying a pint or 10oz.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sboyajian]

Thanks for the advice, I have definitely heard from many local breweries that the worst things always happen -- busy Friday night, bus full of 20 girls in a bridal shower and every one of them wants a flight. Ties up the bar pretty good.

I'll talk to the team, I'm ok with just doing the 5's, it's honestly a "keeping up with the joneses" that we would do the 10. Large brewery in our area has 10 and 20 flights, and people go crazy over them.