Taphandle sources

[SchoonerExact]

So I have already spoken with AJS and Green Mountain. Taphandles, Inc has minimums that are a little too high (100 pieces). Is there anyone else I should check out before moving forward? Someone good with a custom design but has reasonable minimums?

Thanks!

[RobZamites]

Here you go -- no minimums!

MicroMatic

Cheers!

[beertje46]

And another

Tap Handles

[SchoonerExact]

Tap Handles

See original post.

[SchoonerExact]

Here you go -- no minimums!

MicroMatic

Cheers!

Thanks Rob, but we need to have something custom made.

[Valleybrew]

Call Rich at Sculpture Concepts,

https://www.sculptureconcepts.com

Stock and custom for reasonable prices.

Steve

[beertje46]

See original post.

What? Am I supposed to read now?

[CallerFromLA]

Tapped out?

Let me put in a plug here -

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTIST!

You, as a brewer, are a local artist. There are other artists in your community, and I'm sure they would love the opportunity to make a tap handle. Call in some sculpters to see what they can do for you.


Cheers,
--Jake Tringali

[Greenbrewmonkey]

Hello all,

Jake's idea is a great one, and if you find an artist that charges as little for his/her work as we hard working brewers please pass it along!

For our first few draft accounts I tried this approach. Local metal smith, very cool hand forged organic looking jack-o'-lantern pieces. He charged me roughly $125 and a case of beer per handle. After a few cases, he changed the price to $150 flat. I guess you only need so much beer? Very cool handles, but an unsustainable price, especially after most of the first few were stolen within a few days. The metal smith disappeared (really). His friends said he did that from time to time. Artists! I approached another metal smith, and the local artisan woodworker down the block. Both make wonderful, really cool stuff. Both came back within a few weeks, and said basically "you can't afford this". They were right.

Had the same experience with a local potter for some hand thrown mugs for the brewery. Just too darn expensive to buy a fleet of those things!

Tap handles just disappear, so for now, we use Greenmountain. So far so good. Maybe one day I can afford the local craftsperson.

Cheers,
Ron
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

[SchoonerExact]

So, in response, I am actually doing a little of both. I do see myself as an artisan brewer and do try to support my locals whenever possible. The local support I have gotten thus far is the only reason I have been able to even think about getting this thing off the ground.

We have contracted a couple of local artists to help us design our branding, logos, taphandles, t-shirts, etc. We will be using a local company for our glassware, tshirts, web design/hosting and a few other things. So the design will be local. Also helps since the theme behind all of our marketing has a very local, historic aspect. The schooner 'Exact' is the boat that brought the founders of Seattle here after all, and most of our beers have a historic Seattle theme to them as well.

Taphandles, Inc (taphandles.com) is a local company, but again, with our size we just dont have a need to 100 handles at the moment. We will be looking into the possibilty of having them made locally, however I would feel a little better about using someone like AJS whose job it is to do these things. I have checked out their samples and there are a few there that look a lot like what we are trying to do. I was also most impressed with their overall protfolio from the companies I looked at. So, unless someone can do it WAY cheaper we will probably be moving forward with them.

Eventually I would love to contract a local scupltor to do a few custom one-offs for a seasonal or limited release deal to just make it that much more special. However, currently, all we are looking for is a 2d custom shape with a decal or paint graphic. Mainly to keep costs down since we know that handles do tend to disappear. It's one of those catch-22's in any business. Youre new and small so you need the biggest splash with your marketing to get you there, but you have to be careful where you spend until you actually get cash flow. We are 100% self funded so we tend to watch every dime.

[CallerFromLA]

Custom tap handles

Ah, yes, I see your point now about taps being stolen. As a brewery selling in other people's places, I can certainly see how theft can quickly become a problem, so you'd need to keep costs down. I've always run brewpub environments, where that has never been a problem, so spending a little more money on tap handles can be worth it.

Cheers,
--Jake Tringali

[beertje46]

Charge a deposit for the high end handle?

You charge a deposit for your kegs.

[kugeman]

On a slightly different note, I'm in the process of designing and building new tap handles for our brewpub & outside accounts. I'm looking for a large "shield" which I can use to display our logo on the front of the tap handle. The only ones I've been able to find are from taphandles.com and are about 3 inches in diameter (they also have an oval and rectangular version). Here's a link to what they look like

I'm looking for something a little bigger. At this size, my logo just isn't all that visible. I'd prefer to stick with a round shape but I'm open to suggestions. If anyone out there has a source for what I'm looking for I'd appreciate any help...

Alternatively, for those that make their own tap handles, how do you display your logo such that it's recognizable to the customer.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Charles S.]

Try ukbrewing.com

They have large badges for clamping on a beer engine.

[Razzaq]

hi everyone....

Nice to find the great place with lots of information....

Have a nice stay



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