You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That age-old adage is especially true when it comes to winning over the approval of discerning beer lovers.
For the lesser-known breweries, the need to make that first customer experience an all-round palate-pleaser is absolutely critical. Your branding could be powerful, eye-catching and memorable, but one poor quality pint could be all it takes to turn off that consumer for life.
Arguably, the well-established brands are more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a bad tasting beer. The issue is often attributed to the venue, rather than the beer itself. But whether you are a start-up craft brewery or a long-established household name, protecting dispense quality is vitally important in terms of safeguarding your brewery’s reputation.
The key is consistency. Customers expect the perfect pint every time, and rightly so. For busy bar operators, maintaining consistency can be a daily battle. In our experience, line cleaning can be inconsistent when it is a duty shared across multiple bar staff. It can lead to variations in chemical strength, changeable processes and timings, and poor practices such as chemicals being left in overnight or jobs being rushed.
And that’s exactly why so many have come to rely on Beer Line Wizard. Our approach removes this variability by using standardised chemicals specially formulated in partnership with Chemisphere, dedicated equipment such as the BLW-4 module, and carefully timed processes that ensure consistency every single time.
Our non-intrusive cellar technology allows us to safely extend cleaning cycles to four weeks without compromising quality, so operators can still guarantee their customers a consistently good pint, no matter what point in the cleaning cycle they are at.
It is a system that we are so confident can transform the beer industry that we invested in a partnership with the University of Edinburgh to rigorously test and validate it.
The experiment involved four taps of beer with identical parameters. Two of them were fitted with our trademark technology, the BLW-4 module. Over the course of 28 days, beer was regularly served from each tap. The results speak for themselves.
After three weeks, the taps without the BLW-4 device showed changes in absorbance, indicating a greater presence of bacteria and yeast, while the treated taps remained stable. And the beer quality of the treated taps was classified between excellent and acceptable, while the untreated taps fell into poor and unacceptable categories.
For brewers, this proven consistency means fewer technical call-outs, reduced product returns due to poor-quality pints, and a better presentation of their product at the point of serve.
As well as helping operators serve up consistently good quality beer, this system also helps clients make consistent monetary savings too. In fact, by using chemicals specifically developed for our systems and machines, our clients are seeing up to 75% less product being wasted, compared to a weekly line clean.
That reduction in product waste means the service effectively pays for itself, something which is proving crucial for many operators battling a competitive market, escalating rates and tighter margins.
This reduction in product waste is great news for the environment too. Sustainability is a growing concern for brewers and consumers alike, and becoming more of a requirement through law changes which are helping to move us towards a cleaner, greener future. Craft brewers, Pilot Beer, have worked with Beer Line Wizard for several years. Their sales and events Manager Sam Dick agrees. He says, “A growing majority of customers are putting sustainability at the forefront of their brand.”
It is a factor that is motivating Finlay Heslop, director of Moonwake Beer too. His brewery has worked with Beer Line Wizard for several years and says, “Using Beer Line Wizard is an easy way to help achieve these sustainability goals, essentially as a by-product of becoming more profitable.”
For Heslop, the importance of consistency is crucial. “The ability to serve our products at the highest quality in a more consistent way was the main reason we teamed up with Beer Line Wizard in the first place. We slave away creating products we believe people want to drink.
“The last thing we would want is someone to have a bad experience with one of our products. Beer Line Wizard allows us to have far more control over the end product. Hopefully increasing customer retention.”
Feedback like this is what drives Beer Line Wizard forward. And that is why our technicians regularly go over and above to help our clients. They are trained to identify potential issues while on-site, and either resolve them or advise accordingly. In doing so, they keep products flowing, prevent any unnecessary downtime, and avoid additional maintenance call-outs. So operators can keep calm and carry on with consistency.
