Electric Metered Pumps Coming Soon

[OldBreweryDrinker]

One SS pub that i visited recently now has electric measured pints in over sized glasses. So the hand pulled OBB has gone, such a shame. The number of complaints the first night was so high the manager nearly decided to shut the pub. So now the staff jsut have to flick a switch once for a half adn twice for a pint. This is going back to the 70's  , i know Humphrey lives in the 19th century, but this is a throwback.

All because the poor managers are not making the requried surplus. So now you get a measured pint and the cellar and the till readings should match. Apparently one other SS pub is going this route as well. It has cost Humphrey over 4k to just install the system. Minus the cellar services guys to install it and of course the new oversized glasses.

[OnTheDrink]

Metered dispense is better for the punter as you'll always get a full pint, including the head. It's better for the pub as well as the lines can be smaller and overspill should be eliminated.  The only problem is that handpumps look far better and everyone associates them with cask beer.  I can't understand why customers would complain though.

[OldBreweryDrinker]

Metered dispense is better for the punter as you'll always get a full pint, including the head. It's better for the pub as well as the lines can be smaller and overspill should be eliminated.  The only problem is that handpumps look far better and everyone associates them with cask beer.  I can't understand why customers would complain though.

Yes i agree that now all the customers get a full pint and that is good. Overspill was a problem on Friday night with a few spills, as it was newly installed a few days earlier. I agree without the hand pumps it doesn't look like a bar anymore. The OBB is now cold though, not good. Most customers were shocked by the heads on teh beer and needed to understand that it was now a full pint in an oversized glass.

[OnTheDrink]

I suppose there's bound to be a culture shock with new glasses etc, but you'd thing that tech services would have just put an insulated line in and not one that passes through the coolers.  Are you sure they just haven't installed metered keg OBB and not told anyone?! 

[OldBreweryDrinker]

I suppose there's bound to be a culture shock with new glasses etc, but you'd thing that tech services would have just put an insulated line in and not one that passes through the coolers.  Are you sure they just haven't installed metered keg OBB and not told anyone?! 

Yes a shock for some customers. The OBB is now in the keg form and is cold. I have one poured now and another sat on the bar warming up.  Some customers have changed their drinks due to the changes.

[OnTheDrink]

I suppose there's bound to be a culture shock with new glasses etc, but you'd thing that tech services would have just put an insulated line in and not one that passes through the coolers.  Are you sure they just haven't installed metered keg OBB and not told anyone?! 

Yes a shock for some customers. The OBB is now in the keg form and is cold. I have one poured now and another sat on the bar warming up.  Some customers have changed their drinks due to the changes.

Ah, I thought you meant that they were selling cask OBB through metered pumps. Taking cask out entirely is a worrying step if it was selling well, but maybe it wasn't selling enough to keep well?

[OldBreweryDrinker]

I suppose there's bound to be a culture shock with new glasses etc, but you'd thing that tech services would have just put an insulated line in and not one that passes through the coolers.  Are you sure they just haven't installed metered keg OBB and not told anyone?! 

Yes a shock for some customers. The OBB is now in the keg form and is cold. I have one poured now and another sat on the bar warming up.  Some customers have changed their drinks due to the changes.

Ah, I thought you meant that they were selling cask OBB through metered pumps. Taking cask out entirely is a worrying step if it was selling well, but maybe it wasn't selling enough to keep well?

Yes is it annoying as there is no hand pulled beer anymore. It sold very well, about 4 36 barrells a week.

[OnTheDrink]

That's not a good sign for any pub selling cask OBB.

[OldBreweryDrinker]

That's not a good sign for any pub selling cask OBB.

No it's not. It's been taken out of a few others recently due to a decline in sales according to the managers. Not good for customers like me that liked OBB cask. 

[east coast beer drinker]

Jesus H Christ! Don't want to loose the cask OBB 

I know there is lots of differing views about the 5%. I don't mind a head the width of a pencil or slightly more. It's a small price to pay to have a cheap, good pint of cask OBB served by a good management couple not fretting about stock.  Nobody even mentions it at our SS pub. You don't have to ask for a top up if it's more than 5% it's done without asking.
I asked what the law says about it here around Christmas time and I don't think I got an answer about the legality of it all? I remember years ago it used to be a "pint" of liquid and the glass was big enough to have a head on top. Now, I think it needs to be only 95% liquid?? 

[canaldrifter]

If Humph does this he's gonna lose a lot of trade from CAMRA. We like our hand-pumps. Pulling a good pint is a matter of skill. Machines don't have skill. If these cylindrical robots (that nearly ruined Stone's brewery back in the 70s) appear in my local, I'm going back to the Last Drop Inn on the Yorkshire Bitter.

Mind you, as an ex-pat sufferner I can't understand why you lot oop 'ere don't insist on oversized marked pint glasses, anyway, so that you get a full pint as well as bubbles.

That would surely be a cheaper solution to the problem than installing a load of ugly pistons and cylinders on push buttons. I thought he wouldn't have machines in his pubs?

And ice-cold OBB is definitely a no-brainer!

How long is it going to be before Humphrey alone is his only customer and staff?

Tone

[Saucy Queen]

As an OBB drinker I hate the thought of OBB going on to meterd pumps. I like a good pint of hand pulled bitter with a head on it and at the price I do not complain at a 5% head. I lived in the Midlands for a while and I drank Banks's bitter served from metered pumps. It was fine if the sparklers were turned tight enough but if they weren't, you got a flat pint and it tasted awful. I really hope my SS local does not go on to metered pumps. I may just have to turn to another drink.

[DarkieBoy]

Metered dispense is better for the punter as you'll always get a full pint, including the head. It's better for the pub as well as the lines can be smaller and overspill should be eliminated.  The only problem is that handpumps look far better and everyone associates them with cask beer.  I can't understand why customers would complain though.

I think that people would complain because they think that they are getting a very short pint (perspective of an actual pint in an over-sized glass) compared to what they are used to.

It's just down to education.

I was in Just Beer in Newark on Saturday and they use over-sized glasses...you can tell that the glass is bigger when you hold it.  The staff tell me that there is little waste...therefore saving what would be thrown away in other pubs due to spillage from under-sized glasses -  Happy customers, happy pub.

DB.

[bigjim]

Am I being too melodramatic, but if hand-pulled beer is taken out AND the price increases, for many of us, me included, surely it's game over?

[DarkieBoy]

Am I being too melodramatic, but if hand-pulled beer is taken out AND the price increases, for many of us, me included, surely it's game over?

You would expect Samuel Smith's, steeped in tradition and advocating tradition with traditional refurbishments of historic buildings, would at least have traditional British cask beer for sale rather than that cold excuse for beer known as "Smooth".

Traditional methods of brewing have been retained at The Old Brewery.

Before they decide to sell "Smooth" instead of cask I would advocate Samuel Smith's supplying their pubs with firkins or kilderkins rather than barrels.

DB.