Lukr Taps Are The Better Way To Pour Beer With More Foam

If you've spent any time exploring the craft beer scene in your city or town recently, you may have noticed the new beer trend sweeping the nation: Foam is in, baby. It wasn't long ago that foam was the bane of bartenders the world over. It was painful to watch a new bartender fumble with the tap only to hand you a glass that was half foam, which was more likely to get sent back than not.

These days, bartenders are getting foam-certified thanks to Lukr. Based out of the Czech Republic, Lukr creates beer faucets that are designed to serve lagers the Czech way. The faucets have become so popular in the United States that the brand started the Perfect Pour Academy, which trains bartenders in the subtle art of beer foam. The specialty taps are designed so that you twist the handle left and right as opposed to the simple flick back that we're used to. The handle allows the bartender to control the flow of beer from the tap. Open the spout just a little, and you'll get more foam, open it all the way, and you'll get clear beer.

Whether this embrace of Eastern European beer culture is just a fad or a new direction for American beer culture is hard to say. Beer enthusiasts are certainly becoming more proactive in elevating beer's reputation out of dive bars and into haute couture. The rise of the cicerone, beer's version of a sommelier, is a prime example.

There are three main ways to pour a beer the Czech way: hladinka, šnyt, and mlíko. Hladinka is known as the smooth or standard pour and resembles a classic American draft pour with just a bit more head. You start by opening the Lukr tap only slightly to get a body of foam in the glass, then you dip the tap beneath the foam and open the tap all the way to pour clear beer underneath. The glass ends up being roughly ⅓ foam, which is about three fingers thick. It's a great dinner beer since the foam is said to protect the beer from oxidation.

The šnyt pour is an interesting one because it doesn't fill the entire glass. Halfway between a large and a small beer, the šnyt is one part beer and two parts foam with a gap on top. This is the drink for you if you're on the fence about indulging in a full beer but still want a little something to go with your lunch.

The mlíko is probably the most jarring for the uninitiated since it is purely beer foam and nothing else. Some of the foam condenses into beer at the bottom, leaving a thin line of beer taunting you from the bottom of the glass, but it's a glass of foam through and through. Often drunk quickly as a dessert, the mlíko is being marketed in the States as milk shots or milk tubes.