The Tap Red Flag To Look Out For When Visiting A Brewery

No trip to the brewery is complete without sampling the wares. Even if it's a place you visit regularly, you'll likely want to sample most of what it has to offer at least once. But while a greater variety may seem more enticing, it can also signal a potential red flag. Every kind of beer they have on tap means another tap that needs to be maintained. The more tap lines they have, the more likely it is that maintenance or cleaning gets neglected.

There are plenty of potential mistakes you can make when visiting a brewery, but the issue of too many beers is one that's out of your hands. Tasting Table talked to Nick Meyer, founder of Eckhart Beer Co., about the brewery red flags that should send you running. He said there wasn't necessarily a specific number of taps to be on the lookout for, but that "the craft brewery scene has gotten out of control with how many beers they offer."

Meyer went on and said, "If I go to a place with 25 beers, I wonder how old the oldest beer on that list is. It could have been sitting around for a long time." His point is well taken. Any brewery is going to have a few popular beers in its lineup and a few that tend to underperform. How long will the least popular beer sit untouched before someone finally orders it, and do you want to be that person taking a drink from a tap that hasn't seen any action in a week?

Companies that install and maintain draft beer lines report that issues with sanitation are common. Lines and taps should be fully cleaned at least every two weeks, but the vast majority aren't. The work is often assigned to third party companies, and if a bar or brewery has not taken that step, there's a risk that the lines are sitting and developing bacteria. Fewer lines mean fewer chances for any of them to sit dormant for a long time. 

While there isn't a specific number of draft lines to be wary of, Nick Meyer told Tasting Table that him and his team at Eckhart decided that 10 was the "sweet spot." If you like a certain brewery enough, you can always ask about how the lines are maintained. Most customers won't ask this question because it sounds like an accusation. But if it's a reputable establishment that takes care of its beer, it should have no issue explaining how often the lines are cleaned.

Even if a brewery's draft lines are cleaned regularly, keep in mind that the number of taps can also affect beer quality. Breweries with poor turnover may look for other ways to cut costs — like increasing the time between line cleaning or buying inadequate detergents — because they are not selling all of those beers. When that happens, standards can drop across the board. Play it safe and stick with a well-ranked, trusted brewery with a reasonable number of lines.