Draught cocktails (Draft cocktails)

Words by Simon Difford

Photography by courtesy Bacardi

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Cocktails served on draught using beer dispense technology allow consistent drinks to be served incredibly quickly. Draught cocktails can be batched with fresh ingredients at the bar, or pre-filled ready-to-serve kegs bought in from third-party suppliers then merely tapped and served at the bar in the same manner as beer. Such tap cocktails served from kegs are set to revolutionise cocktails.

Although the benefits for bar operators are obvious, many rightly fear that pre-prepared cocktails on tap will destroy craft cocktails and erode bartending skills. This is inevitable in high-volume mass-market venues. However, used well in high-end bars draught dispense can supplement rather than replace made-to-order cocktails. There is a huge difference between bartenders creating and mixing their own freshly batched keg cocktails and pre-filled ready-to-serve third-party kegs. Both have their benefits:

Third-party pre-filled kegs

Over the past 20 years, as the cocktail renaissance has grown from a small number of trend-setting specialist bars to cocktails becoming ubiquitous in seemingly every pub, club and restaurant, a lack of investment in training, a failure to increase bartenders' pay proportionate to their skill and experience, coupled with a lack of industry-wide recognised bartending qualifications has led to a skill shortage. Sadly, I'm also not sure most consumers are prepared to pay enough to elevate these issues.

Making cocktails to order from fresh ingredients is obviously more time consuming, costly and requires more skill than simply pouring a beer or wine, or even making a G&T. However, consumers want tasty cocktails that are consistent in quality served quickly. Hence, the potentially huge market for cocktail kegs to be supplied and dispensed in the same manner as draught beer. Several companies, including Funkin Cocktails, have recognised and are capitalising on this opportunity but the best system we've seen is from Bacardi.

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Bacardi's tap cocktail system

In June 2019 Bacardi launched their revolutionary Grey Goose branded tap system based on KeyKegs pre-filled by Tails Cocktails, a company Bacardi has shrewdly invested in. Touted as being the "world's first tap cocktail system with sub-zero technology," this system incorporates a number of technical developments which allow kegs of pre-mixed cocktail to be handled and served like beer. Bacardi sees their system being used to dispense cocktails in not only bars but also night clubs, hotels, festivals, cruise ships and even aeroplanes.

Some of the many attributes of Bacardi's system:

  • Kegs of pre-prepared cocktails are supplied ready-to-serve to the bar with a shelf life of four months and 28 days after tapping.
  • The liquid in the keg is flat with CO2 or Nitrogen mixed in the tap at the point of delivery. Both CO2 and Nitrogen charged cocktails can be served at the same time.
  • Room temperature kegs can be tapped and served immediately. Other systems require kegs to be carbonated and then chilled for 24 to 48 hours prior to service.
  • The appearance of the taps and dispense apparatus can be changed to suit the venue. The model in the photograph above shows off the workings of the system illuminated by colour changing LED lighting.
  • Each 20 litre KeyKeg yields 160 cocktails of 125ml sized serves.
  • The kegs are stored at ambient temperature with their contents chilled to a serving temperature of -7.7°C before entering the tap.
  • As cocktails are dispensed, gas is pushed into the KeyKeg to ensure the bag within the keg fully empties to prevent wastage.
  • A "foam-stop" device detects that a keg is empty or near to empty and stops the system, prompting the operator to tap a new keg.
  • The cocktails have a strength of 14.9% alc./vol., possible due to overcoming the technical challenge of introducing nitrogen at higher alcohol strengths.
  • A built-in CO2 charged glass froster brings the serving glass temperature down to below zero.
  • The system needs cleaning every two weeks and Bacardi have developed their own purpose made line-cleaning solution.


Craft draught/draft cocktails

The following practical guide was written for us some years ago by Matt Grippo, Bar Manager at Blackbird in San Francisco. It still gives a good insight on how to set about serving tap cocktails.

About a year and a half ago my boss Shawn Vergara (proprietor of Blackbird) sent me a link to a video online. A short piece about Erik Castro's (at the time) almost opened "Polite Provisions". After viewing it a few times, I realized I'd better figure out how draught cocktails worked. Shortly after this exchange, I travelled to LA and San Diego to experience first-hand what draught cocktails were like in some world-class cocktail bars and how can I learn how to pull them off at the bar I manage, Blackbird.

Even though this trend has been building steam for a few years, there's not a ton out there on the "how to" aspect of it. There are only a few stories here and there, mostly to do with carbonating small batches of cocktails. After cornering Alex Day and harassing him via email (thank you for your insight Alex) and a lot of trial and error, I have figured a few things out about this ultra-convenient and fantastically efficient way of serving drinks. Here I will break it down into the most basic way of explaining it and how you can get started on your own draught cocktail program. Taking away the mystery and over technological aspects.

The most important factors involved are:
1. Do you have refrigeration i.e. a walk-in cooler?
2. Do you have gas pushing draught beers or draught wines?

If the answer is yes to both you are way ahead of the game. Best-case scenario is you run a cocktail program that offers wine or beer on draught. Even better is if you sell more cocktails than either of these and would like to give some tap real estate over to a cocktail or two. Gas and cold refrigeration are two essential things needed to run a cocktail on tap. Once you have made the decision to put a cocktail on draught the next step is to pick what style. Punch? Still? Carbonated? The type of line you will dedicate to cocktails will influence the conclusion. Wine system? You can push a pre-diluted "still" or stirred cocktail, even something simple like sangria. Beer line? You can do a punch style cocktail, or even better a carbonated cocktail. Carbonation is something I have really embraced at Blackbird. It's the only thing most bartenders are unable to achieve a la minute, unless you're Dave Arnold. I have a small 4-tap program where all the cocktails are carbonated. We can get into this later but for now let's get back to choosing what will work best for you.

So wine systems use nitrogen to push the wine. Due to the lack of oxygen, the nitrogen will preserve the wine, hence little to zero oxidation over time. Also, dispensing with nitrogen doesn't foam like it would if pushed on a beer system with CO2. If you are low volume and think it might take a while to go through five gallons (19 litres) of a cocktail, pick something stable such a spirit forward cocktail like a Manhattan or Negroni. If you are higher volume and think you can get through that keg in a couple days the sky is the limit. You can get creative with juices or syrups and won't need to worry about things spoiling.

Beer systems are pushed with CO2 or sometimes a mixed gas. This gas adds carbonation and body to your cocktail. One of the reasons we love beer so much is the body that it receives from carbonation. You can translate that into your cocktails. You can push a punch or a carbonated cocktail on a beer system. Just like with nitrogen you want to base your decisions on volume. Don't waste time and money on a cocktail people won't recognize and want to order. I kept my program of draught cocktails extremely easy to understand from a customer standpoint so they would sell like hotcakes. Our Pimm's Cup is a perfect example. Even someone who doesn't know much about cocktails knows what a Pimm's Cup is, and if they don't they can see it has gin, cucumber and ginger - three very recognizable ingredients that a huge proportion of our guests enjoy.

OK, now we know what style of drink we want to create, next step is a few technical tweaks we need to make and a couple purchases. First thing to get is a Cornelius keg or soda keg. I strongly suggest buying new over refurbished. I started my trial and error with a group of refurbished kegs and it just wasted my time, if there is a leak it will throw everything off (possibly wasting time and money) so buy a new keg. You can find these at home brew supply stores.

Another way to control spoilage is to use a smaller keg, it might not be a bad idea to start with a small one or purchase one to test certain drinks out. I also prefer ball locks to pin locks for the connection. If you are familiar enough with draught systems and want to DIY then next would be to switch your connector to the two ball lock connections to fit your Cornelius keg, an air-in and an air-out or dispense. Otherwise, just contact your draught system provider and they can do this for you in about ten minutes. Now you can hook up your new keg and serve almost anything you want.

Before you get too excited, I will explain the next step to ensure your product is going to successful. Dilution and homogenization are the keys to making flawless draught cocktails. If you want to serve a simple spirit forward cocktail then this is a breeze, simply measure how much your volume increases after stirring to your desired dilution and then calculate proportionately to make a batch that fits your keg. This same theory works for punch style drinks, just measure the increased dilution after shaking, if you are the uber-technical type, you can weigh these factors for a more accurate result. Filtered water works best for a consistent product. If you are using syrup or juices you want to make sure the cocktail is homogenized as well as possible. For the Pimm's on draught, I take my house-made ginger syrup and fresh pressed cucumber juice combined and run them through a fine strainer to remove large particles and then through a fine gauge super bag or a nut milk bag. This will help the cocktail to incorporate better and keep particles from clogging lines. When your batch is diluted and homogenized you are ready to fill your keg and serve. Connect your "air in" connection to fill the keg with gas. Once you hear gas start to enter the keg you should see the seal of your keg push up. An essential step is to flush out any oxygen remaining in the keg. To achieve this pull the valve up a few times to release pressure and allow the gas to flush out oxygen. Now connect your "air out" or dispense line to the keg and you are ready to rock. Depending on how long your lines are, set the regulator at around 6 PSI to dispense, results may vary and adjust as needed.

For those of you interested in carbonating a cocktail there is one more step. Everything I have stated above still applies. There are two ways you can carbonate. Either on the line you intend to dispense with or by installing a "charging station" in your walk-in. With either approach you will have to connect the gas to your "air in" with the regulator turned up to around 60 psi. Then pass the gas through just as before to remove oxygen. There are several theories as to how the gas is infused into the contents of the keg. I charge at 60psi for 48 hours and everything must be kept as cold as possible. Using carbonated water to dilute will help tremendously. If you want to shake the keg or turn it upside down some say this helps increase carbonation results. One thing I do know is that cold temperatures play the largest role and in my experience 40% water, or carbonated water in the batch is the sweet spot. Lower alcohol by volume cocktails have a better potential for good carbonation, as alcohol is what resists the CO2.

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