Bar equipment

© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedCHAPTER 4BAR EQUIPMENT© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedPlan a complete pouring station.Choose among various methods of measuring and pouring liquors and carbonated mixers.Determine the kind of ice and the size of the ice machine.Install the required equipment for washing glasses.Provide for the special needs of draft-beer service.Determine the space needed for refrigeration, dry storage, liquor stock, and glassware.Assemble the hand tools and equipment. Select glassware appropriate to the drinks to be served.Choose a point-of-sale (POS) system. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedTHIS CHAPTER WILL HELP YOUUNDERBAR AND BACKBAR EQUIPMENTSeveral interrelated components of the pouring station each require some portion of square footage.Beverage dispensing Beer dispensing and storageIce making and storageGlass washing and storage© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedEQUIPMENT FOR MIXING DRINKSEach of the stations in Figures 4.2 and 4.3 is outfitted with the following equipment:The centerpiece of any pouring station is anice chest or ice bin (A)with or without bottle wells (B)usually with a speed rail (C) attached to the frontThis piece of equipment is variously known as a cocktail station, cocktail unit, or beverage center, or colloquially, as a jockey box.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedA speed rail typically contains the most frequently poured liquors.Scotch, Bourbon, blended whiskey, gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and brandy.The liquor supply at a bartender’s station is known collectively as the well, and the brands used there are called.Well brands, house brands or pouring brands when a drink is ordered by type.Call brands are brands customers “call for” by name.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedEQUIPMENT FOR MIXING DRINKSAt each station of the bar is the cobra gun, which dispenses the carbonated mixes. The CO2 line goes to a motor-driven carbonator under the ice chest, where the CO2 is mixed with filtered water.The syrup and water lines run through a flexhose, which is flexible metal hose, to the head of the gun.Together all of this is known as a postmix dispensing system because the soda is mixed at the time of service.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedDISPENSING BEVERAGESThere are also premix systems, in which the complete beverage is supplied in bulk containers that have already been mixed at the manufacturing plant.In a premix system, a separate supply of CO2 is needed to propel the product from the container to the dispensing head.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedDISPENSING BEVERAGESFour primary factors are involved in dispensing carbonated beverages:Water qualityIngredient temperatureMix ratioCarbonation© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedDISPENSING BEVERAGESAUTOMATED POURING SYSTEMSA number of electronic dispensing systems on the market pour preset amounts and count each drink.A long shot and a short shot can also be poured.Another kind of dispenser is composed of a series of faucets, each activated by touching a glass to a button under the faucet. These are known as a dispensing towers.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedShake mixer or spindle blender: The mixer has a shaft coming down from the top that agitates the contents of its cup.Blenders used strictly for making drinks are called bar mixers. The container top can be a single piece, or a two-piece filler cap, so ingredients can be added safely while the blender is in use. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedMIXERS AND BLENDERSBars that specialize in a particular frozen drink may have a frozen drink dispenser. Also called a slush freezer or cocktail freezer.The frozen-drink dispenser pumps air into the liquid mix, increasing its volume and giving it a soft-frozen consistency. The percentage of air forced into the mix is called its overrun. In gravity-feed machines, the liquid mix is placed in a hopper and flows as needed into a cylinder below, where it is frozen, scraped out of the cylinder, and dispensed.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedMIXERS AND BLENDERSA three-compartment sink with drainboards. One compartment is for washingOne is for rinsingOne is for sanitizing, or killing bacteria with a chemical solution© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedBAR SINKSGlass brushes stand up to the soapy water of the wash sink. (Figure 4.8)Stricter sanitation laws and labor savings are two major reasons for the increased use of automatic glasswashers (shown in Figure 4.9).© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedGLASSWASHERSSome bars make a special promotional point of serving drinks in frosted glasses or beer in frosted mugs. This requires a glass froster, a top-opening freezer that chills glasses at temperatures around 0°F (H on Figure 4.2).A bottle chiller or bottle cooler is available for quick-chilling wines.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedREFRIGERATION NEEDSEvery bar operation has an icemaker, or ice machine.Factors when deciding on the type and size of cube ice to use are: Displacement, Clarity, Density Options include: crushed ice, cracked ice, flake ice, and shaved ice.Crushed ice can be made by running cube ice through an ice crusher.A flake-ice machine, or flaker, produces a soft, snow-like ice. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedICE AND ICE MACHINESDETERMINING ICEMAKER SIZE AND OTHER FACTORSIf the incoming water supply is warm, you might consider adding an inlet chiller.They have no moving parts and use no electricity, but their prechill function can save up to 30 percent of your electric costs.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedThe most important maintenance task is to clean the unit’s compressor and condenser coils. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prompted a change from old-style refrigerants to newer ones, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedICEMAKER MAINTENANCEIf you have an old model that still uses the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs or Freon), the EPA says that if the machine is leaking 35 percent or more of its refrigerant pressure per year, it must be fixed. You are required to keep records of when, and how much, refrigerant is added during servicing. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedICEMAKER MAINTENANCEESSENTIALS FOR DRAFT-BEER SERVICEA draft-beer serving system consists of a keg or half-keg of beer, the beer box where the keg is stored, the standard or tap (faucet), the line between the keg and the standard, and a CO2 tank connected to the keg with another line. The beer box, also called a tap box, is a refrigerator designed especially to hold a keg or half-keg of beer at the proper serving temperature of 36 to 38°F.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedHOW REFRIGERATION WORKSThe refrigeration cycle is the process of removing heat from a refrigerated space. The refrigeration circuit is the system of equipment that makes the cycle possible.Successful refrigeration is a combination of temperature reduction, humidity, and air circulation. To keep most foods at their peak, you need a refrigerator capable of cooling them to 40°F.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedThe components of the circuit are shown in Figure 4.12.Opening the door introduces warm air into the cooled space. The warm air rises and is drawn toward evaporator coils made of copper. Inside the sealed evaporator coils is liquid refrigerant (the HFCs and HCFCs), which becomes vapor (gas) as it winds through the coils. It is pumped through a suction line by a compressor into another series of coils, called the condenser. There, it turns back into a liquid. An expansion valve determines the amount of refrigerant flowing through the system. The more the surrounding air needs to be cooled, the more often the refrigerant flows.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedHOW REFRIGERATION WORKSOxygen and sunlight are the enemies of both beer and wine.In beer, oxygen reacts with the natural fatty acids in the brew to form compounds known as unsaturated aldehydes, leaving an off-taste that some describe as “wet cardboard.”Light reacts with a naturally bitter substance in beer (from the use of hops) to produce another undesirable compound, an intense odor that is commonly referred to as “skunky.”© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedBEVERAGE STORAGE CONSIDERATIONSIf beer gets cold enough to freeze, it is likely to precipitate its solids and form flakes that will not dissolve when thawed. Beer kept too cold for a long time may “gush” and spew out when opened. Beer kegs should not share a walk-in cooler with food storage, since frequent opening and closing of the door will make it impossible to keep the beer at a constant temperature.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedBEVERAGE STORAGE CONSIDERATIONSJiggersPourersMixing glass Hand shaker Bar strainer Barspoon Ice scoop Ice tongs Muddler Fruit squeezer Funnel Glass rimmer© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedSMALLWARE FOR MIXINGAND POURINGTOOLS AND EQUIPMENT FOR GARNISHINGThe tools for preparing condiments are few but important:Cutting boardBar knifeRelish fork Peelers: zester, router, or stripper© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedBottle and can openers with a cap catcher beneath it The removable stainless steel box keep bottle caps from hitting the floor and becoming a safety risk. CorkscrewsThe waiter’s corkscrew (several are shown in Figure 4.27a) is specifically designed for tucking into a pocket to open wines at tableside. The screw, or worm penetrates the cork. Wing corkscrew commonly used in bars is so named because it has “wings” on either side that rise as the screw is twisted in.The ah-so, it is a simple pair of prongs that straddle the cork. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedTOOLS AND EQUIPMENT FOR SERVINGGLASSWAREGlasses have three characteristic features: the bowl, the base or foot, and the stem (see Figure 4.30). A tumbler is a flat-bottomed, cylindrical glass that is basically a bowl without a stem or foot.Footed ware refers to a style of glass whose bowl sits directly on a base or foot.Stemware includes any glass having all three features: a bowl, foot, and stem.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedGLASS TERMS AND TYPESA fourth type of glass is the mug (see Figure 4.34).When used to serve beer, mugs are sometimes called steins.Lighter-style pilsner beers require a different type of glass, which is called a pilsner glass.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedHOW GLASS IS MADEGlass is made of very fine sand, called silica, that is mixed with soda, lime, and cullet, which is reused broken glass bits, and heated to temperatures of nearly 1,500°F.Most commercial glasses are pressed and are known as pressware. After the glass is shaped, it is put into a warm oven to cool slowly, which is called annealing. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedHOW GLASS IS MADEAfter annealing, some glass goes through another step called tempering. The cooled glass is reheated, almost to its original high temperature, then blasted with cold air. The process “shocks” the glass and makes it more resistant to temperature extremes.If a glass is advertised as fully tempered, it means the entire glass underwent a tempering process. Rim tempered means only the rim received this extra treatment.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedCARE OF GLASSWAREGlasses break for two main reasons: mechanical impact (when glass hits another object, causing it to crack, chip, or shatter). Thermal shock; when a quick, intense temperature change cracks or shatters the glass.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedPOINT-OF-SALE TERMINALSIn a small enterprise, a single electronic cash register (ECR) unit at the bar may be all that is necessary.The main difference between a cash register and the higher-tech point-of-sale (POS) system is how it is used. Rather than only collecting the money when customers are finished, servers also enter their orders on the POS system, giving the bar owner quite a bit more knowledge of (and control over) daily operations.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedA cash drawer.A touch-screen monitor, where servers enter their orders.Small printers, to print out order tickets at the bar or in the kitchen, and/or print.Receipts for customers.The computer that runs the POS system, known as a central processing unit (CPU). In some systems, the touch-screen and computer are combined in a single unit.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedPOINT-OF-SALE COMPONENTSA touch-screen monitor will contain a set of keys (or buttons). Keys that have been programmed in this way are known as presets. Choose a pole display option, where the sale is seen on both sides of the bar.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedPOINT-OF-SALE COMPONENTSDurabilityFunctionAppearanceEase of careKeep it Simple© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedGENERAL EQUIPMENT GUIDELINESBar equipment must be suited to the drink menu of an enterprise, just as kitchen equipment must appropriately service a food menu. All equipment must meet health department sanitation requirements and must be kept in top condition, with special attention to temperatures and pressures and the right conditions for proper functioning.© 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.All Rights ReservedSUMMING UP