Yesterday evening, smack dab in the middle of my so-far-wonderful beach vacation, we were invited by some friends in Myrtle Beach to check out a local band playing. It was at one of those faux-Irish pub type places, so I figured the beer selection wouldn't be good, and I was correct. I have no problem with places not having good beer selections. BMC sells and, though I refrain from drinking it, I understand that others do like it and that is their god-given right. At places like that I normally will just get liquor and be merry.
Unfortunately, I hadn't had my beer for the day and was hard pressed to find something new. I had a Fat Tire - which tasted a little off and then followed it up with a Sam Adams Summer (which was my new beer for the day), which tasted just like the Fat Tire. I have a feeling that I could have tried anything running through their taps and they would have tasted roughly the same.
This gets right to the heart of a very large pet peeve of mine. I don't care whether you serve good beer or not -- if you serve any beer at all, you clean your draft lines. I understand that anyone chugging a Bud Lite or a Natty Ice out of a plastic cup isn't going to be able to tell the subtle difference between the two, but for Pete's sake, think of the sanitary issues concerning that. If you're not cleaning the lines and hardware between keg changes in a bar or restaurant, that's just disgusting.
I'm not asking your servers to get Cicerone certification, to serve me my beer in proper glasses, or even serve good beer. Just do the same thing for your taps and lines that you're (hopefully) doing for your glassware: clean them. I want even my crappy beers to taste like they're supposed to and I want them to be served in a sanitary manner. Is that asking too much?
Every time I go to the new Freebird's burrito place near my house and order a St. Arnold Lawnmower I ALWAYS end up tasting Bud Light... and that's the only other beer on tap. I don't understand how they can't just tap it and forget how different beer is compared to the syrup+water filled soda machines that can last forever. Did you ask if they clean the taps or tell them about the off-taste to your beer?
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