Beer lovers, your prayers have finally been answered. Tired of queuing up for ages behind indecisive punters who decided to wait till the last minute to order their drink? A new venue in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley is looking to solve all of that.
As the Brisbane Times reports, Taps Brisbane, a pour-your-own-beer bar, will open in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley this month, following in the footsteps of the original Taps in Mooloolaba, the original Australian self-serve beer bar.
Taps managing director and founder Steve Barber says he got the idea in 2008, during a boozy trip to Germany for Oktoberfest. During a trip to Munich, Mr Barber and some friends went to a venue set up with taps on the tables and kegs underneath.
“That was years ago and we just started working on it from there,” he said. “So we developed the system, but it was licensing that took a long time.” Having spent 18 successful months in Mooloolaba, Taps will now be expanding into Brisbane.
“People come from everywhere to go to Taps, so everyone wants this everywhere,” Barber said. Best of all, the venue will be hosting live music on the weekend, pretty much making it the perfect venue anyone could possibly think of.
So how does it work? It’s all very futuristic and fancy. Taps patrons will buy pre-paid electronic tags, which will allow them to pay only for the beer they poured themselves. “Basically, it’s an RFID (radio frequency identification) button, so each button’s individually accounted for,” Barber said.
Image via Taps Mooloolaba
“So you purchase a button and away you go – you can pour a taste tester or you can pour a full pint, because it charges through flow meters per millilitre.” Obviously, the self-serve system raises some questions of responsible alcohol service.
But according to Barber, the computer system will be able to register how much beer a patron has consumed and there’s a limit of about four schooners in a single sitting, then a ‘glass limit reached’ message comes up.
If you’re not satisfied with the amount of beer-y goodness you’ve consumed, Barber says you’re relegated back to the bar. “That’s when they come back to the bar and that’s your chance to assess them and see if they’re too pissed,” Barber said.
“Other than that, we’ve got staff on the floor anyway, because we make sure they’re around so they can assist with the pouring. Some people think they’re really good at it, but they’re not, and we don’t want people to fuck up their beer.”
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“We’ve got 16 lines and the beer wall’s the big one – you can walk up to the beer wall and there’ll be eight taps there,” Mr Barber said. “You can make your way down the beer wall – people love that – and you can go for gold then and taste test.”
“Even me, I love beer but there are some that I don’t like, so if you just have a half-pot, you can taste it and have a good guess about whether you want a full schooner or full pint.”
Of course, there is one issue that Taps will likely have to combat and that’s Barney Gumble-style mouth pourers, but according to Barber, “18 months we’ve been running in Mooloolaba and not one single time have I seen someone do it.”
“Which surprises me, hey, because when we first opened I said to all the staff ‘you’ve gotta watch everybody – they’re gonna want to put their heads under’ but there’s been no-one.”
