There Are Some Tedious Aspects To Being A Pub Licensee

When you consider taking over a public house, particularly if you have never run one before, you probably consider the excitement of running your own pub, getting to know the regulars, and having a job which brings its own rewards in terms of socialising with others while making a decent annual income.

What you probably don't consider are some of the tedious aspects of the job such as beer line cleaning. This is boring in the extreme, yet has to be carried out every week unless you want your customers to go elsewhere because your beer doesn't taste or look right. It is time consuming too, and also costs you money. This is because you have to buy the right chemicals which are not cheap, and more importantly you flush pints of beer down the drain every time you do it. While this last measure will vary considerably from one pub to another, beer line cleaning will typically result in the loss of 250 pints every month, and that is a lot of money quite literally down the drain. Yet it has to be done.

What causes problems in the beer lines? Quite a number of things. One of these is called beer stone and it is a result of the raw materials that are used in brewing – grains and water. They contain calcium. The hops also contain oxalic acids or salts, and these may be created when the barley is converted into malt. The combination of the two can result in calcium oxalate which is known as beer stone and it can collect on the inside of the beer lines. Eventually it breaks off and gets into the beer if the beer line cleaning is not undertaken regularly.

Another problem is bacteria. There are several types of bacteria which can get into the beer lines, and while they are not actually hazardous to human health, they can cause considerable havoc with your beer. They will cause an "off" taste and make your beer cloudy. The beer may taste sour, taste like vinegar, and even have a smell of rotten eggs! That's another reason for keeping the beer lines clean.

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