Pouring Shots— Implementing a Measured Defense

The harsh reality is that bars are often nickled and dimed into submission and it often happens with every flick of the wrist. The problem is that lax or nonexistent controls invariably lead to bartenders over-pouring or under-pouring the liquor portions in drinks, each of which negatively impacts your guests and profitability.

For example, adding an extra 1/4-ounce of spirits to a cocktail whose recipe calls for an ounce results in the drink’s cost percentage jumping 25%. After the fourth time it happens, you’ve essentially lost a drink’s worth of product, as well as the sales proceeds it would have generated.

Equally problematic is that each of the drinks contains 25% more alcohol. In today’s .08 society, most people are aware of how much alcohol they can safely consume and therefore set limits for themselves. Over-portioning alcohol in drinks places the clientele at risk and increases your exposure to liquor liability.

Under-pouring is an another costly practice. Here’s how the scam works. Instead of using the specified 1 1/4 ounces of liquor in a cocktail, for instance, the bartender cuts short the pour at an ounce. After the fourth short-pour, the bartender will have created a surplus ounce of liquor to sell at will. Care to venture a guess who’ll be pocketing the proceeds?

Complicating the situation is that under-pouring is difficult to detect and will not adversely affect pour cost. Furthermore, the scheme victimizes your guests and potentially sullies the bar’s reputation.

 

 

Portioning Countermeasures

 

Mandating the use of jiggers or shot glasses to better control portioning is a time-tested, cost-effective tactic. One benefit is that using a shot glass makes it easier for all parties concerned to see exactly how much liquor is being used in a drink. Using jiggers decreases inadvertent over-pouring or under-pouring and greatly facilitates drink consistency.

On the downside, making drinks using a shot glass takes about twice as long as it does free-pouring. Hand-measuring requires a bartender to use both hands to pour a shot—one to hold the bottle, the other the jigger. When free-pouring, the bartender is able to portion the spirits with one hand, while simultaneously adding the mixer with the other. Becoming proficient making drinks with a shot glass takes training and a fair amount of practice.

Another potential disadvantage is jiggers can retain a residual amount of the previously poured product, potentially affecting the taste of subsequent drinks.

Finally, there are concepts where the use of a jigger might be considered inappropriate. One example would be a country & western bar where free-wielding, free-pouring bartenders more closely follow the concept.

Between steadily increasing state and federal taxes, you can anticipate that the wholesale cost of spirits will continue to rise. Perhaps now more than ever, bartenders who play fast and loose with liquor do pose a monumental problem for beverage operators. The solution is portion control.

 

 

Profitable Alternative

 

Portioning control is crucial to achieving profitability, yet it needn’t come at the expense of concept or speed of service. A low-cost, low-tech means of ensuring accurate portioning without investing significant capital or impeding your bartenders’ pouring mechanics is to outfit your bar with bottle-attached control spouts. These innovative devices utilize a patented ball bearing assembly to cut off the flow of fluid at the prescribed measure.

The industry leader is Precision 3 Ball Pours from Precision Pours (PrecisionPours.com). These control spouts all but eliminate under-pouring or over-pouring liquor and are enormously effective at deterring a wide range of illicit practices behind the bar. Since they function like conventional spouts no specialized staff training is required to achieve optimum results. Precision 3 Ball Pours are available in seven portion sizes ranging from 5/8 ounce to 1 1/2 ounces.

In effect, Precision Pours combine the best features of each pouring technique. They allow bartenders to make drinks as quickly as if they were free-pouring while dispensing liquor with the accuracy of a shot glass. They also alleviate the problem of holdover products in the shot from tainting the flavor of other drinks.

Low-tech and inexpensive though they may be, Precision Pours offer a cutting edge defense against many of the schemes bartender’s use to rip off the house. Where once the debate on-premise was which had more relative merits—free-pouring or hand-measuring. These ingenious devices have put an end to that discussion once and for all.