The evolution of a tap handle.
From Start to Finish. Detailed Story Below Slideshow.
Tap handles are an important part of a brewery’s image. Bartenders know one of the most important things that sell beer is the tap handle. Bartenders are the most important thing that sells beer because a bartender is the first line of offense for craft brewers.
We had looked into purchasing tap handles and unfortunately they were out of our price range. Most things are these days. It’s not that we have to be concerned with every penny here but we do have to be concerned with every nickel. Just as I have been shocked at the cost to purchase steel stairs, purchase panels to insulate a cold room, purchase a manufactured door and most certainly the cost to open a brewery. So whenever possible, we have done things ourselves and time and time they come out better, at less expense, more handcrafted and they have the feeling that people not machines made them. Simply because people and not machines did make them.
Tap handles in many cases have become very manufactured. Plastic resin, hard to read type, clunky and often their footprint causes them to be turned to the side to fit and they encroach other tap handles in a show of look at me, look how fancy and expensive I look. I have logged thousands of hours behind a bar and if anything I understand bartenders. Bartenders tend to want a clean tap handle that doesn’t encroach, is easy to grab and readable so that customers don’t always have to ask which one is on tap. We were able to hit most of those requirements with our style. We do have to come up with a specialty tap handle that has the ability to change a name. Our Bitter, Brown and Wheat are branded and also very slightly different colors of stain emulating the color of the beer in the keg. We are working now to differentiate them more with different types of wood. Ex. Cherry for the Bitter and Walnut for the brown. In time, this will allow a customer to recognize our tap handle shape, recognize the color of wood and order the beer even if they are too far away to read the type.
Dylan came up with the idea to brand and my sister, Monica laid out the type and extracted the head from our logo for the top brand. Originally, I had wanted the type vertical with each letter stacked on the next and my sister, who is an art director, stated that in graphic design it is apparently not accepted practice to stack letters in that manner. After seeing, that version next to several other versions typed (in current form), I wholeheartedly agreed. Reading vertically stacked letters is slightly more difficult than reading letters turned on their side. My sister, the consummate professional is always right when it comes to design (and always right when it comes to her and me) but she wanted me to see it for myself. She also did mention, in the kindest possible way because she is one of the kindest people on earth, that if I chose that direction it would be best to never mention her name when talking about the tap handles. This is important because it is something we live by here. That building and maintaining a reputation for high standards is always at the forefront when we make decisions. Whether it is brewing beer or the details involved in getting a tap handle made. Now, I have seen many tap handles with letters stacked and there may be some debate out there on whether certain letters stack better but in our case, our letters didn’t stack well and seeing the final product on tap handles around town proves my sister was correct.
After deciding on the brand we called up our good friend Marvin at Burkart’s. Everybody needs a friend like Marvin. I didn’t even know Marvin before we began building the pub. He has been at the helm for years at Burkart’s, a true landmark in South City Woodworking shop. A shop that does things the way they were supposed to be done in a traditional manner. When we were building our bar we called Marvin up and explained the traditional pub we were pulling together in South City. Marvin offered up Ash wood as an option for our woodwork as it was something that was both beautiful and extremely fairly priced for us. If you haven’t been by we have a massive amount of wood work in the pub. Jim, our carpenter, drew on a piece of paper several designs that would become the basis for our trim around the bar. Marvin then created a template for the wood and began knocking out the linear feet we needed. The quality at Burkart’s is as high as you’ll see anywhere and you can tell they do things the old way. They treat customers like friends. Woodworking is a craft and Marvin is an expert in it. He built a grandfather clock one time, just to show his friends he could do it. A wooden bowl made out Mahogany is not even a challenge for the guy and tap handles are probably the simplest thing Marvin can do.
So Marvin came through for us 150% again and without him who knows what they would look like. We called him up and asked for him to cut a few 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch by 12 inches long pieces of ash and when we showed up he had 12 tap handles for us to choose. We can’t thank Marvin enough for helping us on this one but here’s a few more to show our gratitude. Thanks, Marvin. Thanks, Marvin. Thanks, Marvin. Thanks, Marvin.
The rest is our tap handle history. Thanks to all that helped make this happen, Marvin (there is one more.) Our pals, Joe, Alan who always come through for us, my mom (can’t thank her enough either), Colleen, My sister (Monica), Dylan and Mike for pitching in to make this happen.
Cheers and happy drinking.
We had looked into purchasing tap handles and unfortunately they were out of our price range. Most things are these days. It’s not that we have to be concerned with every penny here but we do have to be concerned with every nickel. Just as I have been shocked at the cost to purchase steel stairs, purchase panels to insulate a cold room, purchase a manufactured door and most certainly the cost to open a brewery. So whenever possible, we have done things ourselves and time and time they come out better, at less expense, more handcrafted and they have the feeling that people not machines made them. Simply because people and not machines did make them.
Tap handles in many cases have become very manufactured. Plastic resin, hard to read type, clunky and often their footprint causes them to be turned to the side to fit and they encroach other tap handles in a show of look at me, look how fancy and expensive I look. I have logged thousands of hours behind a bar and if anything I understand bartenders. Bartenders tend to want a clean tap handle that doesn’t encroach, is easy to grab and readable so that customers don’t always have to ask which one is on tap. We were able to hit most of those requirements with our style. We do have to come up with a specialty tap handle that has the ability to change a name. Our Bitter, Brown and Wheat are branded and also very slightly different colors of stain emulating the color of the beer in the keg. We are working now to differentiate them more with different types of wood. Ex. Cherry for the Bitter and Walnut for the brown. In time, this will allow a customer to recognize our tap handle shape, recognize the color of wood and order the beer even if they are too far away to read the type.
Dylan came up with the idea to brand and my sister, Monica laid out the type and extracted the head from our logo for the top brand. Originally, I had wanted the type vertical with each letter stacked on the next and my sister, who is an art director, stated that in graphic design it is apparently not accepted practice to stack letters in that manner. After seeing, that version next to several other versions typed (in current form), I wholeheartedly agreed. Reading vertically stacked letters is slightly more difficult than reading letters turned on their side. My sister, the consummate professional is always right when it comes to design (and always right when it comes to her and me) but she wanted me to see it for myself. She also did mention, in the kindest possible way because she is one of the kindest people on earth, that if I chose that direction it would be best to never mention her name when talking about the tap handles. This is important because it is something we live by here. That building and maintaining a reputation for high standards is always at the forefront when we make decisions. Whether it is brewing beer or the details involved in getting a tap handle made. Now, I have seen many tap handles with letters stacked and there may be some debate out there on whether certain letters stack better but in our case, our letters didn’t stack well and seeing the final product on tap handles around town proves my sister was correct.
After deciding on the brand we called up our good friend Marvin at Burkart’s. Everybody needs a friend like Marvin. I didn’t even know Marvin before we began building the pub. He has been at the helm for years at Burkart’s, a true landmark in South City Woodworking shop. A shop that does things the way they were supposed to be done in a traditional manner. When we were building our bar we called Marvin up and explained the traditional pub we were pulling together in South City. Marvin offered up Ash wood as an option for our woodwork as it was something that was both beautiful and extremely fairly priced for us. If you haven’t been by we have a massive amount of wood work in the pub. Jim, our carpenter, drew on a piece of paper several designs that would become the basis for our trim around the bar. Marvin then created a template for the wood and began knocking out the linear feet we needed. The quality at Burkart’s is as high as you’ll see anywhere and you can tell they do things the old way. They treat customers like friends. Woodworking is a craft and Marvin is an expert in it. He built a grandfather clock one time, just to show his friends he could do it. A wooden bowl made out Mahogany is not even a challenge for the guy and tap handles are probably the simplest thing Marvin can do.
So Marvin came through for us 150% again and without him who knows what they would look like. We called him up and asked for him to cut a few 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch by 12 inches long pieces of ash and when we showed up he had 12 tap handles for us to choose. We can’t thank Marvin enough for helping us on this one but here’s a few more to show our gratitude. Thanks, Marvin. Thanks, Marvin. Thanks, Marvin. Thanks, Marvin.
The rest is our tap handle history. Thanks to all that helped make this happen, Marvin (there is one more.) Our pals, Joe, Alan who always come through for us, my mom (can’t thank her enough either), Colleen, My sister (Monica), Dylan and Mike for pitching in to make this happen.
Cheers and happy drinking.
NOTE: THE #CarlBock which is a limited edition beer released to places that the Great Carl Niermann drinks at will be blank on the side panel and have CarlBock printed down the front. Someday we hope to be able to afford a CarlBock stamp. We have separated our finest tap handles, had a special ceremony for them and reserved them for this our highest honor..to pour the CarlBock.