Pulling Hard

Well today was the first of my two day bartending course at the Belgian Beer Cafe in Eureka Tower...

Today we did part one of Responsible Serving of Alcohol, Cleanliness and all that other OH&S stuff. But by far the best part of today was pulling beers (not pouring). The Belgian Beer Cafe has, well, all Belgian beer (funny that) and it was all specially imported. A place like this you don't go to get pissed at, you go to try an assortment of different beers and to enjoy the fine atmosphere. This explains why the cheapest beer on tap was $5.50 a glass... The more expensive ones were around $12... But I tell you, they were fantastic!

But we had to work for our beers, and pulling them isn't an easy process:

• Take order,
• Select appropriate coasters to match order (each drink takes a corresponding coaster),
• Select individual glasses (again, special branded glasses for each different brand of beer),
• Clean glass (yes, I know it was on a rack with clean ones, but this time we're POLISHING it),
• Rinse,
• Chill glass (using a really cool spray-ma-bob-thingo),
• Run the tap off (so that the beer comes out non-frothy),
• (Here's the tricky bit) Tilt glass to 80° and place under tap (it's still running...),
• Continue to run until beer is just about to spill over the edge, then in one fluid movement,
  Straighten and lower the glass, placing it on the counter, shutting off the tap abruptly when it is full.
• Logically, the head will continue to form and overflow is expected. Hence, cut the top to produce the desired half-moon from the head.
• Then, dip the glass into your rinsing water to remove the beer from the sides,
• Finally, serve to the customer by placing on the coaster prepared earlier.

Sound hard? No? You've obviously never tried it... Should I add in that the entire process has to be done with the branding facing the customer at all times, plus that you can only touch the glass with two fingers, on the stem of the glass, and cannot move them at all... Does that make it harder? Yeah? That's good...

So after pulling eight beers of different species, I had a taste test and enjoyed them all...

I'm looking forward to next week, where I continue to pull beers. I'll also get to taste test wines (not spirits unfortunately, the stuff they have on the wall is VERY expensive) and get to make a few coffees. Finally, at the end of next week, I'll come out with a couple of certificates, a skill in pulling and pouring, and the knowledge of when to legally (vs. when to socially) stop our resident Panda from drinking.