I agree with others, it depends upon the type of bar and clientele you’re trying to attract. Generally speaking, I would assume your average neighborhood bar and/or sports bar would have 8-12 taps probably mostly with mass produced domestics and maybe 1-4 for local or regional microbrews. If a bar is positioning itself as a “craft beer” place, then I’d expect at least 12 taps with maybe 1 reserved for a mass produced domestic beer and the rest craft beers. My problem with more taps in that situation is that I don’t want a 20, 50, or 100 beers on tap selection. It’s just too much for me as a consumer to muddle through a beer menu (book!) and pick. Give me a dozen good selections across a variety of types and let me pick quick and easy.
A Beeroporium with 50 taps should also have bartenders who are either cicerones, or at least very knowledgeable about the selections on tap. They should be able to guide you if you say, “I like Hazy IPAs with moderate IBUs.”
We apparently have very different kinds of dive bars. The last dive bar I used to patronize regularly only had two beers on tap:Bud and Bud Light. There’s still a good number of bars in my neighborhood where you won’t see anything fancier than that. Even though I live in a city full of microbrews, I’d guess 90% of the bars in a mile or two radius of my house (and that’s a lot of bars) do not stock stout, wheat, or brown ale on tap. (Heck, I cant even think of a single bar with a brown ale on tap without going to the “beer bars,” and even there, it tends to be an unpopular style.) These days, I am at least seeing some APAs or IPAs show up in some local dives, but it still tends to be macros and foreign (lager) beers — though those tend to be bottles.
Oh, wait, you may find a Blue Moon on tap, so I guess that’s a wheat. But, I’d be a happy man if most my neighborhood dives had a stout on tap. If you’re in an Irish neighborhood, sure. Where I am, unlikely. (There is one, though, out of a dozen or so, it it’s Mexican and historically Polish around here.)
“Hey look, mister, we serve cheap beer in here for men who want to get drunk fast and we don’t need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere.”
Central Arkansas has its appeal. Going out to drink beer doesn’t look like part of it though.
Seriously, find some place that serves beer you like on tap, and takes care of their product. Beer on tap tastes different than beer in bottle. Not better always, not worse, but different. Not even talking about creatures like cask-conditioned ale mentioned upthread.
It’s worth your time. At least, it’s worth my time when I do so.
Rivertowne Brewing (RIP) had a pineapple beer they called Hala Kahiki. It was a great draft beer, and its 4.8% ABV meant you could enjoy several. So, my gf thought she’d be nice and buy me a case. I didn’t really like it canned. I took it out on the boat, and traded when possible (the marina has a tradition of boaters swapping beer). But on draft it’s fantastic.
GHT is a great bar. Just stick to the most popular beers and you’ll be fine, because I think some of those beer lines haven’t been cleaned since the first Bush Administration. HW at that.
I hate IPA. It’s fine if other people like IPA, but it drives my crazy when it’s offered to the point of exclusion of anything else. My first ask is usually for a red or brown ale, which more often than not is not an option. Then a lager that isn’t Budweiser or anything with the word “Light” or “Lite” in it, which sometimes gets me a decent brew. If all else fails, most places have a Guinness pump these days.
Of course, there are bars that do keep lots of different styles on tap. I wish there were more of them, but the ones that do quickly become my favorite places.
So I’d say it’s less about how many taps a bar has, but more about whether they use the taps they have to serve the widest possible variety of tastes.
It’s really surprising how different bottles v draft tastes. Aside, I am in awe of their getting pineapple beer to behave in a bottle. AIUI the surface area within the fluid column is so gigantic with all of the suspended organic matter from the pineapple that it ferments violently compared to beer, or especially, wine. I guess you can filter anything though. I’d try it though if I saw it.
Old Rasputin tastes much different and bitter in bottle than on draft, never mind on nitro. One of many examples.
My local brewery has an ever-increasing selection of it’s product available, up to 20 at any one time. Regrettably, they are all based on the same 3-4 basic styles with different flavorings added. They used to have a great stout, now it’s only available in flavors like Creme Brulee or Horchata or some such nonsense. They are always messing up a good basic beverage with different fruit or seasonings. I can’t blame them as, as the owner/brew master explained, they have to make the items that people buy through distribution to stay in business and not necessarily what he wants to produce.
They just moved to a large warehouse-like structure in the downtown area of one of the close-in suburbs surrounded by new apartment construction and a commuter train station. Given the demographics and the type of beer I see people ordering, I believe they hit their target market pretty well and left this old coot basic beer person behind.
Fortunately, 10 minutes up the road, a smaller microbrewery has a great brown ale and porter.
The number of beers that should be offered depends upon clientele. A 54th St Grill and Bar (chain) used to offer 54 beers on tap. Bar area used to be full and all beer offerings were available. Visited a couple days ago (Saturday evening, place was half empty) and was told that they were out of Pilsner Urquell and all IPAs. I can support being out of IPAs but being out of P. Urquell is unacceptable! The reason is that there was excessive wastage therefore they changed their ordering process to keep inventory very low. This appears to be the beginning of that location circling the drain.
On the other hand, we have several bars that can maintain a large selection of unique offerings as they appeal to more adventurous beer drinkers rather than to happy hour attendees and people ordering something to go with their burger.
As many as they can get through in 2 weeks. I would rather drink freshly-tapped Bud Lite than a draught of my favorite beer from a keg tapped 3 weeks ago. Make up the difference in variety with bottles; those keep for months.
And none if they can’t keep the lines clean and cold.
Add me to this group. And it’s not just bars. The beer aisle at my local Trader Joe’s is pretty much shelves of IPAs and maybe a couple of porters, pale ales, and lagers. I really wish breweries would realize that not everyone likes super bitter IPAs.
IMO the number of beers doesn’t matter that much, but there should be multiple styles represented:
-An IPA, obviously some people like them
-A pale ale
-An amber ale, along the lines of Fat Tire, which is usually my preference, or a red or brown ale.
-A lager
-A dark porter or stout
-A mainstream beer like Budweiser
After my initial answer, I’ve been thinking about it… my local beer joints are the Flying Saucer and the Ginger Man, both of which have upwards of 50 taps, and both do a fine job of keeping everything rotated and clean. But that’s their thing- they’re basically serious craft beer bars.
If I was to go to a more cocktail oriented bar, or a more “upscale” place, I’d expect fewer taps- maybe the minimal 4 that I mention upthread, or maybe not even any, and just a good selection of bottled beer. A sports bar might want to have 10-20 taps, I’d think, and have a wide variety.
Oh, it’s easy enough to find in Chicago; it’s just not common enough to be confident I’d find one at what I would call a dive (and not these hipster “dives”) unless I’m in a neighborhood that has a bit of an Irish population to it, or in the more popular neighborhoods on the North Side. My favorite local bar, which is about 200 yards from my house, is not even a bar I would qualify as a “dive,” but a reasonable neighborhood bar, and it doesn’t serve Guinness on draft (they may have it in a can or bottle though, I don’t know. I generally just order Old Style bottles there.) About fifteen years ago, I do remember seeing Newcastle Brown on tap there. After I ordered it and the bartender who had worked there for awhile didn’t even know they had it on tap, I realized what a bad decision I made, as clearly nobody had ever ordered it, and I had noticed it there for weeks. Sure enough, it was foul and stale and disappeared off the tap soon after, never to be seen again.
