Need advice from bartenders

Okay, so I’ve worked in a few student bars in Europe. They are kind of something halfway in between a real bar and a party, but I told this to my prospective employer and he seemed to think it was ok. So I am scheduled for a so-called “test night” this saturday at 9 PM. It will be early enough to no be so busy in the beginning but I know nothing. So I am calling on you dopers to give me so advice. I could really use it.

Firstly, I’d like to know how to change a keg. What do I need to know? I know how to pour a pint. Its not that hard, but do you always let the bit of foam in the beginning come out before you put the glass in the stream or not?

Any kind of generic advice for someone who’s never worked behind a bar would be great. I’m really worried but I’d really love the job, I think.

Pint pouring from taps - hold the glass at as much of an angle as you can. If your boss is like any I’ve ever had, he or she will not be happy seeing you pour beer anywhere but the glass. Again, hold the glass at an angle, pull the tap, let the beer pour until the beer is level with the lowest edge of the glass*, then straighten the glass and finish filling. This should give you good head (teehee).

Changing a keg is different depending on the keg, but I’ll say right now, no matter the keg or the system, there will be at least one way to screw up and up end soaked in beer. Get another bartender to show you how NOT to do this. It’s usually grap the handle thing and lift that to the up position, twist, lift off the old keg, find the new keg, put the handle thing back on, twist, THEN move the handle to the down position. Then there’s usually some tubes on the wall with white balls floating in them - follow the line from the keg to that tube, the white ball will be sitting at the bottom of the tube. There’ll be a little plastic thing on the bottom - pull it out, the tube will fill with water, the ball will float to the top, push the plastic thing back in. I know that’s the worst description ever, but I’m only ever heard these things referred to as “things”. As in, "So, you connect this thing to this thing and then thing thing goes here…).

Be charming, but not smarmy. Don’t worry about memorizing 50 or 60 different drinks - there’ll usually be 12 or 15 drinks people will order, and five or so that you’ll be making all night. Know your garnishes (rye drinkers usually don’t like lime, for example), but there’s no accounting for taste so ask and save yourself some time. um, if I think of more I’ll post again!

*(um, that’s not super clear, is it? Okay, so the glass is tilted, and the edge that’s lower, that’s the edge you pour to. Does that make sense?)

Amaranta makes a good point - personality goes a LONG way. If your customers like you and are enjoying themselves they will be fairly forgiving for the first week or so if you don’t know EVERYTHING.

But if after a week you’re still giving me rye instead of burbon, then nothin’s gonna save your ass :smiley:

The rest of your advice was spot on (and he’s going to get beer-soaked during a keg change once or twice in the beginning, no matter what), but I have to take issue with the minimal number of drink recipes you suggest. It’s true that most people will order one of a few standard types of drinks–highballs, collins/juice drinks, cocktails (Martini/Gibson, Manhattan, Rob Roy, Cosmopolitan), your tall mixes (Long Island Iced Tea and whatnot)–but all told you need to know how to make 60-80 drinks offhand. You can be excused for not memorizing the recipe for an exotic you don’t normally make, and anybody who walks into the corner bar and orders a Hurricane deserves the mess that they get–but you probably should be familiar with a Rusty Nail or a Godfather. There’s nothing more of a pain in the ass to an experience barkeep as to have a partner who has to continually look up recipes for standard beverages. More than likely your bar will have some signature drinks they like to push and that’ll be the usual deal, but you’d better know the standards.

Know your shelves as well; do you carry Black Bush? When a customer asks you don’t want to spend five minutes searching through inventory in order to inform him that you don’t. Any well-arranged bar will have the liquor in some kind of order–by type, color, or (ugh) alphabetized; learn it and remember. Also, put things back where you find them! Don’t screw up the senior man’s jockey box by tossing the bottles back in random order; the old hats know where the gin is located by position, and if you ufck with that, they’re going to end up pouring a rye and coke rather than a Cuba Libra. Also, learn how to use a wine key to open wine; don’t be the pain in the ass who insists on digging out a rabbit or one of those big lever-action things.

Be cool, don’t get flustered–one way or another, the orders will get out–and don’t scoop the ice with a glass; that’s what the ice scoop is for. Everything else you’ll learn as you go along.

One more thing; be honest; with your boss, your coworkers, and your customers. There’s no unforgivable sin in bartending except to be caught in a lie.

Stranger

Thanks for the help. I don’t think that I’ll be making so many different types of mixed drinks though. This is Denmark, and it is a very beer-loving country. Mixed drinks here always suck because you only get 2 cl because there is a device that measures it, so everyone usually just drinks beer. I actually knew how to pour a pint from before actually. I talked to a bartender friend of mine last night and he gave me the good advice that the most important thing is to be confident, so that’s what I’ll have to do.

One suggestion: when it comes to changing a barrel, get them to walk you through doing first. They know their system, they know the barrels they use, they know the delivery drivers. You know none of these. For instance, they may know that Jens is particularly rough on the barrels and they need to sit for a while before being tapped.

Good luck!

I have some additional suggestions:

When moving the keg, or lifting cases, bend at the knees keeping your back as straight as possible. Otherwise you can end up doing serious damage to your back (I write from experience).

Get there an hour early (don’t clock in until 9:00 unless told to do so!) and learn where everything is. Find out what the most popular drinks are, right down the recipes, if you don’t know them. Learn the register, processes, other employees’ names, etc. You’ll impress both the boss and the other bartender(s) because it demonstrates you’re understanding as to how being a newbie can cause all sorts of chaos behind the bar, as well as your excitement.

If it turns out that there are many cocktails being ordered and you don’t know how to make them, ask the veteran bartender to pass the beer orders to you and you the cocktail orders to him. Saturday night is no time to learn how to mix drinks.

In the states, shooters and test tube shooters are very popular - especially among the younger crowd. There are well over 1,000 shooter recipes. I suggest you lay your hands on four books, if you’re going to be serious about this:

  1. The Bartender’s Black Book (By Cunningham)
  2. Any of a wide variety of books that teach the basics - what type of glass goes with what cocktail, how to prepare and use garnishes, etc. The Black Book is a recipe book that assumes you know the basics.
    If shooters are popular:
  3. The Ultimate Little Shooter Book (By Foley)
  4. The Ultimate Little Shooter Book II (By Foley)

Wear water resistant/proof shoes (I prefer boots because they give me more support, have soles that are less likely to let you slip on a wet floor and are designed to take more abuse).

In the States (I don’t know about Denmark), tryouts such as yours, tips are normally not shared. If tradition, the boss or (even better) your colleagues insist - good for you!