Draft beer lives at breweries and bars, not at your house. Unless you’ve outfitted your home bar with a keg and a tap, you go to your local dive for a fresh pour of smooth beer from gleaming taps. It’s usually the best way to enjoy a good brew, but there are times when you should choose a bottled version instead. There are a few signs that you should opt for a bottle of beer instead of a draft, but they all boil down to one factor: You don’t want beer from a dirty or otherwise subpar draft system.
A dysfunctional draft system will pour a foamy beer or one that’s totally flat; it can have flow-rate problems and other issues that impact the taste and aroma of the beer. A draft system that’s poorly maintained can lead to beer contamination with all sorts of things that impact the taste and quality of the draft. Almost all bars that have a draft system have bottled beers, too, and if you see or smell some of these red flags at a bar or other beer store, you should opt for a bottle, instead.
For tips on when to choose a bottle over draft beer, we talked exclusively with beer expert Josh Penney. He’s the Head Brewer at Threes Brewing in New York. He said draft beer is generally better than canned or bottled, but not always: “If you suspect the establishment that you are visiting does not have clean draft lines, bottled and canned beer is the way to go.”
Red flags that tell you to skip a bar’s draft system and get bottled beer instead
If you’re looking for fresh, high-quality beer, you usually visit a local brewery (or one of the best beer gardens in the United States, if you’re lucky) and select from their list of draft beers on tap. But not every single establishment that has a draft station cleans or maintains it properly, much less invests in higher-quality parts. So, after you’ve been poured a beer, take a second to inspect it with a sniff and a sip. If it smells or tastes weird, it’s a sign the system isn’t clean. Some describe the smell as sour. Josh Penney described it differently: “If you smell something akin to buttered popcorn, that can be a sign of unclean draft lines. Spoilage microbes (pediococcus) can cause a compound called diacetyl to form in the lines.”
Penney also gave us a few other signs that you should avoid draft beer at a bar: “If you are poured a beer and see bubbles coating the inside walls of the glass, it’s a sign that their glass washing procedure is not up to high cleanliness standards.”
When you’re skipping the draft beer, your next options are cans or bottles. Both have pros and cons, but bottles can preserve the taste and freshness of beer very well, especially those made with dark glass. Of course, you should watch for red flags for bottled beers, too. But you’ll likely still get a great-tasting beer from a bottle if the draft system at your bar looks questionable.
