FAQ | BottomsUpBeerUK.com

Ever wondered where the saying "a beer needs a certain amount of head to be a good beer" comes from? Well, that comes from waaaaay back in the day when beer was stored in wooden casks. You could tell the difference in a nice fresh beer and an old stale beer if it made foam when you poured them. That’s because beer that foamed when you poured them still had CO2 in them.

Since then, some of the largest breweries in the world have used this way of testing if the beer is fresh or not and twisted it into a method of increasing one's keg yield. For example, if a glass of beer has an inch of foam, that also means it has an inch less of beer in it. Hence, you can get more servings out of a keg. Sounds a little shady to us. Not only is the person serving the beer not getting a true keg yield, but the end consumer isn't getting a full beer.

Now, we know what you're thinking- we have to have foam on the beer to release the CO2, it's all about the flavor and aroma coming up into the person's nose! Here's the problem, faucet taps release all that precious CO2 while the beer is being poured. So all that aroma, those notes and wonderfulness dissipates after a couple of drinks. The best way to handle this is to fill a beer from the bottom up with as little agitation as possible. Trapping that precious CO2 in inside the beer which results in little to no foam.

But if there's no foam, then what about the glorious aromas? This is the magic of Bottoms Up and the magnet which doubles as a nucleation site. A nucleation site is fancy speak for a rough spot where CO2 will build up and release over the course of the consumption of the beer. So instead of having that wonderful aromatic experience disappear after a couple of drinks, it will last throughout the entire glass with Bottoms Up. So if you are someone that wants to experience draft beer the way the brewer intended, you are much better off having one poured for you with Bottoms Up then relying on a busy bartender who's last thing on their mind is ensuring the proper amount of CO2 is maintained. Hope this mini science lesson helps

YES!! Our system is actually WAY less wasteful compared to a standard setup. Especially when it comes to beer waste. We realise 98% of the beer in your keg. On average in the UK, our system (conservatively) will save about 4 liters of beer per 11 gallon keg. Considering that each liter of beer consumes about 79 liters of water in the manufacturing process (irrigation, brewing, cleaning etc), that is over 300 liters of water PER KEG that our system will save!

With our cups and glasses, we provide reusable polypropylene and polycarbonate glassware as well as actual glass pints, helping our industry move away from single use plastic where possible.

Also, we have very few moving parts in our units and are focused on a number ways we cut down wastes in our manufacturing process.

Very little of keg waste comes from bartender error. It has to do with the draught system being imbalanced in some way. It looks like the fault of the person pouring it so they get blamed and the draught system never gets fixed.

To be fair, it can only be partially fixed because the main cause is a shift in temperature of the beer either in the cellar or at the faucet. The cold beer hits the warm faucets and it causes the CO2 to break out of solution and cause foam. From there gravity also takes over and the beer starts to free fall causing additional agitation. Even the most experienced bartender is in somewhat of a helpless position.

This problem could also be attributed to high staff turnover and inadequate training