How much does a self-serve beer system cost?
Pubs are always on the lookout for new ideas to drive sales and provide a better experience for customers. And costs are always an important factor in deciding if and how you implement those ideas.
Having run our own pub for over 10 years, we know that transparency around pricing is key. That’s why, if you’re looking for an EPOS and management suite for your pub, we make it easy to understand how much you’ll need to spend on hardware, software licences and support.
However, when you’re looking for a self-serve beer system (one of those ideas that can drive sales in your pub), it’s not quite so straightforward. That’s not us trying to hide costs – it’s just that there are many more variables to consider.
This article aims to plug this gap and make it as clear as possible what your self-serve beer system will cost (and if you’re not sure whether self-serve beer is right for your pub, take a look at the pros and cons of the various options in our guide to guide to self-service in pubs & bars.
Fixed costs (£1750 - £3000)
You’ll need certain components regardless of how many self-serve beer taps you install. These include a cabinet, onsite server, and network equipment. If you only have a handful of taps, it’ll cost you around £1750 for the parts and installation, while a larger install will be around £3000.
Taps on tables (£1100 - £2000)
If you’re having self-service taps on customer tables, you’ll need a mounted iPad to present measure options and display pour counts, and a flow controller to enable tap(s) and monitor the dispense. If you choose Tabology for your self-service table taps, you can integrate your full food and drink menu into the beer tap screen, making it more likely that customers stay longer, order more, and increase your revenue.
Many table-tap installations include an RFID card reader that activates the tap(s) when the customer presents their ‘beer card’. Our integrated EPOS and management suite allows you to integrate loyalty and membership benefits to the beer cards too.
Alternatively, bar staff can activate the taps from your EPOS. This is a good option when the self-service tables are pre-booked and one group will use them for a long period of time. When people come and go regularly, such as when you’ve got lots of self-serve tables or a beer wall, it may be better to have beer card readers, or your staff will constantly be asked to activate the taps.
The price range for taps on tables starts from £1100 for a 1-tap table with no card reader to £2000 for a 4-tap table with a card reader.
Beer wall taps (£850 - £1250)
With a beer wall, any customer in the bar can walk up to the wall, insert their “beer card” and pour a beer. The main variables impacting the cost of a beer wall tap are the size of the screen and the number of taps per screen.
Having one screen for every 2 taps is the most cost-effective option at £850 per tap. However, this limits the number of customers who can use the beer wall at the same time, as each time a beer card is inserted, 2 taps will be activated for the customer to choose from.
If your goal is to provide more choice, but you’re not expecting particularly high volume through the wall, then this can be a good option. If you are expecting high volume on the beer wall and want each tap to be able to be used independently then you would need to have one screen for every tap.
For a one tap per screen set up a small screen (iPod) is the most popular and costs £1000 per tap. For a larger screen (iPad or iPad mini) the cost increases to £1250 per tap.
Integrated Hospitality EPOS System (£600 - £1000 & £39 per month)
However you set up your self-service beer taps, you need a way to administer the system, set up tabs or beer cards, and track the beer being dispensed. You also need to record self-serve sales along with your normal bar sales.
So it makes sense to have all of that in a single, seamlessly integrated system. Our self-service beer system is part of the Tabology EPOS and management suite for pubs and bars. Your staff have only one system to manage and all sales and stock and data is managed in one place. Loyalty and membership rewards can be configured to the self-serve taps, and bookings for self-serve tables are managed within the same system as normal tables.
Trading Standards verification (£75 - £1000)
Any self-service beer system used for trade in the UK needs to be verified by the local Trading Standards office to ensure it is dispensing accurate measures (see Self Serve Beer - Is it Legal?).
Trading Standards charge for this by the hour. Both the time taken and the hourly fee varies so this is the hardest cost to estimate, but in our experience, it usually falls between £75 and £1000 depending on the number of taps.
Network cabling and power sockets (£0 - £1000)
A self-serve beer system requires power and data sockets at the location of each tap. Sometimes these may be in place already or be very easy to add. In others this could involve extensive cabling work. This makes it another very hard cost to estimate, but it rarely costs more than £1000.
Running beer lines (£0 - £2000+)
It’s very common for a brewery to agree to run new lines and install new cellar equipment in exchange for an agreement to offer their beers on some or all of the self-service taps.
If you prefer to have complete freedom over the products you serve on the taps, you might want to pay for a company to run new lines and possibly provide new coolers. If you like to offer a diverse and ever-changing mix of beers, Our stock system lets you add new products in seconds – product templates and links to suppliers mean beer information is automatically added, saving you all that time and effort.
This could cost from a few hundred pounds to run some new lines to a single table or beer wall, to over £2000 to run lines around a large venue to several individual tables.
License & support fees (£19 per month per tap)
Monthly or annual license & support fees cover the use of the technology, including any updates and enhancements, and any support needed in relation to the system. The fees for PourTab are £19 per month per tap.
The above will hopefully give you a reasonable idea of the budget you'll need for your self-serve beer system. Running it is much easier when it’s all seamlessly integrated with your EPOS and management software.
For a more accurate quote or for specific advice, just get in touch with our team.
