With the rise in the popularity of cocktails and gin-based drinks, glassware has never been under such scrutiny. Serving drinks in dirty glasses could have serious implications for the reputation of your business as not all customers will complain, they just won’t come back! As well as looking visually appealing, glassware has to be sparkling clean or it can affect the taste and appearance of beer or wine and poorly maintained glasswashers are one of the main sources of cross contamination within hotels, pubs and restaurants.
There are several ways in which you can improve the results and cleanliness of your dishwasher as well as ensuring its longevity. Derek Maher from independent specialist warewashing company, Crystaltech is one of the leading industry experts in achieving perfect wash results and carries out consultancy work with independent pub auditor Cask Marque, is one of the Board Directors for catering industry association CEDA, as well as ensuring that several leading pub groups achieve award-winning clean glass results across their entire estates.
Having to polish glassware post-wash is both labour intensive and increases breakages, but crucially it provides another opportunity for germ contamination which is why it is important your service company provides a results-based fix to leave your machine working at its optimum output and delivering spotlessly clean results.
“Many glasswasher detergents are too caustic and cause cloudy looking etching on glasses or, are too weak and leave behind unhygienic residual dirt/proteins, which results in poor head retention – flat beer. Many of the major brewers and pub operators have moved towards using Renovate continuously as an alternative to their usual caustic detergent, “says Derek Maher.
Renovating glasses using a chlorine based chemical is now the accepted method of disinfecting glasses and removing the proteins and soils that build up on a glass over a period of time. Derek advises using a liquid renovate which can save many wasted operational hours as it can be connected to the automatic detergent feed of the glasswasher without any adjustment.
Installing a reverse osmosis (RO) system can dramatically improve wash results – the system pushes purified water through the wash cycle, removing residues which are normally left on the glass. An RO system can reduce the consumption of cleaning chemicals by up to 70% as well as allowing for a lower wash temperature, making it a much more energy efficient proposition. As a combination of RO and chlorine detergent can lower wash and rinse temperatures, glasses don’t retain as much heat and, as we know, a hot glass warms the beer and impacts a customer’s experience.
www.crystaltech.co.uk, 0370 350 2424, [email protected]