Gone are the days of the dreaded “batched co*cktails” in the 3 gallon beverage dispenser sitting on the bar dying – either by over dilution from the melting ice that’s NOT been added, or by warming due to the lack of ice that’s been added – popularized by DIY brides and caterers who couldn’t be bothered.
A good beverage catering program does not shy away from batching.
Batching is a legitimate preparation technique that ensures the co*cktail experience is:
- Timely. Batching allows for a much faster pickup of beverages. By batching co*cktails it can save up to a minute on every co*cktail, which means guests get through the line faster.
- Consistent. Batching co*cktails means that the first co*cktail tastes exactly like the last one, no matter which bartender they visit at the event.
- Cost effective. Not only does it prevent wasting of ingredients due to mistakes or over pours, but it also allows you to maintain service levels with fewer bartenders, which means the host pays for fewer staff for the same experience.
Despite the benefits, there are better ways to batch than others. I’ll share my two favorite for mobile bars here.
Micro-batching
I made this term up, and there may perhaps be an actual term for it, but this is what I call it.
Micro-batching is when you pre-mix compatible ingredients from a recipe together ahead of time so that they’re faster/easier to “pickup” when ordered.
For example, my Blood Orange Whiskey Sour Recipe:
- – 1.5 oz whiskey
- – 1 oz lemon juice
- – .5 oz blood orange liqueur
- – .5 oz simple syrup
Prior to the start of the event, I can mix together 2 parts simple syrup and 1 part lemon juice in a batching container, and I can pre-batch together a smaller quantity of the spirits in empty wine bottles, 3 parts whiskey to 1 part blood orange liqueur. Now each co*cktail is no longer a 4-part pickup but a 2-part pickup.
New recipe:
- – 2 oz booze
- – 1.5 oz mixer
If the recipe is something that only has one spirit, and the others are non-alcoholic, you can pre-batch them together in advance as long as they are non-carbonated ingredients. Never pre-batch carbonated ingredients into a co*cktail unless you’re kegging.
Note: Since most mobile bars are “dry-hire” (meaning the hosts provide the alcohol), I recommend batching the alcohol components separately because you won’t have access to them until you arrive onsite. I also recommend pre-batching smaller quantities of alcoholic ingredients because once they’re mixed, you can’t unmix them and you’ll want to send as much of the remaining alcohol home with the clients as you can.
Kegging
If there was one thing that I get asked about that isn’t licensing and insurance, it’s kegging. I promise you it’s not as hard as you think.If you can mix it into a bucket, you can keg a co*cktail.
Kegging allows you to serve with unparalleled speed and accuracy, and it’s appropriate for a wider range of co*cktails (stirred, shaken, carbonated, etc).
If you plan to pour the kegged co*cktails directly into the glass (instead of into a shaker or a mixing glass for shaking/stirring) you’ll have to account for the lack of dilution in the recipe. Luckily there’s a really handy website that makes that really easy: www.co*cktailcalc.com.
Take a single recipe, plug it into the calculator, enter the ABV of the alcohol in the recipe, tell it whether it’s a built, shaken, or stirred co*cktail, and then tell it what size container you’re kegging into and it’ll scale up your recipe automatically including telling it how much water you want to include. ✨ MAGIC ✨
Tip: If you live in a hot/humid location and the event is outside, scale back the amount of water because you’ll have a faster dilution rate from the heat and you don’t want the co*cktail to be super watery by the time they’re half way through drinking it.
For carbonated co*cktails, you’ll want to mix all the ingredients into the keg before carbonating. Then you’ll want to get the keg cold. Like 42 degrees or colder. Then you’ll want to hook it up to your CO2 tank (while keeping it cold) at a psi of 30 or more and let it carbonate over the next 2-3 days (3 days give it nice big bubbles). If you’re in a rush and you can’t wait 2-3 days, after it’s cold you can use a carbonation stone to speed up the carbonation process.
If you have additional questions about equipment, troubleshooting, when to keg and when to micro-batch, join The Mobile Bar Academy.
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