Tap handles are key marketing tool for microbreweries
MARKETING
What's on tap in many bars isn't just beer, but art
Handling a trend
RICK ARMON, Associated Press Published 5:30 am, Saturday, October 28, 2006
When Roy Wadding sits down at a bar, he makes sure to scan the draft selection before ordering a beer.
His eyes zip from one tap handle to the next, searching for something different, something he has never tried before.
"I see something new and I gravitate to it," the 51-year-old Tampa, Fla., man said recently at a Winking Lizard Tavern in Columbus.
Such is the power of an eye-catching tap handle.
Breweries have tried for decades to attract attention by making tap handles larger and more colorful, but the microbrewery movement has brought a proliferation of artsy and exotic ones. Some are full-fledged artwork, a small brewery's main advertising and a way to entice beer drinkers to sample a specific brand in the competitive craft market — specialty brews typically made in small regional or local breweries — that grew 11 percent in the first six months of this year.
