Beer Menu on a TV: What Each Screen Should Carry

To put your beer menu on the TVs behind the bar, open TapDisplay's page in each TV's browser and pair the screen with the 6 character code it shows. The bigger job is deciding what each screen carries. This post covers counting your lines, sizing each screen's share, splitting the list or the sections, keeping the breaks steady in service, and choosing colors that read in a dim room.

How does the beer menu get onto the TV?

The TV opens TapDisplay's page in its browser, and that page shows your menu. A screen that isn't paired yet shows a 6 character code. Enter the code in your TapDisplay dashboard and the screen joins your location.

After that you run the board from a phone, a tablet or a computer. Every connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds, so an edit reaches the wall within about 30 seconds. TapDisplay pricing is per location with unlimited screens, so adding a fourth TV doesn't change the bill.

How many screens you need, where they hang and which way up they go all live in where to hang menu screens and which way up. The rest of this post starts with the screens already on the wall.

How many lines does your list take up?

Your list takes up one row for every draft line, every on deck line and every section header, so count all three before you plan a screen. Cider, seltzer or NA on draft counts as a draft line.

Headers are the rows people forget. In the example, 5 headers and 3 on deck lines turn a 24 tap list into 32 rows, a third more than the tap count. Keep the on deck list short; what belongs on deck covers which beers earn a spot there.

How many lines can one screen hold?

One screen holds as many lines as pass the across-the-room test in your room, minus 2 spare. Nobody else's number transfers, because it depends on the screen's size, how far away guests stand and how the room is lit. Put the full list up, run the across-the-room type size test, and write down how many lines a guest can read from where they order.

Then take 2 lines off. Sooner or later you'll add a tap, pour a collab or post a special, and 1 extra line shouldn't force a new layout. If 22 lines pass, plan on 20 a screen.

When a screen's share runs long, TapDisplay shrinks the type to fit and then turns pages. Plan your shares so that doesn't happen in normal service. Smaller type can drop below what passed your test, and a guest waiting for page 2 to find a price is still deciding when the bartender gets to them.

Should you split one list or give each screen its own sections?

Split one list when guests read the screens in a row like one long board, and give each screen its own sections when each screen hangs over different drinks. One bar can use both. A third option, the full list on every screen, fits rooms where nobody can see all the screens at once.

Split one list across screens

Keep one ordered list, in the order a guest would read it on a single long board, and let it run across the screens. How to write a tap list covers that order. A guest reads screen 1 top to bottom, moves to screen 2 and keeps going.

In TapDisplay, screens linked into one list split it evenly by default. The breaks land by count, wherever that falls in your sections, so look at every break once the screens are linked.

Give each screen its own sections

Decide which sections live on which screen. Draft goes on the screens over the tap wall, and a cocktails section goes on the screen over the backbar, where the bottles are. Each screen is then a complete menu for whatever gets poured or mixed in front of it.

In TapDisplay you choose the sections each screen shows. Each section stays whole on its screen, so this is also how you pin breaks to section ends on a long beer list.

Show the full list on every screen

Put the whole list on every screen when sightlines split the room. If a guest at one end can't see the screen at the other end, a split list shows them half the beer. The full list everywhere only works when it passes the across-the-room test on one screen.

What keeps each screen readable on its own?

A screen reads on its own when a guest never needs a second screen to finish a line, find a price or learn the pour sizes. Set each screen up this way:

• Aim each break at a section end. You don't want the hoppy section starting at the bottom of screen 1 and finishing at the top of screen 2.
• Open every screen with a header, even when it picks up partway through a section. "Cocktails" at the top of the backbar screen tells a guest not to look there for an IPA, and it shows a new bartender the layout at a glance.
• Keep pour sizes on the line. On a TapDisplay board each line carries its own pours and prices, 2 per item by default and up to 4, so the sizes travel with the beer to whichever screen it lands on. If your board puts pour sizes in the headers, repeat them on every screen. Pour sizes on a draft menu covers the wording.

What do three common layouts look like?

The three layouts below use made-up numbers. Swap in your own counts and your own lines per screen.

A 48 tap beer hall with 3 screens in a row

The inputs: 48 taps in 6 sections, 3 on deck lines and 7 headers, so the list needs 48 + 3 + 7 = 58 rows. In this room 22 lines pass the across-the-room test, so each screen plans on 20, and 3 screens hold 3 x 20 = 60 rows.

Every screen is at 20 rows or fewer, so each keeps at least 2 of its 22 readable lines spare, and every break falls at a section end. To hold these exact breaks in TapDisplay, give each screen its own sections. Linking the 3 screens into one list would split it evenly by count, and a break could land mid-section.

Start from this layout if you run 30 or more taps along one long bar where everyone can see all 3 screens. If your headers and on deck lines push the total past what 3 screens hold, trim on deck or add a screen.

A 16 tap brewpub and a 24 tap sports bar

In the brewpub, guests at the taps see every beer on one screen, and the backbar screen never fights the draft list for space. Add wine later the same way, on the screen a guest faces when they order it. In the sports bar, sightlines decide: a guest at the left end who can't see the right end screen would see half the beer on a split list.

All three layouts follow one rule. Every guest can see every tap from where they order, so when you're choosing between layouts, pick the one that passes it.

How do you keep the breaks in place during service?

Keep the layout fixed in normal service and check the breaks every time a line comes off the list. When a keg kicks and you mark it in TapDisplay, the line stays on the board, struck through and labeled KICKED, so nothing below it moves. The label comes from your business type, and menus outside the keg types say SOLD OUT.

Taking a line off the list moves every line after it up one. On a split list, pulling a kicked keg from Hoppy can slide the top of Sour and Fruited onto screen 1. Glance at each break when you pull a line. If a section has crept across, your 2 spare lines are gone, so move the break or trim the list. The mid-shift kick routine puts that check in order with the other jobs.

Redo the layout when the bar changes: taps added, a bank of handles retired, a screen added, or a new section such as wine. Between those changes, leave it alone. Staff and regulars learn where things live, and reshuffling every time a line goes dry makes the board harder to keep right.

What colors read best on a menu TV in a dim bar?

Use light text on a dark background, give one accent color one job, and check every color pair for contrast. A screen that looks crisp at 2 pm under the house lights can glare by 9 pm, so test these rules in your own room.

• A mostly white screen in a dark room throws light on everything around it. Light text on a dark field keeps the glare down.
• Choose one accent color for section headers or for prices, not both. When everything is colored, nothing stands out. TapDisplay's 19 looks each carry your logo and your accent color, and the fonts come with the look.
• Never let color carry meaning alone. About 1 in 12 men have color vision deficiency, according to the National Eye Institute's color blindness page, and the most common type makes red and green hard to tell apart. The National Eye Institute's guide to the types says deuteranomaly is the most common red-green type and makes certain shades of green look more red. If sours are pink and IPAs are green, label each section in words too.
• Keep text off photos and patterns. A pint photo behind the list looks good in a mockup and makes the lines harder to read on the wall.
• Put house colors in the frame. Branding in the header and border looks sharp, while brand colors in body text can fail the contrast check below.
• Set brightness during service, with the room lit the way it is at 9 pm, and turn it down from the daytime setting.

How to check contrast with numbers

The W3C's guidance on minimum contrast asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for text and 3:1 for large text. W3C set 4.5:1 to cover the contrast a reader with 20/40 vision needs. Its guidelines were written for web content, not a board read from across a bar, so use 4.5:1 as your floor even for big type.

The ratio is (L1 + 0.05) / (L2 + 0.05). L1 is the relative luminance of the lighter color and L2 of the darker one, on a scale from 0 for black to 1 for white. Worked example: light gray #CCCCCC has a relative luminance of 0.6038 and black has 0, so (0.6038 + 0.05) / (0 + 0.05) = 13.1:1.

Red on black clears the floor with about a quarter of white's contrast, and red is half of the pair the most common color vision deficiency confuses. Keep it off anything a guest has to read.

How do you test the screens on a real night?

Test the screens during service, with the house lights where they sit at night, using someone who hasn't seen them yet.

1. Pick someone who hasn't seen the new screens.
2. Stand them where guests order.
3. Point at 3 random lines on each screen and ask them to read the style and price out loud.
4. Watch for squinting, leaning in and guessing.

If they miss on one screen and not another, compare the two. The difference is usually brightness, an accent color doing too much, or a background that's too light. Change one thing at a time and test again. If the trouble is type size, you have too many lines on that screen, so go back to your lines per screen.

The bottom line

A TV shows your menu once its browser has TapDisplay's page up and you've entered the 6 character code it shows. After that, count every row, plan each screen 2 lines under what passes your across-the-room test, and give each screen one job a guest can read without looking at another. Check the breaks whenever a line comes off, and test colors with the room at service lighting.