Happy Hour Beer Specials Without Price Fights

Run a happy hour beer special from 1 written card: final prices, the pours it covers, an exact end minute and a cutoff rule, with every price checked against beer cost before it goes up. End it the same way every shift, and change the board a minute before the end so it never shows a lower price than the bartender charges. Below: state rules, the card, 2 price checks, board placement, the end routine and a filled card.

Can you run a happy hour beer special in your state?

Whether you can run one depends on your state, and the rules can differ a lot from one state to the next. Massachusetts and Illinois show how far apart 2 states can sit.

Massachusetts bars the discount itself. Its liquor rule, 204 CMR 4.03 as published by Cornell's Legal Information Institute, says a licensee shall not sell drinks "at a price less than the price regularly charged for such drinks during the same calendar week." The same rule bars increasing the volume of alcohol in a drink without raising the price in proportion, so a bigger pour at the pint price is out as well.

Illinois allows discounts within limits. Section 6-28.5 of the Illinois Liquor Control Act, as published by FindLaw, lets a retailer discount a drink during a specified time only if:

• the price does not change while the discount runs
• the discount runs no more than 4 hours a day and 15 hours a week
• nothing is discounted between 10:00 p.m. and closing
• notice of the discount is posted on the premises or on the bar's public website at least 7 days before

The example special below runs 4:00 to 6:00 pm, Monday to Thursday. That is 2 hours a day x 4 days = 8 hours a week, inside both Illinois caps. In Massachusetts, the same special could not run at all.

Your state may differ from both, so read its rules and your license terms before you plan a special, and write what they require onto the card.

What goes on a happy hour special card?

The card holds every decision a bartender would otherwise make at the rail: the final prices, the pours covered, what's left out, what happens when a covered keg kicks, the exact end minute and the cutoff rule. A special that lives in the manager's head gets run 3 ways by 3 bartenders. Fill in the card and keep it where drinks get rung up.

SPECIAL CARD
Name on the board:       ____________
Days:                    ____________
Starts: ________         Ends: ________ (exact minute)
Covers (tap, pour, special price, regular price):
                         ____________
Does not cover:          ____________
If a covered keg kicks:  special follows the ______ (tap / beer)
Cutoff rule:             ____________
Shows on the board as:   ____________
Started by: ________     Ended by: ________
Floor check:             ____________

Final prices, written per beer

"$1 off pints" asks the guest and the bartender to do math, and they won't always land on the same number. Write the price for each beer: helles lager, 16 oz, $6. A special that covers 4 beers lists 4 prices.

Pours by size

"Pints" leaves room to argue. Does the 10 oz count? What about the 8 oz pours of the strong beers? Write down each size the special covers, in ounces.

What's left out

Give the exclusions 1 line: limited kegs, to-go fills, pick-your-own flights. Anything the card doesn't list as covered is out, and a bartender should be able to say so without asking you.

What a kick does

Say the helles on tap 1 kicks at 5:15 and a kolsch-style ale goes on at the same $7 and $5. Is it $6 until 6:00? Settle once whether the special follows the tap or the beer, so the bartender who swaps the keg doesn't have to find you. If it follows the tap, the swap beer needs the same cost per ounce or its own floor check. The rest of that routine is in what to do when a keg kicks mid-shift.

The cutoff rule

Setting the end minute is easy. The arguments come from the order placed at 5:58 and poured at 6:03, or the guest who ordered at 5:50 and wants another round at 6:10. Here is a version that covers both: "Special price on orders placed before 6:00. The next round is regular price." Whatever yours says, it goes on the card and on the board.

Does the special price still cover the beer?

A special price covers the beer when it clears a floor you set ahead of time: the lowest multiple of beer cost you'll sell at. Take cost per ounce from your cost sheet, multiply by the beer that actually goes in the glass, and divide the special price by that. Draft beer cost per ounce builds the sheet from the invoice. The floor itself comes from your own books.

Measure the beer in the glass instead of trusting the glass size. The Brewers Association's Draught Beer Quality Manual (page 56) says brewers prefer beer poured with about a 1 inch collar of foam and calls filling a glass to the rim overpouring. A 16 oz glass poured that way holds less than 16 oz of beer; in the example it holds 14.

The example taproom prices every pour at 4 times beer cost and sets its special floor at 3.5. The 4 covered beers (helles lager, pilsner, wheat and pale ale) each cost $0.12 an ounce. The numbers are made up to show the math.

The pitcher at $21 fails, so it either takes a smaller cut or stays out. The lowest price that clears the floor is $6.48 x 3.5 = $22.68, which rounds up to $23.

If a flight is in, name the flight. Here only the house flight of helles, hazy IPA, raspberry sour and oatmeal stout is covered. Pick-your-own stays at its everyday price and surcharges, which how to price a beer flight works out.

How many more pints does the special have to sell?

The pint special has to sell about 23% more pints to leave the same dollars after beer cost. A $7 pint holding $1.68 of beer leaves $5.32, and at $6 it leaves $4.32: $5.32 / $4.32 = 1.23.

Full price:   50 pints x $5.32 = $266.00 after beer cost
On special:   $266.00 / $4.32 = 61.6, so 62 pints to match

Say the 4 covered taps sell 50 pints from 4:00 to 6:00 on a normal weekday. If the special window sells fewer than 62, it is paying for something else, such as a fuller room at 6:00, and you can decide whether that is worth the gap.

Does the special price fit the other pours on the line?

The special has to keep every pour in order: a bigger pour never costs the same as a smaller one, and never costs more per ounce than the pints it replaces.

Down the line, read the special against the smaller pour. The helles line is 16 oz $7 / 10 oz $5. A $2 cut puts the 16 oz at $5, the same as the 10 oz, and for 2 hours the small pour makes no sense. Either the 10 oz joins the special or the pint cut shrinks. The example's $6 keeps the line in order: 16 oz $6 / 10 oz $5.

Up the line, read the special against the pitcher. When the pint drops and the pitcher doesn't, a table of 4 does better ordering pints:

At $26 the pitcher costs $2 more than 4 pints and holds 2 oz less beer, and the first table that does that math will ask about it. At $23 the pitcher clears the 3.5 floor and matches the pints per ounce, so the example puts it on the card at $23. Keeping pour sizes in the same order on every line is covered in ABV, IBU, style and pour size on a draft menu.

Where should the special show on the board?

Show the special in 1 place with the end time printed next to the price, either as a block at the top of the list or on the beer lines themselves.

A special block sits at the top, and the beer lines underneath keep their regular prices:

HAPPY HOUR  4:00 to 6:00 pm, Monday to Thursday
Orders placed before 6:00. Next round is regular price.
16 oz helles, pilsner, wheat, pale ale (taps 1 to 4)   $6  (reg $7)
60 oz pitcher of taps 1 to 4                           $23 (reg $26)
House flight (taps 1, 5, 9, 11)                        $10 (reg $12)
Everything else at the regular price.

At the end, the block comes off in 1 edit that is hard to miss.

Changing the prices on the lines puts the special where guests read the beer:

1 | Helles lager | 4.9% | 16 oz $6 until 6 pm / 10 oz $5

Guests see the price next to the beer. At the end, though, every changed line has to go back, and the line that gets missed starts the next argument. If you run it this way, the card lists every changed line by tap number.

Either way, the end time sits beside the special price, so the guest reads the rule and the price in the same glance.

When should the board change, to the minute?

Change the board at the start minute and 1 minute before the end minute. During each changeover the board then shows the higher price while the bartender rings the lower one, and a guest who pays less than the board said has nothing to dispute.

On a TapDisplay board, each tap's line carries a price per pour, 2 pours by default and up to 4, and you change it from a phone, a tablet or a computer. Each connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds, so an edit shows within about 30 seconds. Here is how the timing plays out on the example pint:

The same rule holds for a chalkboard or a printed block: put it up at the start minute and take it down a minute early.

Who ends the special, and in what order?

The shift's board owner ends the special at a set minute, in the same order every time. Put the role on the card and the name on the shift handoff card, so nobody assumes someone else has it.

At 5:59:

1. Change the board. Take the block down, or put every changed line back to its regular price.
2. Call it at 6:00, out loud to everyone taking orders: "Happy hour's over, regular prices." An order already placed finishes under the cutoff rule, and the next one is regular.
3. Pull the reminders: the special price sheet where drinks get rung up, the note at the well. Someone will charge from any reminder left up.
4. Walk it: check each covered line on the card against the board. You walk only what the special touched.
5. Log it on the handoff card with initials: "Happy hour ended 6:00, board checked."

The start runs the same steps at 4:00.

On a TapDisplay board, a staff account can make the price edits, and the activity log records who changed what, which backs up the initials on the handoff card.

On a night the routine didn't run, the pre-open check catches a special still up from yesterday; how often to update your tap list walks through that check. Log any price argument that happens anyway like any other wrong board, as in what an outdated menu costs.

What does a filled special card look like?

Here is the card filled in for a 16 tap list running a weekday happy hour. All prices are made up and follow the cost math above.

SPECIAL CARD
Name on the board:       HAPPY HOUR
Days:                    Monday to Thursday
Starts: 4:00 pm          Ends: 6:00 pm (board changes at 5:59)
Covers:                  Tap 1 helles lager, 16 oz    $6  (reg $7)
                         Tap 2 pilsner, 16 oz         $6  (reg $7)
                         Tap 3 wheat, 16 oz           $6  (reg $7)
                         Tap 4 pale ale, 16 oz        $6  (reg $7)
                         60 oz pitcher, taps 1 to 4   $23 (reg $26)
                         House flight                 $10 (reg $12)
Does not cover:          10 oz pours, all other taps,
                         pick-your-own flights, to-go fills
If a covered keg kicks:  special follows the tap at the same cost
                         per ounce (kolsch on tap 1 is $6)
Cutoff rule:             orders placed before 6:00; next round regular
Shows on the board as:   1 block at the top, end time printed
Started by / ended by:   shift board owner
Floor check:             floor 3.5; pint 3.6, pitcher 3.55, flight 3.8

To test it, hand the card to a bartender who didn't write it. Ask what a 16 oz kolsch costs at 5:30 after tap 1 kicked, what a 10 oz pilsner costs at 5:30, and what a 6:05 round costs for a guest whose first order was at 5:55. The answers are $6, $5 and the regular price. If the bartender has to ask you anything, the card isn't done.

The bottom line

A happy hour beer special stays out of arguments when every price, pour, exclusion and cutoff is settled on a card before it runs, and each price clears your floor and fits the other pours on its line. Check your state's rules first, since Massachusetts bars same-week discounts and Illinois caps the hours and requires posted notice. Then make the board change 1 person's job, a minute before the end, so the board never shows a lower price than the bartender rings.