Tap Rotation Planning: Keep the List Balanced

Plan tap rotation by giving every handle 1 row type, which says what happens when its keg kicks, and 1 lane, a style family plus 1 limit that says what it may pour next. Every new keg has to fit its handle's lane, so a 16 tap list keeps the same shape through every change. Below are the grid, the checks, the turnover math, seasonal switches and how to flag what was just tapped.

What are the 4 row types in a rotation grid?

The 4 row types are core, rotator, guest and seasonal, and every handle gets exactly 1 of them, in writing.

At a taproom, a rotator pours your own beers in turn. At a beer bar, it's a handle you fill from whatever your distributors have in its lane. Guest handles follow the run cards in how many guest taps to run and how long they stay; in the grid, each is 1 more row with a lane.

A handle with no written type takes whatever is cold or whatever the rep had that week, and after a few months nobody can say what the board is supposed to hold.

What is a lane, and how tight should it be?

A lane is what a handle may pour when it changes, written as a style family plus 1 limit. Make it loose enough to leave real choices when you order and tight enough that a change can't turn your only porter into a third hazy IPA. Here are 3 lanes from the example grid below:

• IPA, not hazy, 6 to 7.5%
• Dark, under 7%
• Cider, not fruited

Choose a limit that actually separates beers. In the Brewers Association's 2026 Beer Style Guidelines (pages 11 and 12), West Coast-Style and Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale share the same range, 6.3% to 7.5% ABV. A lane that only says "IPA, 6 to 7.5%" lets a hazy through, so the words "not hazy" carry the limit.

ABV works better at the edge between style families. The same guidelines (page 13) put American-Style Imperial Stout at 7.0% to 12.0% ABV, so a "Dark, under 7%" lane keeps imperial stouts off your everyday dark handle.

Core handles get a lane too: the beer's own style. If a core beer is dropped, its replacement lands in the same spot on the list.

Which lanes are set by the line itself?

A line that pours cider or a flavored beer should keep that lane for good. The Brewers Association's Draught Beer Quality Manual (page 64) says beer lines may need replacing after pouring root beer, flavored beers, margaritas, wines or ciders.

Those drinks may permanently contaminate a line, and possibly its neighbors in the same bundle, which rules the line out for beer from then on. Put cider and fruited lanes on fixed handles and leave them there.

What does a filled rotation grid look like for 16 taps?

A filled grid lists each handle's type, its lane and the beer on now. Here's the grid for an example 16 tap beer bar, with styles in place of beer names; your split comes from your own wall.

That's 7 core handles and 9 that change: 4 rotators, 4 guest handles and 1 seasonal. Read down the Lane column and you can see the shape the grid commits you to: 3 light, 4 hoppy, 2 tart, 2 dark, 3 big and 2 cider. Each new beer has to fit its lane, so every change keeps that shape.

Lanes can stack, though. From October to March, taps 12, 13 and 14 can all hold dark imperials, and 13 and 14 are both imperial stouts right now. Write a cross-row rule under the grid, such as "No more than 2 imperial stouts across taps 12, 13 and 14," and run it with every balance check.

What 2 checks should every new keg pass?

Every rotator, guest or seasonal change should pass a lane check and a balance check before the beer goes on the on deck list.

1. Lane check: does the beer fit this handle's lane? If it doesn't, it waits for a handle whose lane fits, or you change the lane on purpose and write the change down.
2. Balance check: count the board with the new beer in and the old one out, then run any cross-row rules.

Worked example: the next guest for tap 8 is a 6.2% saison from Brewery B, replacing a 4.5% gose. The lane is tart or farmhouse, under 6.5%, so the saison passes the lane check.

For the balance check, the gose goes, which leaves the raspberry sour on tap 9 as the only sour line until tap 8 changes again. That can be fine. You made the call when the saison went on the on deck tap list, a week before a regular could ask where the sours went.

The Brewers Association manual's daily tower checklist (page 50) has staff pour 1 to 3 fluid ounces and confirm the tap marker matches the beer in the line. Do the same at every changeover, and change the board on the same trip.

How often will each handle change?

Each changing handle gets a new beer about once per keg, so its pace is how long a keg lasts, and you can work that out before you order:

days a keg lasts = (fluid ounces in the keg ÷ ounces per pour) ÷ pours a day

The Brewers Association's Draught Beer Quality Manual (page 6) lists a sixth barrel at 660 fluid ounces, a quarter barrel at 992 and a half barrel at 1,984. Here are the 9 changing handles from the grid. The keg sizes and pours a day are example inputs, so swap in your own counts.

Real counts run a little lower after foam and waste. Add up 7 ÷ days a keg lasts for each handle, and this wall puts on about 5.3 new beers a week, which is how many new pitches your bartenders learn each week.

The table also shows why the big beers go on sixth barrels. At 3 pours of 8 oz a day, a half barrel on tap 14 would hold 248 pours, or about 83 days. The same manual (page 50) says beer in kegs on tap for longer than 45 days may have changed in flavor compared with what the brewer intended. Give every slow lane a keg size that empties inside 45 days, and write that size into the lane.

How do seasonal slots switch without going dry?

A seasonal slot switches without a gap when 3 things are written on the grid before the season starts:

• Switch dates. Tap 14 switches April 1 and October 1. The switch happens at the first kick after the date, so a winter keg that's half full on April 1 gets to finish.
• Each season's lane, as tight as any rotator's.
• A fallback lane. If the winter keg kicks in March and the summer beer isn't due yet, the handle takes the fallback, say "Dark, under 7%," instead of sitting dry.

Order the next season's first keg to arrive early enough to get cold. The Brewers Association manual (pages 50 and 51) says every keg must be at or below 38°F when it's served, and its chill table gives a keg at 44°F 18 hours to get there. A keg at 50°F needs 25 hours, so a keg that shows up on the switch date won't be ready to pour that night.

When the lane switches, the line moves to the section for its new style and keeps its tap number. How to write a tap list guests can read fast covers the section names and their order.

How should the board show what was just tapped?

Mark a new beer with 1 house phrase at the end of its line, take the mark off on a date you set when you tap the keg, and cap how many lines carry it at once. Only a new beer on a handle gets the flag; the second keg of the house helles isn't news.

Use 1 phrase on every flagged line. "Just tapped" says what happened. "New" alone can read as a brand new release. "Fresh" sounds like a claim about the beer, and the Brewers Association manual (page 50) notes that the freshness window for dispensing varies by brewer.

Put the phrase after the price so nothing else on the line moves, and explain it once at the top of the board: "Just tapped: new on this handle in the last 4 days."

HOPPY
6  | Brewery A | Beer name | West Coast IPA | 6.8% | 16 oz $8 / 10 oz $6 | Just tapped
7  | Brewery C | Beer name | Double IPA     | 9.2% | 10 oz only $8

Write the off date when you tap, in 2 extra grid columns: Tapped and Flag off. A flag that never comes off turns into wallpaper, and regulars stop reading it.

Keep 1 tag per line. Some lines already carry GUEST or ONE KEG from the guest program, or "Last few pours" from your low keg marks. Stack them and the line ends in a sentence. "Last few pours" wins, since it's the most time sensitive, then "Just tapped," then the standing tag, which comes back when the flag comes off.

How many lines will carry the flag at once?

The number of flagged lines on an average day is new beers a week times the days each flag stays up, divided by 7.

flagged lines = new beers a week × days flagged ÷ 7

With the grid's 5.3 new beers a week and a 7 day flag, about 5 lines say "Just tapped" on an average day, and more when several kegs kick together. On 16 taps, that's close to a third of the list, which is too many to stand out.

To hold it near 3, shorten the window to 4 days (5.3 × 4 ÷ 7 = 3.0). Or keep 7 days and take the oldest flag off early whenever a fourth goes up.

What goes in the monthly grid review?

The monthly review checks 4 things on the grid, then reads the board the way a guest would.

• Rotators that stopped rotating. A rotator on its third keg of the same beer has turned core without anyone deciding. Make that handle core and move rotator duty to another handle, or take the beer off.
• The shape. If the board feels static, turn a core handle into a rotator. If staff can't keep up with pitching new beers at pre-shift, go the other way. Check the cross-row rules too.
• Seasonal dates. Next season's first keg should be ordered to arrive, and chill, before its switch date.
• Flags. Anything past its off date comes off today.

Then cover the beer names and read only the style column. If it doesn't read the way the grid says it will, find the handle that drifted and fix its beer or its lane. Note any lane change on the shift handoff card so the next crew pours from the same grid.

How does TapDisplay handle a rotation change?

On a TapDisplay board, a rotation change is an edit to 1 line, made from a phone, a tablet or a computer. Start typing the new beer's name and pick a match from the catalog. It fills in the brewery, style and ABV you haven't entered yet, so the 2 facts the lane check needs are in front of you before you save.

Each line shows the beer's name, brewery, style, ABV and a price per pour, with 2 pours by default and up to 4. Staff accounts can edit the menu. Each connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds, so the new line shows within about 30 seconds.

When a rotator kicks before its next keg is cold, the line stays on the TapDisplay board, struck through and labeled KICKED on keg menus such as a brewery or bar. The word comes from the business type, so you can't type your own. What to do when a keg kicks mid-shift covers the rest of that routine. The activity log shows who changed what, and undo reverses a change made on the wrong tap.

The bottom line

Give every handle 1 row type and 1 lane, and check each new keg against its lane and the board's balance before it goes on deck. On the 16 tap example, 7 core handles and 9 changing ones hold a shape of 3 light, 4 hoppy, 2 tart, 2 dark, 3 big and 2 cider through every kick. Flag new beers with 1 phrase, an off date and a cap, and review the grid once a month.