Hello Rockstars! I'm Aly your Rockstar Bar Girl. Welcome to today's video. Today's video is very, very important. Of all of the Basics 101 videos this is probably
the most crucial. Today we are going to be talking about how
to pour. This is super, super important because as
a bartender you have to be able to measure your ingredients accurately both to make sure
that your drink recipes are coming out the way they're supposed to but also to make sure
that you are not over pouring because your manager, boss whoever that might be is not
going to be happy to find out that you are using more alcohol than is necessary for the
cocktails that your are making. So we're going to go over pouring today.
I definitely recommend you grabbing an empty
liquor bottle if you are able to get your hands on one. Out of the trash, get it from a friend. Fill it up with water and just keep practicing
your pours until you get comfortable with them because when you walk into your first
interview or job you might be asked to free pour and so it's really important that you
feel comfortable. So let's start out first by talking about
how we hold a bottle properly. So every pour top that you use at your bar,
if they're all matching, are going to be the same standard size. What is not the same are the size and shape
of your bottlenecks. Because of that, not every bottle is going
to be nice and snug inside of the bottle. So when you pour, you should use your whole
hand around the neck of the bottle leaving your index finger free and resting your index
finger gently on the edge of the pour top. You're not trying to push down on the pour
top because that might affect the way that it pours.
But you're just trying to keep your finger
there to make sure that if this does come loose you'll be able to grab it and save yourself
from spilling half the bottle all over the place ruining the drink and losing a lot of
alcohol. So to pour, keep your finger on the pour top,
your hand around the neck of the bottle, and pour. Very simple. You want to do that all the time. Sometimes you will see bartenders holding
other parts of the bottle and it's only because they are absolutely sure that the pour top
they are using is nice and snug in the bottle and they are not going to have to worry about
it popping out.
Until you get comfortable with the bottles
at your bar and knowing whether or not things are snug you definitely want to make sure
that you are holding properly. So now that we have talked about bolding a
bottle properly we can start talking about how you measure your counts. If you go into a slower bar or restaurant
where the focus is on specialty cocktails you may see your bartenders actually using
measuring devices for each and every cocktail that they make to ensure that every one comes
out the same. Your typical measuring device is something
called a jigger. This is a cup measurer essentially made out
of metal and it will give you two different denominations of measurement. This one happens to be ? of an ounce and 1
? of an ounce. But the problem with a jigger is that in a
high volume situation, you do not have time to sit there measuring every single ingredient
that your adding to every cocktail that your are making.
So for now, let's just get rid of that. We are going to learn how to free pour! Free pouring is going to be helpful not only
in slower environments where you work on specialty cocktails but definitely in high volume environments
where you need to pump out drinks very quickly but all those drinks needs to be consistent. People use different forms of measurement. You will hear some people say they use a three
count or a four count or some people say count "one Mississippi" "two Mississippi." In the end it really doesn't matter what type
of count you use as long as your count is consistent. What I mean by that is, if you pour counting
to the same number, at the same pace, every single time – see what I just did there?-
you're going to get the same amount of liquid coming out of that pour spout.
So whatever your count is you need to make
sure that you use that pace every time you make a drink. Additionally, you need to make sure that whatever
your method of counting -up to three, up to four, two Mississippi, six Mississippi – that
you have a standard. A number that you know you will always have
poured an exact ounce. Once you have that it really doesn't matter
what you use. I personally like to use a four count because
I find that using an even number like four makes it really easy to change measurements. So a four count gives me an ounce, but if
I needed half an ounce of something, that would be a two count. If I needed a quarter of an ounce of something,
that would be a one count. If I needed an ounce and a half of something,
that would be a six count.
So working with an even number makes it really
easy. When you work with a number like three for
your ounce measurement, doing things like figuring out what a half an ounce would be
or what an ounce and a half would be can get a little tricky. You've got fractions … it's not supposed
to be a math test it's just bartending so using an even number will make things a lot
easier for you. We're going to get started and if you're following
along like this is a course definitely grab your bottle and you're going to want to grab
a large glass of any size – this is a rocks glass – and a couple of shot glasses. And we need our shot glasses because we are
going to be measuring the accuracy of our pours.
A shot glass measures exactly one ounce. So if im able to pour one ounce into one glass
then moving that into my shot glass they should be exactly the same. Ok? Let's get started. So starting off with measuring one ounce,
I'm going to need a four count of the liquor that I'm using. When you are counting in the real world you
will not be counting out loud but for these purposes I will count out loud for you. 1, 2, 3, 4 is the measurement of exactly one
ounce. To test this, I simply pour my one ounce pour
into my shot glass and you will see that we are not a drop over and not a drop under. You want to practice this over and over until
you get completely comfortable with your four count. Once you are comfortable with your four count
you will be able to move on to other counts of measurement. For example, a measurement that you will use
often is half an ounce. I am going to count at the exact same pace
that I counted to four. The only difference is this time I will stop
at two.
1, 2. And this is going to give me half an ounce. Notice that it fills my shot glass half the
way. Let's try another. Let's say I wanted to pour a neat or "on the
rocks" pour which is bigger than a shot. It's one and a half ounces. We know that one ounce is a four count and
we know that half an ounce is a two count.
So if I wanted to pour one and a half ounces
I am going to need a six count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. When I measure this I should get one whole
shot glass and a half a shot glass for my one a half ounce pour. And that's what we're looking for. Now bartending is more of an art than it is
a science so you will need to make adjustments as you work. Perhaps your pour top is one of the plastic
pour tops and your pouring a liqueur. Those tend to get a little sticky causing
the liqueur to pour slower than let's say your vodka. You might have a mixer like pineapple juice
or grapefruit juice and the brand you use is very sweet or very thick, in which case
you might need to give an extra drop of the alcohol to make sure the drink doesn't taste
just like juice.
So you will be making adjustments as you work,
and that is totally fine. Before you start actually mixing cocktails
or going out on job interviews you want to make sure that you have your basic pour measurements
really, really down and you feel really comfortable with them so that when it is time to make
adjustments you know exactly what you should be doing. Again, grab yourself a bottle, fill it up
with water and that's a great way to practice over and over and over. Pour into different types of glasses and just
use your shot glasses to measure. No need for a jigger. Free pouring can be really easy, it just takes
a little bit of practice. So definitely tune in you guys to my next
few videos. Subscribe! Click on the button down there. Subscribe! That way you know exactly when the next videos
will be coming out and if you are using this channel as a bartending course make sure that
you check out the other Basics 101 videos so that you've got all your fundamentals in
your pocket before you go out and look for your next rockstar bar job.
So until next time, see ya later. Bye Rockstars!.