Background
In April 2021, at great expense, we bought an Airack glass dryer for the pub. This was after months or years of mysteriously occasionally flat-looking pints of lager. The topic comes up frequently on the Pub Owner’s Network, and one of the common responses suggests buying an Airack. They’re expensive - around £500.
After a series of experiments which involved pouring lager into a series of wet, dry, and nearly dry glasses. We tried varying the temperature of the glass. What we found was that unless the glass is completely dry, the nucleation site at the bottom can sometimes (but not always) fail to produce bubbles. The effect is most pronounced in tall, narrow “continental” style glasses, which presumably dry slower due to reduced air flow. We tried briefly using a battery-powered fan to dry the glasses with limited success.
Enter the Airack
Enter the Airack by Clenaware Systems, a box with a fan and a bunch of holes. You put the glasses on top, twist a timer knob, and ambient temperature air is blown into the glasses. After about 5 minutes, they’re completely dry.
The short story is that it works. We haven’t had any problems with lager since. The downside is that it’s a relatively expensive machine: we paid £509.99 including VAT and delivery from Barcare Supreme Limited. It comes with a 1 year warranty on parts and labour, although I’m led to believe that Airack will increase their warranty to 2 years if you leave a Google review.