VICTORIA – It’s one of those things that you may never have thought of. You go to your favorite pub, you ask the barman for a pint of his best, he pulls the handle and a mug of amber delight effortlessly fills the chilled glass. The seamless way that process happened may very well have been the direct results of the efforts of Shelly Plaxton, the Principal of Draught WISE Draught Integrity Technicians and her team.
“Our job is to install and maintain craft beer systems in the Greater Victoria area, even though we have on occasion completed installs as far up Island as Campbell River and even Port Hardy. So really we do cover Vancouver Island from end to end,” Plaxton explained.
Working with her husband and business partner Gregory Plaxton, Draught WISE was launched about 10 years ago when the pair recognized a unique business opportunity – to provide, install and maintain systems that allow their clients to distribute craft beers to their clients without issue or factors that would impact the taste or quality of the product.
“We visit our existing clients (more than 200 at last count) on a regular basis to perform inspections of their beer systems to ensure they are pouring quality craft beer, as the brewer intended,” she explained.
Draught WISE as a member of The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and follows the standards and guidelines of not only the breweries they serve but also the Brewer’s Association of Canada, the American Brewer’s Association and that of the Micro-Matic Dispense Institute.
“When we launched this company in 2008 we knew we were filling an important niche, one that was missing in the local industry. I wanted to show our clients how they could maximize their profits by being able to pour more beers without being too cold or too foamy because of using the wrong pressures or systems,” Plaxton explained.
If a beer is not poured properly the pub or restaurant could lose profits through needless waste, while the customer might receive a product that is not as good as it might have been, due to excess foam, taste or other factors. “Your customers are less likely to drink another beer if the one they’ve been served has not been pushed at the proper pressure. It’s all about delivering a product the way the brewer intended it to be,” she said.
Contracted by bars, restaurants and brewery growler bars, Draught WISE essentially designs and installs the systems used to move beer from the kegs it was stored in to the operator who dispenses the brew to the customer. “It can be from five feet away or it can be from 150 feet away, every situation and location is different,” she said.
“I guess the bottom line if I was to describe what it is we do, is to provide outstanding service to ensure you’re getting the product that was created for you by the brew master. Looking further into the future our next step would be to open a branch office further north to better serve our clients Island-wide, but there’s no timetable for that yet.”
