Bar & Pub Goods-In, Keg & Spirits Delivery Checklist
A Bar & Pub goods-in checklist has four jobs at the cellar door. Count what actually arrived. Date-code every keg and cask. Probe the chilled stock. Get the spirits into a locked store with two signatures. These 7 checks cover all four. Each is tied to published evidence. One source is Cask Marque's guidance that kegs should sell within 5 days. Another is ACFE fraud data. It shows a median loss of $145,000 per case, running for a median of 12 months before anyone catches it. Everything you fail to count here becomes a variance you cannot explain at close.
The checklist · 7 checks
Count and check before you sign
1. Count every keg, cask, case, and gas cylinder against the delivery note and your orderA short delivery means you lose money you already paid for. It can also mean a tap runs dry at your busiest time. Sign only for what you actually counted.
2. Write down the date code on every keg and cask. Reject anything you cannot sell before it goes bad.If you never date your stock, you cannot rotate it. It sits too long and pours old beer that you already paid full price for.
3. Check the temperature of chilled deliveries - bar food, dairy, juice, and cut garnish - with a probe. It must read 0–5°C (32–41°F). Reject anything above 8°C (46°F).Stock that arrives warm spoils early. Garnish and mixers you paid for end up in the bin before the weekend.
4. Check gas cylinders. Confirm the correct gas blend, an in-date test stamp, and that each cylinder is chained upright. Test connections for leaks with the regulator on.A leaking CO2 or mixed-gas line can empty a cylinder overnight. You lose the gas, and the cellar becomes unsafe to enter.
Get it into the cellar so it rotates and sells
5. Stack new kegs and casks behind the stock already there (the oldest stock first, FIFO). Write the tap-on date on each one in chalk.The oldest container gets used first. Nothing sits in the corner too long while a newer keg is on tap.
6. Count spirits and wine into a locked store. Get two signatures on the intake sheet.Full bottles are the easiest stock to steal from the building. A counted, locked intake is the cheapest way to stop that.
7. Log every shortage, breakage, wrong item, and warm case before the driver leaves. Ask for credit on each one.If you do not claim credit, you lose that money. Tracking accuracy by supplier is what fixes your next order.
Frequently asked questions
What should you check when a beer delivery arrives at a bar?Count every keg, cask, case and gas cylinder against both the delivery note and your original order. Record the date code on each container. Chalk the tap-on date before it goes in the stack. Cask Marque's guidance is that kegs should sell within 5 days. So a container you cannot date is a container you cannot rotate. Its 2016 reporting states that pubs on average overstock by 5 brands per pub. That is exactly how a keg ends up sitting past its window. Check gas cylinders for the correct blend, an in-date test stamp, and upright chaining. Confirm a leak-tested connection while the driver is still on site.
Why should spirits be counted into a locked store?Full bottles are the easiest stock in a bar to walk out of it. A counted, locked intake with two signatures is the cheapest control available. ACFE's Occupational Fraud 2024 report found asset misappropriation in 89% of cases. The median loss was $145,000 per case. The median scheme duration was 12 months before detection. And 43% of cases surfaced through a tip rather than a control. For organisations with fewer than 100 employees - the size of almost every bar - the median loss was $141,000.
What temperature should chilled bar deliveries arrive at?Probe every chilled delivery - bar food, dairy, juice and cut garnish - at the door. Set your band from your own local law and supplier spec. The pack's starting default is 0–5°C (32–41°F), with anything above 8°C (46°F) rejected rather than 'risked'. That default is an operating convention, not a published standard. What is published is how often this control fails. Improper holding and time-and-temperature control was out of compliance in 31.0% of full-service restaurants. That comes from FDA's national risk-factor data (2003 data, published 2004). Warm stock accepted at the door spoils early. It becomes bin waste you have already paid for, rather than margin you sell.
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Sources
Every statistic on this page comes from public inspection and food-safety data:
- Journal of the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, 'Draught beer hygiene: a survey of on-trade quality'
- Cask Marque Beer Quality Report 2017
- Brewers Association, Draught Beer Quality Manual
- Cask Marque, 'Beer quality issues'
- Chartered Trading Standards Institute, 'Over two thirds of UK beer and wine is short measured'
- Cask Marque, 'Scores on the Cellar Doors' launch, citing Quality Report 2016
- ACFE, Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations
- Toomey et al., 'Can Obviously Intoxicated Patrons Still Easily Buy Alcohol at On-Premise Establishments?'
- Toomey et al., 'Alcohol sales to pseudo-intoxicated bar patrons', Public Health Reports
- NHTSA, Countermeasures That Work - Alcohol Vendor Compliance Checks
- Ohio Administrative Code 3717-1-04.4
- FDA Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors
- Journal of Water and Health
- Food Safety Magazine, 'The Sanitation of Ice-Making Equipment', citing NSF/ANSI 12-2012
- Miller, Buckingham-Meyer & Goeres, 'Simulated aging of draught beer line tubing increases biofilm contamination'
- Brewers Association, 'Economics of Draught Quality' November Power Hour Q&A
- British Guild of Beer Writers, analysis of Food Standards Agency FHRS data
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