What does a sound draft pour look like, and when does foam point to a system problem rather than technique?
Start with the glass
A draft pour should move beer into the glass with control. The angle, tap position, line condition, gas balance, temperature, and glass all interact. Foam is not automatically a technique failure, and a fast pour is not automatically efficient.
Separate the variables
Start with a clean glass and a fully open faucet. Let the beer meet the side of the glass, then ease the vessel upright as the fill rises. The target is a stable head that protects aroma without consuming the serving. If the faucet is partly open, turbulence can make the result worse.
Make the note useful
Troubleshoot from the system outward. Persistent foam across different clean glasses can point to temperature, pressure, line cleanliness, or balance. A single poor pour can simply be angle or faucet control. Change one variable at a time so the fix has a chance to teach you something.
Respect the limits
Record what happened: keg or package, time since service, glass condition, line setup if known, and whether the beer was moved. That short log is more useful than repeating the same motion with more force.
A small next step
For a home pour, the practical aim is clarity. For a team, it is consistency. Both benefit from the same rule: observe the whole system before blaming the hand holding the glass.
Context before numbers: What does a sound draft pour look like, and when does foam point to a system problem rather than technique?
