Whether you are starting a new bar business, hotel or restaurant; or whether you are merely setting up a home bar, getting stocked up can be quite challenging. Not only do you have to think about all the wet stock, the drinks, but also you need to ensure you have the right bar accessories and equipment.

Fortunately much of the bar equipment you will need will depend entirely on the drinks you plan to stock and/or sell. So ordering bar equipment when you are preparing you wet stock is one way of taking some of the headache out of buying bar equipment and accessories.

Spirits

When you start looking at the spirits you stock then it is a good time to order the accessories you need to go with it. Spirits are commonly drunk in three ways – neat, just served in a glass with ice; mixed, with a single mixer; in cocktails, mixed with other ingredients.

The key bar accessories you will need for serving spirits are glasses and measures. Spirit glasses and long glasses are required for both those that prefer neat drinks and those that drink with mixers.

Spirit measures are highly important as serving short measures is not only illegal, there are few things that will upset a customer more; alternatively, being too generous will soon dip into your profits.

Ice is also a requirement so an ice-maker or good supply of ice is a necessity, equally, an ice bucket and set of tongs will also be needed.

Wine

Other than wine glasses (that can take both small and large measures) wine measures will be needed if the glasses have no marks on them. Also, white wine has to be chilled so a fridge will be needed. Other than that, the only other bar accessories required for serving wine is a good cork-screw – don’t buy anything too elaborate and complicated though, a traditional cork-screw will do.

Beer

If you are serving draft beer then drip trays are a must as are bar towels, bar trays and beer mats. Draft beer can be messy, so ensure beer mats are supplied on tables and the bar too. For bottled beers there is less need to worry about spills but a good bottle-opener will be required – as will a fridge to chill the bottles.