Beer taster trays

Ryan Mooney

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Or carriers or whatever you watchamacillits. A buddy is opening a brewery and wanted some taster trays so this is my shot at it. The decor is fancy rustic or something so I went with sort of a slightly polished barn wood look. Not really my aesthetic but you work with what you have.

First the finished project. Eventually I'll get a shot with beer, but they just brewed the first batch today so that's a month or so out.

They hold six sampler glasses, I only had two for scale.
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A bunch of end pieces with mortises cut.
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Next the dovetails
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Cut the bottoms with the tenons
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And the rails with the ends dovetailed to match
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Assembled
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Burning a project isn't unprecedented for me but this is one of the first where I set out with that as the plan from the start :rofl:
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A coat of waterlox and we're done as shown in the first shot.

Note: I make no apologies for the quality of the joinery, it's in pine! Oh the tearout, yes the tearout!! Pleased it came out at all.

The next project is in maple and English walnut but amusingly has no joinery at all.
 

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The tray with holes was the other option I have them. I did add a few minor embellishments to it, but the ability to brand the logo on the end of the taller trays sold them on that design. The flat ones have some cleaning and storage advantages besides being a whole lot easier to make.

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I took some very light inspiration from another local brewery
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There were a couple things I didn't like about those ones, namely you can't see the beer without taking it out of the tray, and the inside corners looked problematic to clean.
 
Shou-sugi-ban!! Very nice. Free beer for life!!:thumb::thumb:

Working on that :rofl: I actually helped the fellow brew his first batch of beer a few years back, hooked him up with his brewer, helped unload the brewery, and a few other things. At this point I think we're in pretty good :) Mostly I'm just excited to have a local brewery because the other six or seven are 20-30m away :rofl:

I wasn't sure if it was actually shou-sugi-ban or not, I thought maybe it needed to be more burnt? Dunno... It was my first shot at this theory.
 
Very nice trays. I was wondering about the branding. :) A pub i visited in Halifax in the summer had a flat tray but square made for better balance.

One idea that i would offer to you to let your friend think on is perhaps stenciling the different beer types on the rail either side. At this place my son took me to his other half got the first round and by the time she made it to the table did not remember all the types in the sampler. I would think that's a common problem certainly would be for me with my gray hair. Would be nice to be able to order a pint knowing more than "the dark one" oh which dark one. duh, ok then just give me the larger, oh you mean the Pilsner or do you want the white beer, uhhh whatever . :rofl:

Branding on the ends will look good hope they have a brand mark that fits, any chance of it being made into a branding iron? The burnt look will help focus attention on the small glasses of beer.

Cool project thanks for sharing it with us. Final thought this would have been a great idea to think of for me when i was in my twenties and me and my buddies were experimenting with different cocktails on a Friday night. :D or for shots.
 
And a six pack to go for all. Very nice project came out looking great. I like the tray personally. You can see the glass and beer at a glance.
Nice!!!!!!!
David
 
They just decided on the logo and there is a two letter version that we should be able to make into a branding iron pretty easily (just bend up some 1/8" material.. And tack weld the back).

The problem with stencils is that the menu changes fairly quickly. One theory we've considered is a card stuck in-between the glasses and the rail. Might try folding a card stock over the front rail as well.. We'll see. It's an evolving theory :)
 
I'm thinking to brand/number the spaces 1-6. Depending on how the contents of the taster are decided i.e. customers chose, or it's fixed for the day by the brewmaster, the numbers would correspond either to the order in which the beers were selected and a copy of the order comes back with the beer (customer chooses), or the numbers correspond to the big chalk board over the bar listing the beers in the daily taster.
 
I'm thinking to brand/number the spaces 1-6.

Hmm, I like that idea.. I'll do a test with a punch and some paint on a piece of scrap. I'll have to think about what would have sufficient contrast.. The burnt wood has a lot of tonal variation so I'm not sure branded will work for that small of a piece so might have to punch and paint... (the end brand is big enough I'm not worried about it)
 
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