Water is one of the primary waste items at the bar. In order to examine how to reduce water waste, we should examine where water is used.

Water is used and/or disposed of at the bar:

• In ice:
  • That is used in cocktails served to customers while they're drinking them
  • That is disposed at when cocktails are finished and ice dumped out.
  • That is used to chill cocktails - shaking or stirring them. (Often these cocktails are strained over new ice.)
  • That is disposed of after the cocktails are shaken or stirred from the shaker/stirring pitcher.
• In ice machines:
  • To make the ice.
  • Wasted water that is discarded/flushed and not used in ice.
• For Service - water and ice served to customers [see Disposables page]
  • unused water from empties discarded
• In the dishwasher to clean glassware.
• In sinks to clean/rinse glassware.
• In bartop glassware rinsers.
• To clean the bar.

Quick Links

• Equipment
• Water Waste
• Using Less Ice in Cocktails
• Ice for Cooling/Chilling
• Burning the Ice 

Equipment

• Hot water waste is a huge money waste - you pay for water coming in, water going into the sewer, and the energy to heat the water. 
• See the Equipment page for information about purchasing equipment that wastes less water. 
• Dish rinsers can use a lot of water. Install a low-flow pre-rinse nozzle. video
• Install High Efficiency Condensing Water Heaters to save up to 25% costs video
• Many ice machines discard a portion of the water they take in, rather than converting it all to ice. Rather than use ice machines that discard some water in the production of ice:
  • Use ice cube trays with no water waste.
  • Freeze ice into the bottom of rocks glasses and no ice is needed for stirred drinks. [info]
• Maintain Your Dishwashing Machine video
• Install Low-Flow Aerators on Faucets video

Water Conservation - Reducing Water Waste at the Bar 

• Don't leave your rinse sinks running when not in use - Consider installing a foot pump in your sinks rather than a running faucet. 
• Run glass washers/dish washers only when full. 
• Gather all leftover water from water glasses to use for watering plants. 
• Reduce Water Use in Landscaping and Outdoor Maintenance video

Using Less Ice in Cocktails

• Shaken Cocktails
  • No-waste Shaken Cocktails: Whip shake - shaking with cobbler ice until fully dissolved.
    • At the now-closed The Perennial in San Francisco, they eliminated ice waste in several ways. For shaken cocktails, "They use 1/3 cup of Scotsman ice, and run the cocktail through a blender in a small mason jar until there is no ice left. Thus the drink is "shaken" and no ice is dumped out at the end." [read more]
  • "Dirty Dump" aka Shake-and-Dump 
    • Rather than shaking a cocktail with ice and then straining the drink over fresh ice in a glass, see if your cocktails taste just as good when dumped from the shaker right into the glass without shaking. This means smaller, broken ice in the glass, but this may make for a more refreshing drink.
    • Bobby Heugel of Anvil in Houston uses this technique for his Margaritas. [source]
• Stirred Cocktails
  • Batched stirred cocktails that don't spoil.
    • For cocktails like the Negroni, Manhattan, Martini, etc that are typically stirred over ice then strained and served up or over a large cube, you can save the water (in the form of ice) that would be dumped after straining. You need bottles for your batches and a freezer set to the typical serving temperature of the cocktail. Simply measure the volume of the liquids before you put it in the stirring vessel and then after stirring with ice- that's how much water to add per drink. Simply make a batch with that same proportion and store it in a freezer that's set to your usual serving temperature- if you have one. 
    • At The Perennial in San Francisco, these pre-diluted stirred cocktails were served in glasses with ice already frozen in the bottom. This avoided pouring drinks on large ice made in an inefficient ice machine. [read more]
• Kegged cocktails don't require ice for shaking. "By Polsky’s estimate, one draft drink saves about six ounces of water, which can quickly add up on a busy night." [source]

Ice for Cooling Glassware and Garnishes

• Chilling glasses with ice
  • Chill glassware in glassware freezers rather than with ice 
  • Rather than filling glasses with ice and discarding it, create a station with crushed ice and put the glasses upside-down on top of it. This way the ice can be reused multiple times.
  • Rather than discarding ice used to chill, dump this ice into a container and use the water for another purpose, such as boiling water for the kitchen. 
  • Nicholas Box says, "I discard the ice [used in chilling glassware] into the section of my ice well that chills the carbonated water line."

Burning the Ice

Ice kept in the ice wells of the bar is typically discarded at the end of the night, as it may not fully melt before the next day and standing water can attract insects. "Burning the ice" means to run hot water over the ice to melt it. Thus, energy has been used both to create the ice and to melt it. 

• Trick Dog and ABV, both bars in San Francisco, dump their leftover ice into bins or stockpots at the end of the night. In the morning this water is used for stock for the kitchen 
• Rather than "burning" the ice left at the end of the night, use it to water outdoor plants.
• At Duke's Spirited Cocktails, they transfer ice from the well to the kitchen sinks where it will naturally melt without having to flush it with hot water. [more info]
• Nicholas Box dumps his ice well ice into outdoor tree planters to give them water. 

Table Water, Bottled Water, Tap Water

Please see the Disposables page.