Free Pouring Using Bartender Pour Count System

bartender at work

How to Free Pour Using One One-Thousand Pour Count System

Free pouring means pouring alcohol or mixing drinks without using any type of measuring device. As a bar consultant, I would never recommend bartenders not to use some type of measuring device however it is still an essential skill for every bartender to know.

There are times when you’re going to need to use the bartending pour count free pouring technique and you can’t always rely on a shot glass or jigger to tell you how much an ounce is.

Learn how to freepour using the 1-1000 count system. If your bar doesn’t use a jigger, shot glass or other measuring device, you still need to know how much to pour each and every time. Learning how to free pour a shot is an essential skill for any bartender to learn.

Hey there, Reese Richards from barsandbartending.com! All right, so we’ve already done a video on what is a jigger, and how to pour, so in this video, we’re going to show you how to free pour, ok, but using a count system. The most popular count system is a one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand system…. one one/ thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand. So. You want to use a count system in your free pouring in your bar, and you want to make sure that you have the metal pour spouts, ok, because the plastic ones they pour at a different rate. So, all the metal ones tend to pour at the same rate. Ok?How to Free Pour Using Count System

 

[Transcript] Free Pouring Using Bartender Pour Count System | How to Free Pour

So, what we’re doing here is we have a shot glass, ok? And this measures out milliliters on one side and ounces on the other. And we have a half ounce, an ounce, and an ounce and a half. Ok? So, I’m going to show you, using the count system.. .and we’ll pour into the shot glass so that you can see where the measurement is. So, we’re going to come up at a forty-five degree angle into the shot glass, and when we stop we’re going to turn our wrist to cut, ok? We don’t want to just back off, because it will trail out some liquid. So, we want to turn our wrists to cut when we stop pouring, ok?

So, let’s get a shot here. So, we’re going to count now… as soon as it starts, we’re going to count one/ one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand, ok? So. One/one thousand, two/ one thousand, three /one thousand, and cut! Ok? So, we’re right on the ounce line, ok? Right on the ounce line. And again, we go up and one/one thousand, two/ one thousand, three/one thousand, and I cut. I had to spit the other thousand out there a little faster so I can tell you “cut!” at the same time, so… So, uh, I’ll do it without this again… we’re right on the ounce here. And, uh, if you want to do an ounce and a half, you’ll go up to four, but don’t include the thousand, ok? So one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand, four, and I won’t say “cut” because if I say cut then I’m going to over- pour on myself.

Ok, so I’ll stop and I’ll do an ounce and a half here. So again, we’re up at a forty-five degree angle, and one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand four, and then I cut. Cut, ok? So, we’re right on the ounce and a half line here, ok? Exact ounce and a half. And you want to practice this at home, and just keep… uh… this is a bottle of water. Obviously, it’s not Bacardi here, so just use a bottle of water, and you can keep on practicing and practicing. Ok? And, uh, to see how accurate you are, after you are finished using the shot glass or the measuring shot glass, what you want to do now is empty out your glass, ok? And then try it into your glass as if you were free pouring at work. So, again, whether it’s an ounce or an ounce and a half… I prefer to use an ounce, so I count to three one thousands. Ok? So, one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand. Stop, ok? And now you want to see how accurate that is, so you want to measure your pours back.

So let’s pour this back into our measuring shot glass, and we’ll see how accurate we are. Ok? And in this case, the line is just above an ounce, ok? So, it was a tad above an ounce. So, keep practicing that. There’s some liquid in the glass still… anyway, keep practicing that, and you should be within like a tenth of an ounce. Ok? Uh, again, one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand, and just measure… keep on doing it until you measure exactly how fast you have to go for. And, uh, if you work at a bar that has jiggers.. ok, we have one ounce here, one and a half on the other side… so, again, we’re doing one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand, stop. Ok? A full ounce. And then the other side… one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand, four. Ok? Stop. A full ounce and a half.

Ok, so practice on your own. Put it into the cup, measure it back into a measuring shot glass or a jigger if you have it, and that’s how you do the one/one thousand, two/one thousand, three/one thousand pouring count.

Note:  Some people might find it easier to use a four-count system as it can easily be divided into 1/4 ounces.  Use the free pour system that works best for you.  Practise until you get comfortable and can free pour 1-ounce shots at will!

Share this post

Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
WhatsApp
Pinterest

Categories

Categories

Recent Posts