draught-range

---
name: draught-range
description: Produces one dated file per draught line showing what it costs you, what it earns you, whether it qualifies for the reduced draught rate of Alcohol Duty, how much of it goes down the drain on cleaning day, and a ranked list of which lines to keep, swap or turn off. Use when a rep wants a tap, when the cellar is full of slow kegs, or when you genuinely do not know which of your taps makes money.
---

# Know which taps pay for themselves and which ones you are subsidising

You give this your delivery invoices, your till sales by product, your line cleaning routine and a photograph or list of what is on the bar. You get back one dated file: a register of every line with its strength, container size and duty rate, the cash each line earns you in a week after waste, the lines that are quietly paying the full rate of Alcohol Duty instead of the draught rate, and a ranked keep or swap list with the legal serve requirements you must not break when you change it. It will not tell you a percentage that a line "should" be making, because no such published figure exists for one independent venue.

## What it does

1. **Write down every line before you judge any of them.** One row per tap: what is on it, the brewer or supplier, the strength in ABV to one decimal place, the container size in litres, the invoice cost of that container excluding VAT, what the container deposit is, and the retail price of a pint and a half. Take the ABV from the container or the supplier's own specification, not from memory, because the whole of step 2 turns on whether a number is above or below 8.5%. Take the cost from the most recent invoice, not the price list, because rebates, discounts and delivery charges move it. A register that is guessed produces a ranking that is guessed, and the ranking is the only output anyone acts on.

2. **Flag every line that is not getting the reduced draught rate of duty, because that is money already gone.** HMRC's technical guide sets two conditions, and both must hold. The product must "be of an alcoholic strength of less than 8.5% alcohol by volume", and it must at the duty point be in a large draught container, which "must: have a capacity of at least 20 litres" and "be designed to be connected to a qualifying system for dispensing individual drinks". A qualifying dispense system "includes bag-in-box formats and containers using gravity dispense through mechanisms like cask taps". So a 9% imperial stout on tap, or anything arriving in a 10 or 19 litre keg, pays the full rate. Mark each line qualifies or does not, with the reason.

3. **Put the actual duty figures beside that flag, so the gap is a number and not a worry.** From the rates that took effect on 1 February 2026, beer at 3.5% to 8.4% ABV pays £22.58 for each litre of pure alcohol, and the draught rate for beer, spirits, wine and other fermented products at 3.5% to less than 8.5% is £19.45. Still cider at 3.5% to less than 8.5% pays £10.39 at the full rate and £8.95 on draught. Beer at 8.5% to 22% pays £30.62 and has no draught rate at all. Work the duty on each line as strength times volume times the applicable rate, and show both the rate it gets and the rate it would get if it qualified. The number is usually small per pint and large per year, which is exactly the shape of cost that never gets noticed.

4. **Measure rate of sale per line per week from the till, over at least eight weeks.** Pints and halves sold, converted to litres, week by week, so you can see a line that is dying rather than a line that had one bad week. Eight weeks is the minimum that lets a wet Tuesday cancel out; a single week tells you about the weather. Put the opening and closing cellar stock beside it, because the difference between what left the cellar and what went through the till is the beginning of step 5. Do not rank anything yet. A line with low sales and high margin and a line with high sales and low margin look identical in a list sorted by either one.

5. **Account for what never reaches a customer, line by line.** Three separate losses, counted separately: the volume held in the line itself, which is lost every time that line is cleaned and pulled through; the ullage at the bottom of a container; and the drop-offs, sediment and returns. Measure the line volume once, physically, by pulling through into a jug and recording the litres, because a long run from a distant cellar loses several times what a short one does and the difference decides marginal lines. Multiply by the cleaning frequency. A line cleaned weekly loses its own volume fifty-two times a year, and on a slow line that can be a material share of everything that container ever held.

6. **Rank on cash per week, not on gross profit percentage.** For each line: retail price excluding VAT, less the cost of the liquid actually sold, less the cost of the liquid lost in step 5, times the weekly litres from step 4. That is the number that pays your rent. A premium keg at a high percentage margin that sells four pints a week contributes less than a cheap one at a lower percentage that sells four hundred, and ranking by percentage inverts the answer. Show the two rankings side by side precisely so the owner can see they disagree, then rank the decision on cash.

7. **Check the legal serve before you change anything.** The mandatory licensing condition in the Schedule to the Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) Order 2010, as substituted from 1 October 2014, requires the responsible person to ensure that where beer or cider is sold for consumption on the premises it is available in ½ pint, that "these measures are displayed in a menu, price list or other printed material which is available to customers on the premises", and that "where a customer does not in relation to a sale of alcohol specify the quantity of alcohol to be sold, the customer is made aware that these measures are available". The Home Office guidance adds that this printed material should be "displayed in a prominent and conspicuous place in the relevant premises (for example, at the bar)". A new range with no half pint priced on the board is a breach on day one.

8. **Use the two-thirds pint deliberately rather than by accident.** Since 1 October 2011 a 2/3 pint is a lawful quantity for retail sales of draught beer or cider: the Weights and Measures (Specified Quantities) (Unwrapped Bread and Intoxicating Liquor) Order 2011 inserted "2/3 pint" into the list of capacity measures lawful for use for trade and into the specified quantities for beer and cider, and made the same change to the capacity serving measures rules. That matters commercially on exactly the lines step 3 flagged: a strong beer that carries the full duty rate is expensive per pint and reasonable per two-thirds, and the measure is the difference between listing it and dropping it. Beer and cider may still only be sold in 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 pint or multiples of 1/2 pint, so the option is real but the freedom is not.

9. **Write the decision, the cellar consequences and the review date.** For each line: keep, swap, or turn off, with the cash figure that decided it. Then two things the spreadsheet does not contain. First, if a line is being turned off to sell the remaining stock as takeaway, HMRC treats that as a duty question: draught relief applies to product served for immediate consumption, "if the alcoholic product is repackaged into a container for take away, this is prohibited", and the election to pay the full rate has to be made by the person holding the goods at the duty point, not by you at the bar. Second, every change to gas or dispense is a cellar safety change. HSE classes carbon dioxide as a substance hazardous to health under COSHH, with a long-term workplace exposure limit of 5000 ppm and a short-term limit of 15000 ppm, and records that because CO2 is heavier than air "fatalities from asphyxiation have occurred when, at high concentrations, it has entered confined spaces such as tanks, sumps or cellars and displaced Oxygen". Date the file and set the next review.

## Then it checks

1. Every tap on the bar appears exactly once in the register, with an ABV to one decimal place and a container size in litres, both taken from a document and not from memory.
2. Every line carries a duty flag saying whether it meets both draught relief conditions, the strength test and the 20 litre qualifying container test, with the reason it fails where it fails.
3. Every cost figure is traced to a named invoice with its date, and no line uses a supplier price list where an invoice exists.
4. Rate of sale for every line covers at least eight consecutive weeks of till data, and any line with fewer weeks is listed as unranked rather than estimated.
5. The line volume used in the waste calculation was physically measured and recorded in litres, and the cleaning frequency beside it matches the cleaning record.
6. The file shows both the cash ranking and the percentage ranking, states which one the decision used, and contains no gross profit target, benchmark or industry average.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state a gross profit percentage that a line "should" achieve, a wastage percentage that is "normal", or a yield figure taken from a trade article. No published figure exists for one independent venue, and an owner who sets a target from a borrowed number will cut a line that was working.
- Never estimate a strength, a container size or a cost when the document exists. If the invoice cannot be found, the line is recorded as unknown and listed in the gaps, because a duty flag built on a guessed ABV is worse than no flag.
- Never recommend removing the last half pint, small spirit measure or small wine measure from the printed list in order to simplify the range. Those measures are a mandatory licence condition, not a menu choice.
- Never recommend filling takeaway containers from a draught line to clear stock. That is a duty question with an election that must be made further up the supply chain, and the skill's job is to say so and stop.
- Never treat a gas or dispense change as a commercial decision alone. It goes to whoever holds the cellar risk assessment before it goes on the bar.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own invoices, till reports and cellar records, and for their accountant to check before it informs a tax or pricing decision, and for their licensing officer or environmental health officer where it touches measures or cellar safety. It applies published rates and published conditions to figures supplied by the owner; it is not a duty calculation HMRC has agreed and it is not a compliance ruling.

## Built from
- HM Revenue & Customs, "Alcoholic products technical guide", Section 12, Draught Relief and Small Producer Relief, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/alcoholic-products-technical-guide/section-12-draught-relief-and-small-producer-relief, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: the two qualifying conditions and the 20 litre large draught container definition in step 2, and the repackaging and take-away election rules in step 9.
- HM Revenue & Customs, "Alcohol Duty rates", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/alcohol-duty-rates, published 23 August 2023, last updated 1 February 2026, read 16 September 2026: every duty figure in step 3, including the £22.58 and £19.45 beer rates and the £10.39 and £8.95 still cider rates.
- The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2014, SI 2014/2440, Schedule, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2440/made, made 11 September 2014 and in force 1 October 2014, read 16 September 2026: the substituted paragraph 4 measures condition quoted in step 7.
- Home Office, "Revised guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 (September 2026) - accessible version", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-memorandum-revised-guidance-issued-under-s-182-of-licensing-act-2003/revised-guidance-issued-under-section-182-of-the-licensing-act-2003-september-2026-accessible-version, page published 13 October 2014 and last updated 15 September 2026, read 16 September 2026: paragraphs 10.66 to 10.69 on smaller measures, including the prominent and conspicuous display point in step 7.
- The Weights and Measures (Specified Quantities) (Unwrapped Bread and Intoxicating Liquor) Order 2011, SI 2011/2331, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/2331/made, made 19 September 2011 and in force 1 October 2011, read 16 September 2026: the 2/3 pint amendments in step 8.
- Health and Safety Executive, "General hazards of Carbon Dioxide", https://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/basics/carbondioxide.htm, no publication date shown on the page, footer states updated 2026-05-20, read 16 September 2026: the COSHH classification, the 5000 ppm and 15000 ppm workplace exposure limits and the cellar asphyxiation warning in step 9.

# draught-range

## You are given
A list of every draught line in one UK hospitality venue, each with the product name, supplier, ABV as a decimal, container size in litres and container type. The delivery invoices covering at least the last eight weeks, as PDFs, photographs or a spreadsheet, each with its invoice date, line cost excluding VAT, any deposit and any delivery charge. A till export of sales by product for the same period, with the serve size against each sale line. The cellar stock counts at the start and end of the period. The line cleaning record, showing the frequency for each line and the date of each clean. One physically measured line volume in litres for each line, supplied by the owner. The current retail prices for pint, half and two-thirds where offered. The Alcohol Duty rates in force, supplied as a table with the date they took effect. And the owner's own keep, swap or turn off decision for each line once it has been made, with the one line reason for each.

## Produce
Write into a `./draught-range-output/` folder:

1. `line-register.csv` with these columns in this order: `line_no`, `product_name`, `supplier`, `abv_percent`, `container_litres`, `container_type`, `invoice_ref`, `invoice_date`, `cost_ex_vat_gbp`, `deposit_gbp`, `delivery_charge_gbp`, `price_pint_gbp`, `price_half_gbp`, `price_two_thirds_gbp`, `source_of_abv`. `source_of_abv` is exactly one of `container`, `supplier specification`, `not supplied`. Any row with `not supplied` is listed in `gaps.md` and takes no duty flag in file 2.
2. `duty-status.csv` with columns: `line_no`, `product_name`, `abv_percent`, `strength_test_passed`, `container_litres`, `container_test_passed`, `dispense_system`, `draught_relief_applies`, `duty_rate_applied_gbp_per_litre_alcohol`, `full_rate_gbp_per_litre_alcohol`, `draught_rate_gbp_per_litre_alcohol`, `duty_per_container_gbp`, `duty_gap_per_container_gbp`, `rates_table_effective_date`. `strength_test_passed`, `container_test_passed` and `draught_relief_applies` are each exactly `yes`, `no` or `unknown`. Where no draught rate exists for the product category and strength, `draught_rate_gbp_per_litre_alcohol` is the literal text `no draught rate for this category and strength` and `duty_gap_per_container_gbp` is empty.
3. `rate-of-sale.csv` with columns: `line_no`, `week_commencing`, `pints_sold`, `halves_sold`, `two_thirds_sold`, `litres_sold`, `weeks_of_data_for_this_line`. One row per line per week. Any line with fewer than eight weeks of rows is flagged in `gaps.md` and marked `unranked` in file 5.
4. `waste.csv` with columns: `line_no`, `line_volume_litres_measured`, `cleans_in_period`, `litres_lost_to_cleaning`, `ullage_litres`, `drop_off_and_sediment_litres`, `total_litres_lost`, `litres_delivered`, `litres_sold`, `unexplained_litres`. `unexplained_litres` is litres delivered minus litres sold minus total litres lost, and is reported whether positive or negative, never zeroed or rounded away.
5. `contribution-ranking.csv` with columns: `rank_by_cash`, `rank_by_percentage`, `line_no`, `product_name`, `weekly_litres_sold`, `revenue_ex_vat_gbp_per_week`, `liquid_cost_sold_gbp_per_week`, `liquid_cost_lost_gbp_per_week`, `cash_contribution_gbp_per_week`, `contribution_percent`, `rankings_disagree`, `status`. `rankings_disagree` is `yes` or `no`. `status` is exactly one of `ranked` or `unranked`.
6. `decision.md` with one section per line, each carrying the line number, the product name, the owner's decision copied verbatim as `keep`, `swap` or `turn off`, the owner's one line reason copied verbatim, and the cash contribution figure from file 5. Written with the decision fields empty where no decision has been supplied, and every empty one listed in `gaps.md`.
7. `gaps.md` with a numbered list of: every line with no invoice; every line with an ABV from `not supplied`; every line with fewer than eight weeks of till data; every line with no measured line volume; every line where `unexplained_litres` exceeds the litres lost to cleaning; every line with no half pint price recorded; every line where the decision is missing; and every figure in any file that could not be traced to a supplied document.

## Rules
- Codex measures, converts, ranks and records. It never estimates an ABV, a cost or a line volume, never fills a missing invoice with a price list figure, and never makes or changes the keep, swap or turn off decision, which is supplied.
- Never write a gross profit percentage target, a benchmark, an industry average, a normal wastage figure or a typical yield. No such figure exists for one independent venue and none is to appear in any file.
- Duty is computed as `container_litres` times `abv_percent` divided by 100 times the rate per litre of pure alcohol, using the rates table supplied with its effective date recorded in every row. Never use a remembered rate.
- A line fails the strength test at 8.5% ABV or above, and fails the container test below 20 litres. Both tests must pass before `draught_relief_applies` may be `yes`. Where either input is missing the answer is `unknown`, never `no`.
- Volumes are converted using 1 pint equals 0.568261 litres, a half pint equals 0.2841305 litres and a two-thirds pint equals 0.3788407 litres. Show the conversion factor used in a header row comment in `rate-of-sale.csv`.
- Money is rounded to the penny only in the final column of each calculation, never in the intermediate steps.
- Never recommend selling draught stock as takeaway, and never compute a takeaway price. Where the owner has asked about it, record the question in `gaps.md` as a duty election question for their supplier and accountant.
- Use British English, GBP and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own invoices, till reports and cellar records, and for their accountant, licensing officer or environmental health officer to check before it is relied on. It applies supplied rates and supplied conditions to supplied figures and is not a duty calculation HMRC has agreed.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written, the row count of each CSV, the number of draught lines registered, how many passed both draught relief tests and how many failed each test separately, the total duty gap per year across the lines that fail, the number of lines with at least eight weeks of till data and the number left unranked, the top three and bottom three lines by cash contribution per week with their figures, how many lines have `rankings_disagree` set to yes, the total unexplained litres across all lines, every line with no invoice or no measured line volume, and the `gaps.md` item count.