How a Sculpted Tap Handle Gets Made: Rollertown Beerworks and The Big German
By Brad Lugar, Steel City Tap Co.
Quick answer: A sculpted tap handle is a figure cast as part of the handle body rather than artwork printed flat on it. For Rollertown Beerworks in Frisco, Texas, we built one for The Big German, their Kölsch style ale. It took about a year from first concepts to handles on the line, and almost none of that was sculpting. It was approval, and four small changes that decided whether the figure could come out of a mold at all.
Who is Rollertown Beerworks?
Rollertown Beerworks is an independent brewery in Frisco, Texas, north of Dallas. They brew and can on site and they run a taproom in the middle of town. Their lineup includes Rollertown Light and The Big German, a Kölsch style ale the can describes as brewed in honor of their favorite German. If you are anywhere near Frisco, go drink their beer. You can see the full lineup at their page for The Big German.
The Big German is named for Dirk Nowitzki, who spent 21 seasons in Dallas and is now an investor in the brewery. That is the whole reason this handle is a sculpture instead of a sticker. When the beer is a tribute and the man it honors is part of the company, a flat printed lever does not finish the sentence.
They came to us in late 2024 wanting handles for the core lineup. What came out of it is one of the more involved sculpts we have run.
Why sculpt a tap handle instead of printing one?
We showed Rollertown the same beer two ways.
The semi-custom version puts the artwork on a stock body. It is cheaper, it is faster, and for a rotating beer or a taproom-only pour it is usually the right answer. We sell a lot of them and we are not precious about it.
The full custom version puts a sculpted figure off the front of the handle. It costs more, it takes months longer, and it is the one people reach for. On a wall of twenty flat levers, a figure breaks the row. That is the entire argument, and it only pays off on a beer that is going to be there a while.
Rollertown took the sculpt. The Big German has been in their lineup long enough to earn it.
How do you design a sculpted tap handle?
You design it twice. Once so it looks right, and once so it can be made.
The first pass is the fun one. The figure reads from across a room, the pose has motion in it, the proportions flatter the body it sits on. Everyone likes that version. Then it goes to the people who have to cast it, and the second pass starts.
That is the review from January 2025. Five gray views, four notes, and every one of them is about the mold rather than the art.
- Bend the knee so the toe sits inside the frame. A limb hanging off the silhouette traps air on the way out. Trapped air is a void, and a void is a reject.
- Move the figure back toward the body. It needs to sit in the pour, not perch off the front of it.
- Trim the base so the back leg still reads from behind. Nobody stands behind a tap tower on purpose, but bartenders see that side all night.
- Add a platform under the low foot. Anything that sticks out and down catches on release.
None of those are art notes. They are all the same note: can this thing survive being made a few hundred times without turning into a pile of seconds. A sculpt that ignores them looks great as a render and bleeds money on the floor.
How long does a sculpted tap handle take?
On this one, concepts went over in November 2024 and the sculpt review landed in January 2025. Proofs ran through February and March, three rounds. A print-ready mesh followed in March, the production drawing and the badge art in April, and the first run went out that year. Rollertown reordered in July 2026 and that run shipped this month.
Here is the honest part. The sculpting is not what stretches the calendar. Approval is. Every round we sent came back in days. Every round that waited on a decision on the brewery side waited weeks, because the people deciding also had a brewery to run. That is normal, it is not a complaint, and it is the single thing worth planning around.
If you are working backward from a launch date or a distribution push, count the approval rounds, not the production days. We wrote about the same problem from the brewery side in what a majority sale does to a draft program.
What we would do differently
Three things came out of this job that changed how we run sculpts now.
Put the castability review before the pretty render, not after. We caught the knee and the foot in January because somebody who runs molds looked at the file. If that review had happened two rounds earlier, the brewery would have seen one fewer version and we would have saved a month.
Show both tiers on the same page. Putting the flat version next to the sculpted version in one view did more to explain the price difference than any quote ever has. Breweries are not arguing about money, they are trying to see what the money buys.
Keep the first conversation about the beer. We did not ask Rollertown for production-ready art in the first two touches, and we never do. Send a phone photo of what you have. We will draw something from it. Art files come later, after there is something worth building.
Thanks, Rollertown
Two years, two runs, and a sculpt that was genuinely hard to get right. We are glad The Big German is pouring across North Texas and we are glad they let us take the long way around on it. Go find a pour at Rollertown Beerworks.
Every order we take runs through our shop in Birmingham, Alabama, and you can call and talk to the person building your handle. If you have a beer that has earned a sculpt, start here. If it has not earned one yet, a stock handle with your artwork is the honest answer, and we will tell you so.
Related reading
- How much do custom tap handles cost? 2026 pricing guide
- Seven ways to design a beer tap handle
- How we built Next Quest Brewing's sword handle from render to bar
- Modular tap handles: how Avery Brewing runs one body for every beer
- Do custom tap handles sell more beer?
- Tap handle anatomy: parts, thread size, height, install
Frequently asked questions
What is a sculpted tap handle?
A sculpted tap handle carries a three dimensional figure or object cast as part of the handle rather than artwork printed flat on a stock body. It is designed in 3D, reviewed for castability, cast, then finished and detailed by hand.
Is a sculpted tap handle worth it compared to a printed one?
It depends on how long the beer will be pouring. A flagship that holds a tap line for years earns a sculpt, because the handle is doing the work of stopping somebody at ten feet. A seasonal or a rotator usually does not, and a stock handle printed with your artwork does the same job for less.
What slows a custom tap handle project down?
Approval, almost every time. The design and production steps run on a predictable clock. The waiting happens between rounds, while the decision sits with people who also have a brewery to run. Count your approval rounds when you build the schedule.
Why does a tap handle sculpt need manufacturing changes?
Because a figure that looks right on screen may not release from a mold. Limbs hanging off the silhouette trap air, which creates voids. Features that stick out and down catch on release. Small geometry changes early prevent a high reject rate later.
What is The Big German?
The Big German is a Kölsch style ale from Rollertown Beerworks in Frisco, Texas, named for Dirk Nowitzki, who played 21 seasons in Dallas and is an investor in the brewery. Steel City Tap Co. built its sculpted tap handle.
Do I need print ready art files to start a tap handle project?
No. Send a phone photo of your current handle or your idea. We do concept work first and ask for production art later, once there is a design worth building.