A tap on a metallurgical vessel, in particular an electric arc furnace, is provided with a refractory end brick (6) that has an outlet opening (10). There is assigned to the lower face surface (11) of the end brick (6) a slot (15) which is shaped such that with the latter a tear-off edge (16) is generated on the outlet opening (10) when emptying the vessel. This slot (15) is annular in form and is provided here with a radially outwardly inclined inclined surface (18), and this tear-off edge (16) is thus formed immediately following the outlet opening (10). Thus, after each tapping process, the tap can be cleaned without manual assistance by shearing off with the front edge of the plate of the closure device.