Tools
Calculate instead of guessing – twelve calculators and reference works, freely accessible, no sign-up. Every assumption is visible and can be overwritten.
Identify your keg · Tap head finder · Riser length and weight · Buy, rent or refurbish · Keg Explorer · all twelve tools
Where our figures come from
Every technical figure is sourced or marked as our own operating data. The full list of sources.
Which spear does which brewery use?
The question this trade asks every day and nobody answers properly – now with 1,024 brands from thirteen countries. And, unlike the lists in circulation, with a note on every line saying how well it is documented.
Open the toolWhere the kegs end up: theft, scrap and the honest finder
400,000 kegs in Ireland, $33 million in the United States – and not one solid figure for Germany. Why a cash ban in the scrap trade cut metal theft by three quarters, and why returning a keg honestly costs more than looking away.
Is a keg pressure equipment? What the law actually requires
Three bar inside, and still not pressure equipment in the legal sense: the EU Pressure Equipment Directive excludes beverage containers expressly. What that means for inspection duties – and why the CO₂ cylinder beside it is the bigger problem.
What happens inside a keg washer – and where kegs fail
A keg has exactly one opening. Everything follows from that: why two pressure stages are needed, why beer stone sits on the down tube and not on the wall, and what residual water tells you about the machine.
What keg shrinkage really costs
For Germany there is not one solid loss rate. What there is: four figures from four countries – and a calculation showing why eight percentage points of return rate decide a factor of five in service life.
Switching to kegs: what changes, what it costs, what goes wrong
Forty bottles or one keg. Why the strongest argument for the keg is not time but oxygen – what the switch really costs, which mistake turns a beginner’s beer into foam, and why a brewery’s deposit keg stays off limits.
Spears with or without a safety catch – and what can happen without one
A safety catch holds the spear in the neck while there is still pressure in the keg. Spears without one are a relic and keep running all the same. Why the marking on the body proves nothing – and which rule applies before every removal.
Alcohol-free beer in the keg
Without alcohol, the very barrier that stops Pectinatus and Megasphaera falls away. 54.7 % of the draught samples were substandard – the same brands in the can were faultless throughout. For the keg there is not a single specification on this.
How many kegs do I need?
Fleet size is not set by annual sales but by cycle time. With seasonal peak, reserve and the annual replacement purchase caused by shrinkage.
Foam troubleshooting
The most common problem at the tap – and almost always people look in the wrong place. Six symptom patterns, each with the test step that confirms or rules out the cause within minutes.
The single-use keg, as honestly as possible
Exactly one independent life-cycle assessment – and it was calculated with data from the single-use manufacturer. On top of that, no published recycling rate, nowhere. With seven points that argue against our own position.
What is left of a keg at the end
“Stainless steel is 95 per cent recyclable” is true – but it means something other than almost everyone believes. Only about a quarter comes back as stainless steel. The rest becomes structural steel.
Dispense pressure and carbonation
Saturation pressure from beer temperature and CO₂ content, plus line resistance, lift height and allowance. With the limit beyond which it is not the beer that is wrong but the system.
How much is still in the keg?
Weigh the part-used keg, choose the keg type, read off the remaining quantity. With the empty weights of all keg types – and an honest statement of where the error comes from.
The quota the keg does not appear in
78.1 per cent reusable share for beer – the figure is correct. Page 14 of the report states that pack sizes above ten litres are expressly not included. The Brauer-Bund writes it too, only more quietly.
What the PPWR requires of the keg
The keg is named explicitly in the text of the Regulation. Annex VI Part B describes reconditioning in six steps, Article 12 requires an open data carrier that counts trips. Just not from 2026.
Does your keg pay off?
Four sliders: fills per year, planned years, return rate, transport distance. Out comes the number of trips actually to be expected – and whether it is above the two published break-even marks.
Determining the spear length
From keg height and spear type: the overall length of the spear, the H3 dimension and the approximate tube weight. With the system-dependent floor clearances that are documented nowhere else.
How many kegs fit on a pallet?
Enter the diameter, choose the pallet size, both orientations are calculated. Plus the limit that bites first in practice: 33 Euro pallets per trailer and 24 tonnes payload.
The five spear types, explained at last
A, S, D, G and M side by side – dimensions from the production drawings, complete parts lists, exploded views. And two values that contradict common trade data.
What really happens in a complete overhaul
Twelve steps on the keg, six on the spear. The lists are everywhere, not one of the points is explained – and the three that decide the quality are on none of them.
Keg vocabulary in six languages
German, English, Polish, French – searchable. Not one word of it is translated, every one is documented. And where a language is missing, it says so.
DIN, EURO or SLIM
Three keg types, the same capacity, not interchangeable. With a scale drawing, the complete dimension table and the one restriction that counts for summer exports.
Which coupler fits which beer?
Why every blanket list fails – on four dependencies, on copied texts that fake a majority, and on the fact that the spear belongs to the keg and not to the brand.
Seven terms nobody explains
Beerstone, safety burst point, pickling, residual pressure, trip count, the neck, wash shadow. Seven terms missing from the manufacturers’ glossaries – with a note of where each figure comes from.
From when does a keg pay off for the environment?
Two life-cycle assessments, two break-even points – 15 to 20 trips in one, 38 in the other. Why both are right, from what distance the sign flips, and a calculator for your own fleet.
Spear length
Six cases in an animated half-section: cleaning and dispensing, each with a down tube that is too long, correct and too short. Including the fountain that occurs when the distance is too great.
Keg cleaning in section
Fifteen steps through the cleaning machine, followed in a sectional view – with the temperature and concentration limits the spear will just about tolerate.
Keg Explorer
A DIN keg to rotate, take apart and cut open. All eight parts explained individually, from the chime to the down tube.
At 35 degrees the seal blows
Why slim kegs start leaking on summer exports – and why overfilling is not the reason. An expert report by the Weihenstephan research centre, recalculated.
How many trips does my keg have left?
The clock is ticking on the spear, not on the keg. Six fault patterns, five check points to do yourself and the complete scrapping criteria.
Refurbishment or new purchase?
Four routes instead of two, compared per keg and year – including the strongest objection to refurbishment and how to check it yourself.
What is my used keg still worth?
Seven factors, the complete damage catalogue, the ownership question with other breweries’ kegs and a checklist for the ten minutes before the call.
Another brewery’s keg – what now?
A deposit transfers no ownership, and § 935 BGB (German Civil Code) rules out acquisition in good faith. Identification guide and the procedure that ends without trouble.
Keg condition and residual value
Enter keg type, vintage and visible defects – findings, when the spear overhaul falls due and the range between scrap and market value.
Nothing has been published on this topic yet.
How we work
Nothing behind a form
No whitepaper gate, no sign-up, no email request. Anyone who wants to know something should be able to read it.
Every figure with its source
Source and date are given – and the classification: whether it is a standard, an association figure, a peer-reviewed study or one of our own operating figures.
The limitation is named
Where the data is thin or sources contradict each other, it says so in the text – not in the small print.
We revise the articles
If a figure no longer holds or a better source turns up, the article is updated.
If you doubt a figure or can close a gap: info@keg-exchange.com
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