I found a few articles on Boak & Bailey's blog on the British Key Keg phenomenon. Has anybody here had a beer from one of these? Thoughts?
For anyone that has no idea what the hell a key keg is, I found this... http://www.magicrockbrewing.com/blog/keykegs-differences-dispense-issues/
Looked at these a while back. This is very similar to the design that InBev came out with for their draftmark. It was a hard amber outer shell with another thinner plastic container within it that contained a gallon of beer. It had a top on it that was attached to the inner container for beer to come out of and there was a tube that went between the 2 containers that pumped air in between them. Worked great, I ran thru a Shock Top and several Goose Island's, but they became hard to find, so now just stare at the machine under my desk.
They are good for their purpose imo, although as that article mentioned the carbonation levels are all over the place so it needs to be sold to someone who knows how to deal with that regarding serving it. You can just use an air compressor to pump the beer out instead of having to get a co2 system, so that gives them a bit of versatility Incidentally the dinosaur that is CAMRA have now said they are fine with them as long as the beer is live and carbonated naturally etc etc, so expect to see a wider range of beers at CAMRA festivals in the uk using this method of dispense. I think Leeds have allready run one a week or so ago and they were a success
It would seem that this vessel is spot on for this, as I would imagine that cask would have a lot longer life in one of these, but assuming if someone likes that sweetspot where X oxidation has occurred, they will not like this.
There is that Has this been moved? I thought it was in beer talk. Anyway, I've not seen them for sale to individuals, they are all used at bars so far as I can tell, but no reason why they wouldn't be good for people with home bars who want some commercial beer and not pay a deposit etc
If you go to their website you can purchase them. I was talking to someone that works at a brewery about this, they are having a hard time keeping up with kegs since they are so small, they don't can, only keg and the refer to the infamous issue that occurred at Red Hook (several threads on here about that). But it wasn't this key, it was a company out of my hometown who actually made plastic kegs. So I spent some time googling this yesterday and could find no issues or events that have occurred with these. If the material is what I think it is, it would probably split and release pressure, I don't see it actually coming apart and creating shrapnel. So the company in Houston probably has people hesitant about this technology. Granted these are going to cost you abt $18 apiece, but you don't have the expense of cleaning, retrieving and loss to factor into the cost of your beer, so I guess we'll see if this catches on
The problem with the key keg in the US is that it answers a problem specific to exporting Euro breweries. It does not really fix any problems in the domestic market. Cooperage is expensive no doubt. But the key keg isn't cheap when you consider the life span of a ss keg. You have to buy these things forever and there already is a network of distributors that deliver full kegs and pick up empty kegs. It's not difficult to get your keg into that delivery channel; it already exists and is very efficient. And 2, it does not solve a problem for the keg buyer. It creates a problem. OK Mr. Very Small Brewery, you want me to put your beer on my system but I have to use a technology that does not fit? Not only another coupler but a pump too? And I have to figure out how to achieve balance? No thanks. Why not just buy a sixtel with a Sanke D from this other small brewer? Finally, the last time plastic kegs were used it did not end well. This technology may be greatly improved but let's let someone else mess around with plastic kegs. That's just my opinion. Cheers.
