I think most people still count Texas as part of the US, though.
When I rent a keg, I just hook a tap up to it. It looks like this. (In fact, I own my own keg shell, tap, and ice barrel.) What do y’all use that you would call a “magic box”?
My gf’s ad agency has a kegerator. Every Friday at 3 pm it gets rolled out. They work hard & play hard.
Not necessarily—
I’ve thrown keggers many times, but the price isn’t a very good deal compared to cases of cans, especially when you factor in the cups and ice. And a certain amount will go to waste via foam, etc, and any leftovers won’t keep for long.
Then there’s the deposit on the keg and tapper, which can be over $100.
And I don’t know about other states, but here in Minnesota the liquor store takes down all your information and links that to a sticker they put the keg. It’s a crime to remove that sticker. That way if the cops bust your party and everyone scatters but the keg is left behind, they’ll still be able to find out who bought it and charge you with serving to minors or whatever. Tightass city.
They don’t do that here. Plus, my friends are all of age by now.
If you get your own shell, tap, and barrel, you skip the deposits. Basically, I find that if once you get set up to rent kegs, it’s cheaper than cans. But then, I’m buying Pabst, not Harp or something else upper end.
Keg (1984 ounces) = $60
Cans (12 oz, 165 cans to hit 1984 ozs, basically 14 twelvepacks) = $112, on average
Even counting the loss in foam, it’s cheaper as long as you do plan to drink the whole thing. I do not debate that walking out the next day to find a warm, half full keg just flat sucks.
Looooooong after I outgrew gravel pit parties a guy from PA told me that they’d bury the keg. If the cops turned up they’d pop the tap and move a car over it.
Wish we would have thought of that…
How do you rent a keg of beer? Do you spit the beer out afterwards? Also, what’s the difference between a keg and a barrel? Is a keg that 15 l aluminium small barrel, as opposed to a real barrel?
Here in Bavaria, real beer comes in a wooden barrel - okay, it should be. Apparently, the breweries find stainless steel containers easier to handle (heretics). The traditional wooden beer barrel in Bavaria is called Hirschen (male stag) and contains 200 liters of beer, so you need a big party to finish it (remember, this is real beer, not the watery stuff that Americans chug down). We used to have summer partys in the house I grew up in, with maybe a score of people, and a small barrel. I remember how difficult it was to get the plug directly in, because the first stroke pierced the skin, so the beer came rushing out with pressure, and you had to push against that to get the tap firmly in. Most of the times, it didn’t work, and a lot of beer foamed and gushed out, and the tap didn’t hold securly. (That’s also why the mayor of Munich tapping the barrel when opening the Octoberfest with only a few strokes and no foaming is such a big deal and show of competence - it takes a lot of practice).
In the last 5-10 years, however, small alumunium party small barrels (Partyfässchen) have appeared on the market, with 5 /10 liters. that’s what you can finish in a normal party.
You pay a deposit on the barrel, like you do with bottles, and get it back when you return the barrel.
I wouldn’t say it’s widespread, though. It’s easier to buy bottles and transport them then one heavy keg, and deal with the tapping. So it’s for special occasions like the summer party once a year.
Kegs not massively popular in the UK, as noted.
Can anyone confirm if the ‘Keg Stand’ is unique to the US? I saw this once or twice when I worked over in the States and was very impressed - a rare feat.
The usual keg is about 30 gallons. Or you can get a quarter barrel of about 15. It is usually very worth it for good beer(Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada), a decent deal for standard beer(MGD), and about break even with a lot of extra work for cheep beer(Strohs, PBR).
Kinda seems absurd now when I think back to the Co-op parties where we got 15 or so kegs.
Note my break down on costs. PBR by the keg is a much better deal than PBR by the twelvepack, now that it’s become popular and gone up a little in price by the twelvepack.
Who buys it the 12 packs though? 24s and 30 drop the price to around $75 + ice +waste.
People in places, like here, where you can’t get it in 24s or 30s.
For college parties especially frat parties, kegs were pretty standard. It makes sense too, that way the people hosting the party only charged admission to people who were drinking their beer. You would buy a cup at the door for like 5 bucks, and that would entitle you to all the keg beer you could drink. If you were a DD or didn’t drink you could go to the party and not pay admission. Since most people would only have a few beers, and cheap kegs were around $40 bucks (natty ice was common when I was in school), everyone after the 8th person was profit.