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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

Institute of Brewing and Distilling

General Certificate in Beer Packaging
(GCP)
Section 4 KEG
Specialist Section – Kegs and
Packaging Materials.
4.1 KEG: Keg Design
• Stainless steel or lacquered aluminium alloy

• Designed for ease of handling

• 10 litres to 36 gallons ( 163 litres )

• Steel is stronger but heavier

• Recovery value of aluminium higher

• Withstand pressure of filling

• Must be fitted with tamper evident spear

• Dimensions must allow over measure to ensure adherence to packers

rules

• Damaged kegs do not run well on conveyors or seat properly at filling -

must inspect

Shape.

Affect on beer quality.

Durability.

Dimensions.

Special features.

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)
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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

The following summarises the important features of design of stainless steel

and aluminium kegs:

Material Stainless steel.

Shape Beer kegs are round. Circular shapes have the strength to withstand the
internal pressures generated during filling and dispense.
Round kegs can be rolled for transport.
Affect on beer quality Stainless steel is an inert metal and is used to construct most brewing
plant. Good quality stainless steel will not effect beer flavour.
A polished internal surface is easy to clean and the steel will not be
affected by caustic detergents.
Resistance to wear The steel used in construction is very strong making the kegs are very
& tear robust although they will be dented when dropped.
Damaged kegs do not handle well on automatic filling plant.
Steel kegs are more robust than aluminium kegs.
Dimensions The keg’s volume is important because, although beer is metered in
during filling, the keg must be large enough to take the specified volume
while leaving a minimum amount of extra space.
The profile of the top of spear is important because it is required to be
located on the filler head during filling and onto the dispense unit for
serving.
Special features Kegs have an internal spear (downtube) for filling and emptying. The
spear must be locked in place and tamper proof for safety reasons. Even
a low pressure in the keg can drive a faulty spear out at dangerous
velocities.
Steel kegs are heavier than aluminium kegs but are cheaper.

Material Aluminium.
Shape Beer kegs are round. Circular shapes have the strength to withstand the
internal pressures generated during filling and dispense.
Round kegs can be rolled for transport.
Affect on beer quality Some of the aluminium would dissolve in the beer and beer kegs are
‘anodised’ (oxidised) to give an inert surface and some have an internal
lacquer to protect the beer and the consumer.
The internal surface is easy to clean although aluminium is seriously
damaged by caustic detergents.
Resistance to wear The aluminium used in construction is quite thick making the kegs are
& tear very robust although they will be damaged when dropped.
Damaged kegs do not handle well on automatic filling plant.
Aluminium kegs are not as robust as steel kegs.
Dimensions The keg’s volume is important because, although beer is metered in
during filling, the keg must be large enough to take the specified volume
while leaving a minimum amount of extra space.
The profile of the top of spear is important because it is required to be
located on the filler head during filling and onto the dispense unit for
serving.
Special features Kegs have an internal spear (downtube) for filling and emptying.
The spear must be locked in place and tamper proof for safety
reasons. Even a low pressure in the keg can drive a faulty spear out
at dangerous velocities.
Aluminium has a high scrap value causing high losses due to theft.
Aluminium kegs can be lighter than steel kegs but are more expensive.

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)
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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

4.2 KEG: Materials of Construction and Keg Sizes

Metric countries use kegs of 25, 30 or 50 litre, available in two general
dimension styles.
One is the so called DIN-keg, defining a 50 litre keg with a maximum diameter
of 400 mm and height 600 mm, these fit ideally on pallets of 1200 x 800 mm
size.
The other is the so called Euro-keg, a keg which has a maximum diameter of
410 mm and a height of 540 mm for 50 litre.
Both styles of keg are used all over the world.
Keg sizes vary, depending on local market conditions and for health and safety
reasons. Japan, traditionally handles the smallest kegs, their production is in
kegs of 5 to 25 litres. In the US the major sizes are the 56 litre (US half barrel
or 15.5 US gallon), US quarter barrel & a smaller keg containing just less than
20 litres used for promoting additional brands. In some states keg sizes are
prescribed.
Continental Europe and Eastern Europe are working on 30 and 50 litre. The
exception to this is Austria who use 25 and 50 litre and Switzerland with 20
litre containers.
In the UK, keg sizes are standard up to 100 litres (22 gallons) plus a few
brewers who still use 36 gallon kegs.

Manual handling considerations has led to a trend in keg size reduction. Even
Ireland, with the highest percentage of keg beer (above 75% of the total
output), is using 50 litre maximum. Continental Europe has changed from the
majority of 50 litre kegs ten years ago to 30 litre kegs now, with a further trend
to reduction. The move down from 50 litre has yet to happen in the UK. It is
important to take trends in keg sizes into account when sizing keg racking
facilities. Keg line capacities need to increase with a reduction of keg volumes
because the cleaning task is completely independent from keg size.

Method of Manufacture of Kegs

Early aluminium kegs and casks were manufactured from low pressure die
castings which gave problems with brittleness and porosity resulting in poor
lacquer. This has been superceded by fabrication from ductile wrought
aluminium with the body produced using deep drawing techniques to produce
two halves which were welded together. The optimum material gauge for
aluminium is 3.6 mm. Aluminium castings are used for the top and bottom
chimes.

Stainless kegs are produced from advanced deep drawing techniques using
AISI 304 stainless steel (18:8) with an optimum material gauge of 1.5mm to
produce the two halves. These are welded together using tungsten inert gas
welding (TIG). The dimple gives increased strength. The chimes are
fabricated from a special hardened form of AISI 304 stainless steel (18:8),
typically 1.7 mm or 2.0 mm gauge thickness. The chimes are welded using
metal inert gas welding (MIG). The neck is also welded using TIG welding
techniques.

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)
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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

The keg is pressure tested to 90 psi (6.3 bar) which gives it a safe working
pressure of 60 psi (4.1 bar). Routine hydraulic tests to rupture are carried out
and no keg should fail below 1000 psi.
Stainless containers were considerably heavier than aluminium equivalents.
This situation has considerably improved with current materials and
construction methods used. Stainless kegs now have a price advantage over
aluminium.
Aluminium is more prone to theft as it can be easily smelted. Also an
aluminum keg needs an internal lining. Stainless steel containers do have a
disadvantage, however, in that they are more difficult to refurbish.

Choice of Material
Refillable kegs are made of either aluminium or stainless steel. The material
made to manufacture kegs was initially aluminium. Stainless steel is the
current material mainly used.
Stainless kegs can be sheathed in polyurethane to reduce noise.
There is a risk with stainless steel containers that capacity can increase with
time and use leading to overfilling if kegs are not meter filled.
Many aluminium kegs were produced with a target capacity of 50.4 +/- 0.3
litres whereas the mainland European trend has been for a minimum
headspace for stainless steel kegs of 0.3 litres.
Kegs can become dented during distribution and aluminium kegs tend to
shrink whereas stainless steel kegs grow.
Many kegs are designed with a predetermined bursting area in the base in the
event of excessive pressure.
The reasons for failure at high and low temperatures are different though both
result in the build up of high pressures within the keg. At low temperatures
there is the risk of the product freezing. At the other end of the scale,
temperatures of 40oC or even 60oC have been recorded under tarpaulins.
Stainless steel kegs are cheaper and have a higher resistance to puncture, but
are heavier than aluminium. It is currently estimated that the industry loses
between 10 and 15 million pounds' worth of containers per year through loss or
theft.

The drawing below shows a section through a keg, showing the overall
design, with the neck (“Barnes neck”) designed to accommodate the “spear”
or extractor tube.
Stainless kegs are produced from advanced deep drawing techniques using
AISI 304 stainless steel (18:8) with an optimum material gauge of 1.5mm to
produce the two halves.
These are welded together using tungsten inert gas welding (TIG). The dimple
gives increased strength. The chimes (or rolling rings) around the
circumference are fabricated from a special hardened form of AISI 304
stainless steel , typically 1.7 mm or 2.0 mm gauge thickness.
The chimes are welded using metal inert gas welding (MIG).

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)
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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

The neck is also welded using TIG welding techniques.

The figures below show threaded and thread-less security and safety necks.

Spears

Each keg has a spear, which has four basic parts:

Head or body which screws into the neck of the container

Stem

Valve sealing ring

Spring to keep the sealing ring seated.

Generally, four design types of spears exist:

Well type spears, flat top spears, combi spears as a combination of both
(mainly used in the soft drink industry), and the UEC-type spear.

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)
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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

There are local variations of the designs.

Spears are manufactured nowadays exclusively in stainless steel. Their

performance is improved by two measures:

1. The ring valve orifice is enlarged since this so-called CO2 valve is used for
filling purpose.
2. The pressure drop (flow resistance) of both the centre and the ring valve is
reduced.

Both measures allow higher throughputs on washing and filling systems

compared to previous solutions.
Spears are traditionally screwed into the Barnes neck of the keg body using
either a 7 tpi (threads per inch (1 inch=2.54 cm)) or 14 tpi threads.
There are unthreaded threadless security and safety spears, which are held in
with special clipping arrangements. All spears, which are used these days,
should be of a design, which requires the use of a tool to remove the spear from
the keg neck.
The design criteria for safety extractor tubes is that:

Removal of the extractor tube authorised or unauthorised is not possible

while the keg is pressurised i.e. automatic degassing is a pre-requisite.

No part of the extractor tube assembly can eject even when abused.

Considerable development has taken place with spears to try and make
tampering more difficult, whilst simultaneously providing evidence of
tampering. The latest tamper evident seals have a plastic collar, which is
broken, if spear removal is attempted. It is vital that spears are not tampered
with, as a considerable safety hazard is presented.

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)
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GCP (KEG): Section 4 (KEG): Kegs and packaging materials

4.3 KEG: Packaging Materials

Key features of Keg packaging materials include:

• Cap

• protect spear, brand, tamper evident or tamper proof

• Label

• remove all old ones

• brand, best before date, batch code and sequential number

and time.

• Palletising

• Either wooden pallets or plastic locator boards.

• Stretch wrap film to reduce dirt pickup.

© The Institute of Brewing and Distilling (GCP Revision Notes Version 1 2008)