Wondering how many beers are in a keg? Look no further. Here are the weights and beer totals of the 6 primary keg sizes.
And after that, we’ll walk you through how to figure out the number of beers left in a keg by weighing it.
Because weighing kegs and knowing how many beers are in a keg based on its weight are crucial to knowing how many kegs to order and forecasting when kegs will run dry.
So enjoy this article about kegs, because kegs are enjoyable things. And even articles about kegs should be enjoyable.
50 Liter Keg
A 50 liter keg is also known as an import keg or European barrel. It’s the most common keg size in Europe and tends to be the keg used for popular imported brands.
How Heavy Is a 50L Keg?
A 50 liter keg weighs 130 pounds full and 27 pounds empty. That means there are 103 pounds of beer in a 50 litre keg. The total weight of beer only is useful to know as take your keg inventory.
How Many Beers Are in a 50 Liter Keg?
There are approximately 105 16-ounce pints or 140 12-ounce cans or bottles in a full 50 litre keg.
Full Keg AKA Half Keg
The full keg, also known as a half barrel keg, half keg, or full size keg is the standard size keg in the U.S.
How Heavy is a Full Keg?
A half barrel keg weighs 160 pounds full and 30 pounds empty. That means there are 130 pounds of beer in a full half barrel keg.
How Many Beers Are in a Half Keg?
There are 124 16-ounce pints or 165 12-ounce cans or bottles in a full half barrel keg.
Quarter Barrel Keg AKA Pony Keg
The quarter barrel keg is also called the pony keg or the stubby quarter. Stubby because there is another keg with identical volume to the quarter barrel: the slim quarter keg, also called the tall quarter. The difference is that the slim quarter keg is above 10” higher and 5” thinner than the standard quarter barrel keg.
All the below numbers for the quarter barrel keg apply to the slim quarter keg.
How Heavy Is a Quarter Barrel Keg?
A quarter barrel keg weighs 87 pounds full and 22 pounds empty. That means there are 65 pounds of beer in a full quarter barrel keg.
How Much Beer Is in a Quarter Keg?
There are 62 16-ounce pints or 82 12-ounce cans or bottles in a quarter barrel pony keg.
Sixth Barrel Keg
A sixth barrel keg is also called a sixtel. It’s the 2nd smallest widely-available keg size out there.
How Heavy Is a Sixth Barrel Keg?
A sixth barrel keg weighs 58 pounds full and 15 pounds empty. That means there are 43 pounds of beer in a full sixth barrel keg.
How Many Beers Are in a Sixth Barrel Keg?
There are 41 16-ounce pints or 55 12-ounce bottles or cans in a full sixth barrel keg.
Cornelius Keg
The little guy! Also called the corny keg, the Cornelius keg is the smallest widely-available keg size.
How Heavy Is a Cornelius Keg?
A Cornelius keg weighs 55 pounds full and 10.5 pounds empty. That means there are 44.5 pounds of beer in a full Cornelius keg.
How Many Beers Are in a Cornelius Keg?
There are 40 16-ounce pints or 53 12-ounce cans or bottles in a full Cornelius keg.
How to Use Keg Weight to Take Beer Inventory
Here’s an example of how keg weight is used to determine the exact number of beers left in a keg. Let’s consider the very common half barrel keg, which we now know:
- Is 160 pounds full
- Is 30 pounds empty
- Has 130 pounds of beer in it when full
- Has 124 16-ounce pints in it when full
Knowing there are 124 16-ounce pints in a full half barrel, we know there are 1,984 fluid ounces* of beer in it.
16-ounce pints are not in regular ounces but in fluid ounces, which is a measurement of volume, not weight. In the case of fluid ounces, 16 does not necessarily equal a pound of weight.
So, we have 1,984 fluid ounces in 130 pounds of beer. Let’s figure out how many fluid ounces per pound that is with this formula:
Total Fluid Ounces / Pounds of Beer = Fluid Ounces per Pound of Beer
1,984 fl. oz. / 130 lbs = 15.2 fl. oz. per pound
Each pound of beer weight in our keg corresponds to 15.2 fluid ounces.
If we weigh our half barrel keg and it’s 100 pounds, we know that 60 pounds of beer have been used. And 70 pounds of beer are left.
Knowing that each pound of beer is 15.2 fluid ounces we can calculate how many pints are left in the keg with this formula:
Pounds of Beer Left X 15.2 fl. oz. = Total fl. oz. Left in Keg
70 x 15.2 fl. oz. = 1,064 fl. oz.
There is 1,064 fluid ounces of beer left in the keg. To find out how many pints that is, we divide by 16.
Total fl. oz. Left in Keg / 16 fl. oz. = Pints Left in Keg
1,064 fl. oz. / 16 fl. oz. = 66.5
This keg of beer has 66 16-ounce pints left in it.
And That’s How Many Beers Are in a Keg!
Hopefully this information and exercise makes your beverage inventory process a little smoother.
Another way to smooth your inventory process out is to use a bar and beverage inventory management software like BinWise Pro.It turns taking inventory from a drawn out manual counting process to a quick succession of scans.
And once you have all your inventory scanned, BinWise Pro keep on helping you. It’ll figure out your variance, pour cost, and all the other numbers you need to make profitable decisions.
Book a demo and we’ll walk you through exactly how BinWise Pro will help.
