What is the keg material?

Quick question, what are kegs made of, stainless steel or aluminum?

I may have a line on one, he insists it is aluminum.

I've never heard of an aluminum keg, but who knows.

A quick search revealed this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/my-keg-stainless-steel-aluminum-89311/

Most are made of stainless steel, I believe there was one variety of older kegs made from aluminum though

Very, very rare to find a true aluminum keg.

They are nearly all stainless steel, but, since the stainless steel is not very magnetic, most people do a magnet test and assume it's aluminum.

Old kegs are definitely made from aluminum. Several breweries used them.

Stainless is pretty much the only metal being used now.

I used to own an aluminum keg. It was pretty much worthless for anything I could use it for. I set it by the side of the road for the metal scroungers. There was too much rough stuff on the inside for my tastes.

i got a plastic one from a micro brewery a while back (1/6 barrel sankey). They said it was something new that was better for the environment, worked fine.

Homercidal said:

Old kegs are definitely made from aluminum. Several breweries used them.

Stainless is pretty much the only metal being used now.

I used to own an aluminum keg. It was pretty much worthless for anything I could use it for. I set it by the side of the road for the metal scroungers. There was too much rough stuff on the inside for my tastes.

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I have had my hands on tons of old kegs in the various places I have worked; Golden Gate, Hoff-Stevens and their variants, and never once saw an aluminum keg. How old was this keg you refer to and which tapping system did it use?

I have an old aluminum one for a outside patio garbage can. They are now made from SS and have been for many many years.

Thanks for the info...

After looking through 10 pages of threads about cutting the kegs, I did not find the pages on material.

wailingguitar said:

I have had my hands on tons of old kegs in the various places I have worked; Golden Gate, Hoff-Stevens and their variants, and never once saw an aluminum keg. How old was this keg you refer to and which tapping system did it use?

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I think the one I had was a Hamms. How old? I have no idea. Probably 30 years old I'd guess.

I couldn't tell you what the tap system was. First thing I did after removing the rubber bung on the side was cut the lid off. I don't have any way of tapping it and only wanted it for a Kettle or HLT.

Turned out to have a very irregular bottom (probably to get all the beery goodness out of it) and very nasty. Plus it had some welds that were not very smooth and I immediately decided that trying to grind aluminum was not going to be worth the effort so I placed some scrap metal in the now opened keg and set it by the road for the poor metal scroungers.


Here is a picture of pretty much exactly what it looked like, with the side bung and everything.



Oh and it was smaller than a standard keg. Probably about half the size.

Homercidal said:

Here is a picture of pretty much exactly what it looked like, with the side bung and everything.

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I have 2 of those sitting up the side of a friend's house, mine are SS though.

I don't know how people are checking if an item is stainless or aluminum, but what I do as a quick check, is scratch it with a brass key. SS won't scratch, most aluminum will. If I am still curious, a grinder will throw sparks off of SS, but not aluminum.

DevilsCreekBrewing said:

I have 2 of those sitting up the side of a friend's house, mine are SS though.

I don't know how people are checking if an item is stainless or aluminum, but what I do as a quick check, is scratch it with a brass key. SS won't scratch, most aluminum will. If I am still curious, a grinder will throw sparks off of SS, but not aluminum.

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Yes, I've seen some almost like that made from SS as well.

A file can check for the material if you are experienced. The Brass Key test makes it really easy if you aren't.

Race car drivers might want it if you don't ruin it. They use them for fuel tanks.

Get a magnet if it sticks it's SS.

Gustavo said:

Get a magnet if it sticks it's SS.

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as far as I remember, only one SS variant is ferrous. is it the 400 series?

I've only ever used 316 and 304, and they dont let much stick to em at all.

brewmonk said:

as far as I remember, only one SS variant is ferrous. is it the 400 series?

I've only ever used 316 and 304, and they dont let much stick to em at all.

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I think the word you are intending to use is ferritic.

Ferrous means an alloy contains iron.

Ferritic refers to the alloys crystaline structure.

SS can be mildly attractive to magnets, but might be some kind of indicator.

I am using some small rare earth magnets on a SS washer for a stirplate experiment and those powerful rare earth magnets are slightly attracted. I'm not sure a standard magnet would show much attraction.

dmfa200 said:

I think the word you are intending to use is ferritic.

Ferrous means an alloy contains iron.

Ferritic refers to the alloys crystaline structure.

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So I'll feed a weasel some geritol, and glue a few magnets to its butt.
It'll be a Ferrously ferritic ferret.

Here's a SS summary which may help.......
http://www.ssina.com/overview/alloy.html