Joeywhat
Well-Known Member
Sorry if this is the wrong forum, I didn't see anywhere else that catered to legalities of beer and kegs and such.
I'm a Michigan resident, and I currently have three commercial kegs sitting around. All are empty, and I haven't bothered to return them yet as the stupid stickers that are required to be on them feel off...yes, ALL THREE stickers are gone. The first two, on the steel kegs fell off just about immediately, during the hour long drive home. The last one, on the plastic keg just tore and only half is remaining.
After reviewing the law on the michigan.gov site I didn't really see anything mentioning consumers keeping the kegs...there was a punishment for removing the labels, but nothing about just not returning the kegs.
Onto my question: do I legally HAVE to return these kegs? I already know I'm not getting the deposit...so I'm really not terribly motivated to return them. I'll probably return the plastic one purely because they're a local brewery and I'd rather not screw them over. I've been seriously considering grabbing some sanke kegs for homebrew use anyways (to serve with, not for boiling/fermenting/etc.). I think these will work just fine for a while if I'm not in any legal position to return them. They'll remain complete, I have no desire to use them for anything other then kegging.
And should there be some provision to return them that I overlooked, can't I just say I'm still enjoying the keg? I mean...a guy can keep a keg of beer for a couple years and not finish it, right....granted it may not be the original beer any longer but I'm still using it
Oh, and for anyone who isn't familiar with Michigan's relatively new keg law, stores are now required to put serialized stickers on all kegs, and the buyer must fill out a form with address and drivers license info. Apparently this stops people from supplying minors with beer...it's also very poorly thought out since NOTHING sticks to a cold keg that starts sweating.
I'm a Michigan resident, and I currently have three commercial kegs sitting around. All are empty, and I haven't bothered to return them yet as the stupid stickers that are required to be on them feel off...yes, ALL THREE stickers are gone. The first two, on the steel kegs fell off just about immediately, during the hour long drive home. The last one, on the plastic keg just tore and only half is remaining.
After reviewing the law on the michigan.gov site I didn't really see anything mentioning consumers keeping the kegs...there was a punishment for removing the labels, but nothing about just not returning the kegs.
Onto my question: do I legally HAVE to return these kegs? I already know I'm not getting the deposit...so I'm really not terribly motivated to return them. I'll probably return the plastic one purely because they're a local brewery and I'd rather not screw them over. I've been seriously considering grabbing some sanke kegs for homebrew use anyways (to serve with, not for boiling/fermenting/etc.). I think these will work just fine for a while if I'm not in any legal position to return them. They'll remain complete, I have no desire to use them for anything other then kegging.
And should there be some provision to return them that I overlooked, can't I just say I'm still enjoying the keg? I mean...a guy can keep a keg of beer for a couple years and not finish it, right....granted it may not be the original beer any longer but I'm still using it
Oh, and for anyone who isn't familiar with Michigan's relatively new keg law, stores are now required to put serialized stickers on all kegs, and the buyer must fill out a form with address and drivers license info. Apparently this stops people from supplying minors with beer...it's also very poorly thought out since NOTHING sticks to a cold keg that starts sweating.