Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-06-14
BOUT BEER KEGS
They Are Handled as the baggage
Smasher Trunks.


1t takes a long while for a beer keg
to wear out. 1t has a tough constitu-
ton and is protected from internal
decay by a coat Of pure and hard pitch.
The pitch used Oh the modern key is
much superior to that formerly used.
1t is clear, tasteless and tough. An
empty beer keg will stand a great
many hard knocks before the pitch
scales off. The kegs wear out. when
they do wear, externally. They are
wet and dry alternately and this pro-
notes decay. Then they get a great
deal Of unnecessary banging around
between the time they leave the brew
cry and ire back again. Everybody,
from the driver and railroad and
steamboat hands down to the barkeep-
ers, seems to think the kegs are in
d~eStructible. A whole a load OF
empty kegs is frequently thrown from
the car down to the ground. A single
empty keg is often thrown fifteen feet.
1t really isn't necessary to make the
kegs as heavy, so far as the keeping
Of the beer is concerned. They began
by being made heavy in the old days.
The brewers then deemed it absolutely
requisite to make them that way to
withstand the pressure Of the beer.
The very fact that they were made
heavy and clumsy subjected them to
rough handling. Now they have to be
made heavy and extra material has to
be put into the heads and slaves SIM
y1rr hnon,ca nF thtS honIltn1 on1 NOT
from any danger on account Of the in
ternal pressure Of the beer. 1t Is not
the breakage or decay Of the kegs that
bothers the brewers. 1t is the frequent
and entirely unnecessary loss OF the
kegs. You would be surprised to hear
the number of kegs and half-barrels
a big brewery will lose in a year. 1t runs
into the thousands at times. No or
binary precautions can check this loss.
Charging for the keg and giving a re-
bate would accomplish something in
that direction, but there is too much
lively competition in the business for
any one to dare such an experiment.
Il don't think there are many brew
ers in this country who would stOOp
low enough to erase brands and use
another brewers kegs" said a brewer,
but it has been done, even to the eX-
tent of putting new heads in the stolen
kegs. A quarter-barrel is worth $3.50,
and it doesn't look to me that 1t would
pay for a man to steal such a petty
thing as that. What becomes Of the
beer kegs then? Just try to think and
tell me If you have ever been at a
boating or yachting resort in this coun-
try where you did not see one or two
or perhaps a cor of beer kegs bobbing
ON the waves as buoys to mark a
course or as mornings for boats. That
means thousands of beer kegs, only a
few of which have been bought from
the brewer. They bob upon the waves
for a year or two and then become
waterlogged and sink, to be replaced
by fresh kegs. I've got a suspicion
that the Italians are to blame for the
disappearance of many of Our kegs.
Then occasionally in the summer we
hear of lager beer kegs being used for
making home brews with root beer
extracts. This is an illegitimate use
for the kegs, and I'm puzzled to under
stand how anybody that would make
or drink root beer could ever get hold
of a beer keg except by swiping it from
a saloon alley at night"