The art of kegging does not end with a keg and a tap and a bunch of your thirsty friends; indeed, what separates the professional from the amateur is a few additional keg supplies used for transport, safety, and convenience. If you use a keg once or twice a year, you may not need all of the keg supplies available today. But if you're building a bar that offers fresh draft beer, regular keg use gets a whole lot easier with some of these tools.

If I haven't mentioned it yet, kegs are heavy. Consider a gallon of water weighs roughly eight pounds and a keg (commonly known as a half keg or half barrel) holds fifteen gallons of beer. That's over one hundred and twenty pounds with the keg itself! So it makes sense to consider a keg dolly to transport your keg. A dolly is a round or square flat pallet with four wheels that allows you to lift the keg only a couple of inches to set the keg on the dolly, then roll it to your destination. This will save you a great deal of back pain and not a few broken toes.

Other Keg Supplies

A keg spacer is a simple tool that allows you to stack two kegs and tap them both at once. This is also a convenient space saver, as the kegs are standing vertically, one on top of the other.

You can also make your own keg without a keg if you use a Tote-A-Tap or Tote-A-Tap kit. The Tote-A-Tap is just like a beer cooler, beach cooler or picnic cooler, outfitted with a keg tap and even a CO2 tank if you want to get serious. Tote-A-Taps hold around five gallons of beer making them a preferred unit for those adventures where kegs are not allowed. The Tote-A-Tap kit achieves the same effect only you supply your own cooler. This may require some extra retro-fitting on your part, but the end result is basically the same. Lastly and perhaps most crucially, the keg supplies you absolutely cannot do without? Cups!