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Dumb question: Sankey kegs

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  • Dumb question: Sankey kegs

    Please excuse the question, but I am located in another part of the world and am wondering what on earth a 'Sankey' keg is. Is 'Sankey' a manufacturer, or a shape, or a fitting, etc.

    I see Sankey kegs mentioned all the time (including for sale), but I haven't been able to find out what on earth they are:

    volume?
    shape?
    height and diameter?
    material?

    Here in Australia, we have 50L kegs standard, and I think they are mostly imported from Europe (although I may be wrong). Don't ask me what fitting/coupling standard we have - I don't know just yet...

  • #2
    "Sankey" is a type of keg fitting, and also the description of kegs with that style of fitting. Sankey kegs are generally straight-sided as well, with no bung on the side.

    It's been the standard in the USA for the last twenty years or so.

    Cheers, Tim

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    • #3
      Good question about something most of us take for granted.

      I know the Single Aperature Keg (SAK) was introduced to North America in the '60's and it has taken close to 40 years to purge out most of the Peerless (sidefill) and Golden Gate (sidefill) kegs that are classic examples of dated technology.

      Sankey kegs originated (I believe) in Europe...possibly England and I seem to recall that the Sankey valve refers to a threaded in valve design versus the drop-in valve that we commonly call the Micromatic valve so possibly Sankey is a trade name (as Micromatic is).

      In Canada our standard keg is a 58.6L (12.5 Imperial Gallons or 15.5 US Gallons) straight wall stainless steel keg that may have an external rubber coating but in most cases does not. The single valve (we call the tap a North American Sankey tap but that may not be an accurate description - there is also a European Sankey tap). The Euro import beers come in with a variety of valve fittings that all seem to work under the same principle - a spring loaded beer valve integrated with a spring loaded gas valve all in the same fitting.

      Beyond this, the history of the Sankey's development is unknown to me. Possibly one of the guys from Europe could enlighten us.

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