Plastic Kegs?

[Geoff Logan]

I just received my 1/6 Plastic Keg sample from the good folks at Plastic Kegs America. I've heard good things about these kegs and am interested in more cooperage. It won't fit on my mini-king keg washer..damn. Anyone have any experience with these kegs? Thanks.

[drewseslu]

After some intial hiccups (due in no part to the kegs, but other issues, sorry folks), I've had good results with them, other than they do not fit the keg washing rack.

[MJMurphy]

I get the feeling that, for the time being, these kegs may be best for in-house cooperage or trusted accounts where you can keep an eye on them. After talking to several brewers (including DrewSLU) it's not hard to see that there are some attractive qualities to them (namely price, but the reduced wear and tear on the back is nice too).

That said, we drop-tested some kegs made of plastic and they didn't fare to well. On the first drop there was some leakage and a second drop finished the job (I was too slow to grab video, sorry). Most of the damage I have heard of and seem comes from the handles breaking and cosmetic issues, but the loss of integrity is the big one.

Having seen how kegs are sometimes handled outside of the safety of the brewery, I would be hestiant to send them out to parts unknown.
Even in the brewery there are the occasional kegs that pop off the top of a stack (I swear I didn't stop short with the pallet jack, it jumped!).

That said the quality of construction continues to improve, so who knows what the future may hold.

[drewseslu]

Agreed...putting them into the market would make me nervous, but for in house use, I think they're fine.
There is one brewer who uses this forum who I know has them in the market, perhaps he can chime in here.

[v2comp]

ive been trying them out and they have just changed the chime handles on the new ones, the inside edges were really sharp and brittle. they have supposedly fixed those issues but I cant really speak to durability. im not throwing any off the dock or anything, so I will only find out the hard way I guess!