kegs per tap handle?

[Sheehan]

Is there a "rule of thumb" or formula anybody has used to come up with an appropriate amount of kegs for a brewpub to own/purchase based on system size and amount of desired tap handles?

Thanks in advance!

[jazzmac]

We were told by our 1st distro, you need 4 per line (1 on tap, 1 back up, 1 empty, and 1 in limbo). We found this to be pretty accurate, we own around 4000 (both 1/2 and 1/6).

[Sheehan]

We were told by our 1st distro, you need 4 per line (1 on tap, 1 back up, 1 empty, and 1 in limbo). We found this to be pretty accurate, we own around 4000 (both 1/2 and 1/6).

I should specify, I am curious about "in house" only. We will not be distributing. If I had 10 tap handles with a 7bbl brewhouse, I would need 140 (1/2bbl) kegs at the very least. I do realize that I will never have all 140 on line at the same time, but what should my cushion be? How many extra do I want to leave for process? I would only use the kegs for finished beer.

Thanks!

[einhorn]

Any serving tanks?

[Sheehan]

No serving tanks.

[kugeman]

So you plan on kegging directly from the unitank? Or do you have a brite tank? How many beers are you planning on offering in the brewpub? What's your expected production?

[barleyfreak]

We plan on starting with 4 taps. We are going to be a small brewpub, at 3bbl, brewing once a week. That's about six 1/2 bbl kegs/week. To ramp up to an opening of the pub (with 4 taps) we'll use roughly 24. I've budgeted 24 1/2 bbls, 10 1/4 bbls, and 12 1/6 bbls to give us cushion and some flexibility.

[Sheehan]

1 brite tank, packaging from brite to kegs, all "on premise" sales

If I had 10 tap handles and a 7bbl brewhouse and forecasted to brew 3 times a week. How many kegs would I want to have?

I'm just curious if there is a "rule of thumb" or a formula others have used. If there isn't such a tool, no big deal, I'll probably guesstimate (150 or so) and make adjustments from my starting point.

Thanks,
Jeff

[South County]

1 brite tank, packaging from brite to kegs, all "on premise" sales

If I had 10 tap handles and a 7bbl brewhouse and forecasted to brew 3 times a week. How many kegs would I want to have?

I'm just curious if there is a "rule of thumb" or a formula others have used. If there isn't such a tool, no big deal, I'll probably guesstimate (150 or so) and make adjustments from my starting point.

Thanks,
Jeff

More importantly do you have the room to store all of those kegs, why would you want go through the work to rack 14 kegs every batch and swap those kegs every time you kick one, deal with foam, cleaning, etc..etc... a better idea would be to have 4 taps and spend your money of four brites or servers and the proper chiller system. Your beer will suffer less, and you wont go mad.

[einhorn]

If I had 10 tap handles and a 7bbl brewhouse and forecasted to brew 3 times a week. How many kegs would I want to have?

Thanks,
Jeff

Not sure I can offer you a rule of thumb, but you will never fill up those 10 taps with your own brews. In addition, you will need a very large walk-in to store these kegs, which is mentioned by South County.

You really must consider putting serving tanks into this cooler or allocating space for jacketed tanks in the pub instead of kegging off, even with your 3bbl/4tap scenario. Think also of the loss of beer.

If you do end up with 10 taps, you will more than likely need a few guest beers to complement your selection.

[Sheehan]

Thanks for all the responses! I never thought a hypothetical scenario would be so dissected by analysis, however helpful nonetheless. I used (10) taps as a nice rounded number, realistically I will have 5 or 6 and I'm not sure what size system I will purchase. I may go with brite tanks, but I'm budgeting 2 different scenarios at the moment.
I should have said, "If I have (x) amount of tap handles on a (z)bbl system and forecasted to brew (y) times per week, how many 1/2bbl kegs would I need? Is there a formula for this? Like some sort of a multiplication formula, then add 25% to that number. Perhaps there are other factors I'm not providing.

Anyway I gather that there isn't one, so if I decide to serve from kegs, I'll just work with whatever number I purchase. If I feel I don't have enough beer on tap, I'll just buy more. I'm really not that worried about it.

Thanks again for the responses, I'll consider everybody's thoughts!

Cheers,
Jeff

[Gordvan]

Disecting

Einhorn's point is that exactly. you must dissect everything. no decision in planning is a small one.
10 taps of your own beer to start is too much. concentrate on fewer, and do them well. then as your business grows you can add more.

7bbls into 15kegs plus 15 more to change out 30kegs min / tap almost $4000
a 7bbl serving tank will cost slightly more but you will gain space,reduced cleaning time, reduced, chemicals, reduced beer waste, lots of reduced labor.
plus it will save you back, how many full/empty kegs do you really want to lug around.

even what might seem like a small thing can make the difference between success and failure.

my 2 cents
Gordon

[bcofresi]

I think this is a very interesting question. At first I thought this was basic question that has been asked and answered several times, as perhaps jazzmac did. Thinking of using kegs instead of brites, however, might be an efficient alternative if planned well. First off you would not need 4 kegs / bbl / tap as you would have most of each batch's kegs empty, prior to refilling them with the next batch. I have found that planning brew frequency in a brewpub can be illustrated as trying to pull a brick with a rubberband. It cannot be expected to go in a smooth, steady manner. Sometimes I have had to filter / transfer four beers in one week. (would this be an example of "convergence") I started to try to do a spreadsheet but it will take a few weeks to finish what with CBC coming up and other obligations/work.
Perhaps the "rule of thumb" is not much more complicated than "a" (# of kegs needed / net yield / batch) plus "b" (# of kegs needed for the buffer on each batch (buffer being the max likely # of days between when the next batch of beer "x" needs to be racked and when the current batch of "x" will run out)
Example: your best selling beer moves @ 6 kegs/week and there are times when you'll need to have the next batch out of its fermenter 5 days before the current batch will run out
so "# of kegs needed = (a+(~4))"
If like me and you're selling 1.5 kegs a week of stout for example, then you would only need (a+1)
As regards some other comments you received:
I think if you tried to open a brewpub in most parts of the country with less than 8 beers; in today's market you will have a failed project. Customers expect a wide selection of beers and will judge your competence accordingly.
Also, any experienced brewer can certainly put 10 different brews on the menu with no quality problems.

For added efficiency I would suggest skip the brite tank whenever possible.
i.e. - Fermenter > filter > carbonator > daisy-chained kegs