Believe it or not, putting a cocktail in a keg is easy!
You may (or may not) be familiar with what are known as corny (cornelius) kegs which were made popular by the soda industry for distributing soda syrups. Corny style kegs have a removable lid which makes them easy to open, clean and fill.
Historically, the challenge with getting a cocktail on draft in a bar or restaurant was the requirement of using a corny keg which requires a gas and liquid disconnect in order to connect the keg to the draft system. Most bars, restaurants, taprooms, etc. prefer to use standard American Sanke D style kegs which are connected to a draft system through a keg coupler. The keg coupler is a single point of access for both the gas and the liquid and the problem with Sanke kegs is that they are a closed keg system which require specific equipment in order to open/clean/fill the keg.... until now...
Now, we're offering different types of kegs that have the common Sanke D valve, but also have removable lids like the corny keg! Check out the 2 options below of of the kegs with sanke style couplers and removeable lids.
Corny Style Cocktail Keg w/ Sanke D Valve
Sanke D Cocktail Keg w/ Tri-Clamp Removeable Cap
How do I fill my keg with cocktails?
We're working on a video showing how to fill a keg with a cocktail of your choice, but until that is done, hopefully this will suffice, because it really is a simple process.
- Open your keg (remove the corny lid or the tri-clamp lid depending on the style of keg you're using). Make sure your keg is cleaned & sanitized before proceeding.
- Fill your keg with the cocktail of your choice.
- Replace the lid and seal the keg.
- Connect the keg to your draft system.
- Enjoy a draft cocktail!
Other things to consider with kegged draft cocktails
With any draft beverage, you do have a choice of what type of gas to use to serve the cocktail.
- CO2 will carbonate your beverage over time, so if you do want to serve a sparkling/effervescent cocktail, you'll need to first carbonate the kegged cocktail.
- Nitrogen will allow you to pour your kegged cocktail in 2 ways:
- Flat pours - Use nitrogen at a low pressure and your cocktail will pour as it was made.
- Nitro pours - Add a nitro infuser to your draft system and you can pour your cocktail like a Guinness beer. The addition of and infusion of nitrogen into the cocktail can change the mouthfeel as well as give the cocktail a nice visual appeal.