TOPIC:

[quote:3sbdabv6]cough*Hooker*cough*[/quote:3sbdabv6]If minikegs of Hooker become available my local off licence will have to issue a profit warning.

Hilden brought down some polypins to sell last year, didn't they?
I'm sure rebel and hendrix got some.

18-pint polypins wouldn't have the same mass market appeal as 5L minikegs, though. Are the pins returnable?

Kinsale Lager was sold by the minikeg so presumably the technology exists for hire down at Beamish & Crawford. If the S&N takeover goes ahead today, it might be up for sale. Every cloud has a silver minikeg...

I don't think mini-kegs are actually a very good packaging solution, for commercial beer.

Unless you invest in a proper mini-keg tap, with co2 bulb (if you're not a home-brewer kegging your own, that's just not going to happen), you have to use the basic plastic tap that comes with it. Then you end up with 5 litres of beer, in a keg but it looses carbonation as the volume remaining inside drops and you have to drink it all in one night or it will go off.

Another problem is that the mini-keg is designed to dispense with the keg upright, so you have the choice of chilling it in the fridge and then removing it for serving, or removing shelves from your fridge, so you can stand it upright and dispense beer while keeping the beer cold.

They are fun for a party, but I don't think you will ever sell the volume of beer you would shift if it were in bottles or cans.

"noby":3m1lrwqu wrote: Hilden brought down some polypins to sell last year, didn't they?
I'm sure rebel and hendrix got some.[/quote:3m1lrwqu]

'Tis true. And the damn thing was stale within about five minutes of me opening it. I tossed most of it. Dereko1969 took the other one from me and that one exploded on his balcony. Can't really recommend them.

Oh dear.

I've found the minikegs to be OK. Granted the carbonation does drop but that doesn't really bother me. I thought the beer was still fine after a couple of days but it's true you don't want to leave it hanging around too long.