Glossary
Keg
A sealed, pressure-rated container of filtered or otherwise stabilised beer, dispensed under applied gas.
The full record
Keg has its own catalogue entry with the detail this page summarises — causes, thresholds, related styles and evidence.
Keg — A sealed pressurised container that keeps beer stable for months, with no air contact during dispense.
Keg beer is finished when it leaves the brewery. Carbonation is set at packaging, the container is sealed against air, and gas pressure both carbonates and pushes the beer to the tap.
The practical consequence is stability: a keg holds condition for weeks after broaching where a cask holds it for days. The trade-off is that nothing further develops in it.
Related
- Cask — The live, unpressurised alternative.
- KeyKeg — The bag-in-ball format used for unfiltered beer.
- Keg, CO₂ dispense — The dispense record.
More vocabulary
Beer-clean glass · Brewer’s barrel · Cask · Cellar conditioning · Crowler · Draught · Firkin · Growler · Imperial pint · KeyKeg
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.