Glossary
KeyKeg
A single-use container in which beer sits in an inner bag, with dispensing gas pressing on the outside of the bag rather than dissolving into the beer.
Also called key keg, bag in ball, one way keg.
Trade usage. Established by practice in the trade rather than by any formal definition.
Because the gas never touches the beer, a KeyKeg can hold unfiltered, unpasteurised, naturally-conditioned beer and dispense it without adding carbonation. This is why it is common for exported Belgian beer and for craft producers who want live beer with keg logistics.
It occupies awkward ground in the real ale debate: the beer may be genuinely live and unfiltered, but it is dispensed under applied gas pressure, which the CAMRA definition excludes. CAMRA has revised its position on such formats more than once.
KeyKeg is a manufacturer’s brand name, widely used generically.
Related
More vocabulary
Beer-clean glass · Brewer’s barrel · Cask · Cellar conditioning · Crowler · Draught · Firkin · Growler · Imperial pint · Keg
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.