How to repurpose a beer keg?

Hey all. I just scrounged a large steel (not aluminum) beer keg. The web says it's stainless steel, which gets my gears turning.

I'm not sure what the internals look like, or if any coatings are on the inside.

I thought I might cut the top out and use it as a "copper" -- akin to the Victorian era device for hot water and cookery. Of course I might also be boiling invasive weeds for my compost, distilling water, or steaming batches of grain for dog food.

Thoughts? Anybody done this?

Geeze Douglas, gimme some help: some of us don't drink beer, let alone know what size or shape the keg might be.

Could you possibly post me a picture and some measurements?

Are the openings just "fluid" sized? If there was a screw on lid large enough to put a hand through, I could think of all sorts of uses as is. If it's stainless, it should be mildly, or not at all magnetic, and I would test it out of interest myself.

Ah! Here are some details:

24" high, 15.5" outside diameter
Capacity 15 USG / 60 L

The only opening is the pressure valve on top.
There is a heavy duty support ring at the bottom as well (just like the top but without hand holds).

Depends on how happy you are to be cutting metal.

If you'd like to leave it intact, it's good storage for potable water, or for any dry goods that you want to keep everything out of. If storing dry goods, pull out the tube thingy that goes down the middle on the inside.

If you'd like to cut it up, then it can make a good pot, or it can make a good trough when cut the other way.

A metal keg is an interesting combo of light, strong, perfect-ish cylinder, and UV-proof. If you wanted to crush dried biomass in the garden, rolling a keg back and forth over it would do the job. If you need an extra seat, adding something to the top of a keg will give a portable and almost indestructible result.

If you ever set up temporary structures like tents or canopies and need to prevent them from blowing away, a keg full of water would make a great ballast. The handles are easy to tie ropes to, and you can transport the keg empty then fill it on-site. Sure, plastic jugs can do the same job, but steel is prettier.

And with any big piece of steel like that, I'd hang it from a string and whack it with a stick and see if I like the noise it makes. Might be able to cut the bottom out (or cut the top off and invert it) to get a lovely gong or bell, if the metal's right. Could probably hammer it out into a steel drum type instrument too, if you wanted.

Additional factoid: Steel beer kegs are typically made with 304 stainless which is food grade.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Additional factoid: Steel beer kegs are typically made with 304 stainless which is food grade.

Which I believe also means you need special blades to cut it.
Are there torches/flames that cut it?

What tool options do you have access to?

Douglas Alpenstock wrote: I thought I might cut the top out and use it as a "copper" ...

So are you thinking of cutting the top off below the current "lid"? That would remove the handles.

Are you able to cut just the lid out as a circle from inside the upper ring, so you would still have something to hold/lift by?

Personally, if you're going to use it to cook things, I'd try to find a way to either keep the existing handles, or create new ones. Considering that you'll potentially be wanting to move it hot, you need either heat proof handles, or large enough ones that oven mitts will work.

I made one into a Top Lift Up Draft (T.L.U.D) gasifier.
I used an angle grinder and cutting wheel to cut the opening.
No special tools needed.

I like what they did here:
https://www.instructables.com/Beer-Keg-Pizza-Oven/

https://youtu.be/dieZZf5PhuY?si=qKm16SkyDhgp8MqN

Forges, ovens,grills and foundry's all can benefit from the thermal durability/lightness of a stainless steel keg.

Amy Clarke wrote:Depends on how happy you are to be cutting metal.

... And with any big piece of steel like that, I'd hang it from a string and whack it with a stick and see if I like the noise it makes.

I'm perfectly happy cutting metal. I just don't want to cut without asking creative questions first.

And I love the idea of a giant steel gong. I'm on a hill and I know my neighbours -- nothing says "come over for a beverage and a chat" like the gong of a beer keg! Community, woo!

I'd probably turn it into a much smaller version of this:

Jay Angler wrote:

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Additional factoid: Steel beer kegs are typically made with 304 stainless which is food grade.

Which I believe also means you need special blades to cut it.
Are there torches/flames that cut it?

What tool options do you have access to?

I would cut out the pressure tank inside of the shell, leaving the structural elements intact. I think an angle grinder with cutting blades will work (I buy them in bulk, on sale).

I also have a neighbour down the road (!!-medieval village-!!) who is a journeyman welder and has a plasma torch, and owes me a favour. I doubt it will come to that.

If you - or anybody you know - are into home brewing, these old retired kegs make great vessels for boil kettles or sparge water heating.

I had a welder friend cut out the top (with the funky connector) with a plasma torch and weld a stainless nipple onto the side near the bottom. Thread on a valve and you can heat water or boil your brew.

Yes, you can cut this material with conventional tonal blades or abrasive wheels - but being a lot of them and eye AND ear protection as it gets real noisy real fast.

Excellent post, thanks Val! I like the idea of a adding a tap.

Another fun tidbit - at brew pubs and microbreweries, I’ve seen these repurposed into urinals….

A friend who has his barn/garage where he rebuilds old cars used a beer keg  (stainless steel)  as a urinal in his shop bathroom...  Great use, recycling at its finest.  LOL.  

It wasn't rare for our brew club to encounter a brewer who had converted a keg into a cheap, large, boil kettle.

It also wasn't rare to learn that they or the person that sold it to them had done this with a regular keg for the mere price of a deposit at a liquor store.

It also also wasn't rare for most people to berate them for this because the distributors had a tendency to pass the costs of the lost keg to small breweries that were friends of the club and who would have trouble eating the loss.

So anyone looking to follow this path might want to double check that the keg is a legitimately discarded one, if for no other reason than to make sure it isn't damaged in a way that would affect the intended converted use...

Coydon Wallham wrote:So anyone looking to follow this path might want to double check that the keg is a legitimately discarded one, if for no other reason than to make sure it isn't damaged in a way that would affect the intended converted use...

Fair comment. My keg is embossed with "Labatt" which is a massive brewing behemoth now likely absorbed into a multinational. Plus I drank their lousy beer when I was young and foolish. I have zero qualms about cutting this keg -- I see no substantial harm being done.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
Fair comment. My keg is embossed with "Labatt" which is a massive brewing behemoth now likely absorbed into a multinational. Plus I drank their lousy beer when I was young and foolish. I have zero qualms about cutting this keg -- I see no substantial harm being done.

Labatt? I'm surprised you aren't using it for some form of target practice...

(BTW, my experience was that the small breweries bought used equipment more than they did new stuff, at least when starting out and struggling. Not sure if labeling laws applied to imprints on kegs or not, and these laws vary greatly by locality, but the main info is usually on a removable tag around the spout...)

Coydon Wallham wrote:Labatt? I'm surprised you aren't using it for some form of target practice...

Tempting, but I will allow the keg to rehabilitate itself and regain its honour by cooking up anything that is not "Blue." I believe in second chances.

when we bought our cottage i inherited a dozen old kegs --found in the sheds ---most  had been damaged ---kept the best two for my beer making, best thing ever for this ---i had 5 very large glass vessels before ----only one left and its out of service now---kegs are easy to handle and clean ---i use wet builders sand and swirl around to scour out the sludge and crud ---if it is really stuck to the inside ---i use the dairy line and bulk tank cleaning acids---this really cleans and passivates the surface of the keg----large corks and airlock bubblers ---and its brew time. Cut a few up --removed the bottoms of them ---to make large pot/tubs for herb growing ----keeps my mint varieties from spreading out to wild ---the large hole makes good drainage with a few bits of broken plates and mugs---to stop all soil washing out ----the bottom makes a  nice wok or roti/tava pan on the open fire if you weld/bolt a handles on ---Some i cut the top off with a  4 1/2  small angle grinder used the bespoke stainless steel cutting discs ---skinny ones ---only ones up to the job---made up a bolt on jig to attach/fit into the fill spout and hold the grinder ---cut a neat circle off the top ---to take an old pot lid---store my layers pellets , dog cubes, and some seaweed/chicken dropping pellets--plant food ---no more rats eating holes in bags

A few have mentioned brew kettles for home brewing, which is what I use. Additionally, I had one made into a still. Allegedly you can distill things other than water. Never tried. 😁

I think I have 5 or 6 in my house now between different breweries that I’ve made and the still.

I saw a TV show yesterday that featured a grocery store in France.

Outside the entrance to the store were to stainless beer kegs, one on either side of the doorway.  These kegs were planters with pretty flowers.

heres two that where repurposed into a comp-air tank----he was rebuilding a boat --wanted to replace the on board unit that had rusted out---his method failed ---the weld joint ---to many pinholes ----leakage----and it was also suggested by some that the stresses of repeating compressing cycles on the s/steel would lead to failure----but his background re search on the strength of these was interesting---he connected one up to a heavy duty compressor ---placed it in a field ---stood well back ---and pumped till it burst-----seems they are safety rated to 750 psi---if my recall is correct.----so home brew beer which you could then barrel carbonate is well within that limit ---just another use for someone----or champagne ---root beer---cider-----i could go on ---someone please stop me.

Kevin Michigan wrote:A few have mentioned brew kettles for home brewing, which is what I use. Additionally, I had one made into a still. Allegedly you can distill things other than water. Never tried. 😁

I think I have 5 or 6 in my house now between different breweries that I’ve made and the still.

I also made a beer keg into brewing pots like Tony and Val showed above. I also made a keg into a still.  They are the staple equipment in my home brewing hobby.

For a simple "pot still" you can build a condenser from copper pipe, and it will attach to the existing fitting on top of the keg.  It can be useful if your water supply ever becomes contaminated. Unlike Kevin, I ignored a stupid law and learned to distill liquor as well.  Kevin will be happy to learn that there is a serious movement at the moment to repeal that stupid law.  In fact, the Fifth Circuit federal appeals court ruled in April that the federal ban on home distilling is unconstitutional, so we don't need to be bashful about discussing home distilling in the future.

You can find instructions for building the simple pot still condenser here: https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26460&sid=1c7275df425cb8166eb5b7f16743ecea  but you will need to create an account there before you can view the plans that are linked in the thread.  (Otherwise I would simply link you to the plan I used.  That forum will also provide all the instruction you will need to operate a still safely, as well as recipes.

Here's a photo of a still similar to the one I built.  https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQvNEmKsUzrEJtFR4jrZM9euVFQjM5vbLQXrwH2vU51mQ&s=10

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Hey all. I just scrounged a large steel (not aluminum) beer keg. The web says it's stainless steel, which gets my gears turning.

I'm not sure what the internals look like, or if any coatings are on the inside.

I thought I might cut the top out and use it as a "copper" -- akin to the Victorian era device for hot water and cookery. Of course I might also be boiling invasive weeds for my compost, distilling water, or steaming batches of grain for dog food.

Thoughts? Anybody done this?

Beer kegs are typically made from food grade stainless steel and don't have an interior coating, so they're a great starting point for a project like that. Plenty of people have turned old kegs into brew kettles, hot water tanks, and outdoor cook pots. Just make sure it's legally yours, depressurize it before cutting, and smooth the cut edges afterward. It sounds like it could work well for everything you mentioned.