How do you tell how much beer is left in a keg?

Weigh it and subtract the empty weight stamped on the chime. Beer is close enough to one kilogram per litre, so the remaining kilos are the remaining litres. Divide by the keg's full volume for the fraction. Tilting it to feel the weight only distinguishes nearly full from nearly empty.

How much does a full 50 litre keg weigh?

Roughly 60 kilograms all up — about 50 kg of beer plus the shell. The shell is the part that varies: steel and plastic kegs differ by several kilos, so use the tare stamped on your own keg rather than a generic figure.

Why is my keg variance always high?

Usually beer that left the keg without being sold rather than a counting error. Line cleaning is the big one — a full line goes to waste every clean. Then foam from the first pours after a change, gas pressure set too high, warm lines in summer, and unrecorded tasters.

Can you count kegs without a scale?

Yes, but only consistently. Count full kegs exactly and record every open keg as the same agreed fraction each time. A rough number used identically every month still gives a readable trend; a fresh guess each month produces noise that looks like variance.

Stocktake6 min read

How to count a keg that is already on tap

A full keg counts itself. The problem is the three that are part-poured, and the honest answer is that you cannot eyeball a steel cylinder — so this is how to weigh one, and how to get a usable number when you have no scale.

Last updated 12 September 2026

Weigh it. There is no other honest method

A bottle tells you what is left because you can see through it. A keg is opaque steel, so every method that is not weighing is a guess — including the two you will be offered, which are tilting it to feel the slosh and counting how many days it has been on.

Tilting tells you the difference between nearly full and nearly empty and nothing in between. Days-on-tap is a sales estimate wearing a stocktake costume: it assumes this week poured like last week, which is the assumption a stocktake exists to test.

Use the tare stamped on the keg, not a chart off the internet

The arithmetic is simple: weigh the keg, subtract the empty weight, and divide by what a full one holds. The part that goes wrong is the empty weight.

Keg tare varies by brewery and by how old the shell is — steel and plastic kegs of the same volume differ by several kilos, and that difference lands entirely in your variance. Most kegs have the tare stamped or printed on the chime. Use that number, write it against the item once, and it is right forever.

Gross weight − tare weight = weight of beer remaining
Beer is close enough to 1 kg per litre for stocktake purposes
So: (gross − tare) ÷ full litres = the fraction of a keg you have left
Record the fraction, not the kilos — next month's comparison needs the same unit

Common Australian keg sizes

Sizes vary by brewery and by what the venue has agreed to take, so confirm yours rather than assuming. These are the ones most commonly seen in Australian venues.

Size	Typically	Notes
50 L	The standard full keg for mainstream draught	Heavy when full — around 60 kg all up. Two people, or a trolley.
30 L	Common for craft and for slower lines	Easier to handle, and less at risk if the line does not move.
20 L	Small-batch, guest taps, cider	Often plastic — the tare differs from a steel keg of any size.

Counting the cellar without a scale

If there is no scale, do not pretend to a precision you do not have. Count full kegs exactly, and record every open keg as a single agreed fraction — a half — applied the same way every month.

A consistent rough number gives you a trend you can read. A different guess each month gives you noise that looks like variance, and you will spend an afternoon chasing a leak that is really just two people estimating differently. A cheap platform scale pays for itself the first time it stops that.

The line, the first pour, and where kegs actually leak

Keg variance is usually not theft, and it is usually not the count. It is beer that left the keg without being sold, and there is a predictable list of where it goes.

Line cleaning — a full line of beer is pushed to waste every clean. Count how many lines and how often, because it adds up to real money over a month.
The first pours after a change — foam until the line settles.
Gas set too high, which over-carbonates and turns pints into foam all shift.
Warm lines in summer on a long run from the cellar.
Tasters and staff drinks nobody wrote down.
A keg swapped mid-count, so it gets counted in the cellar and on the line.

Count the cellar last, and freeze it

Kegs move during a count in a way bottles do not: a line blows, someone swaps it, and the keg you counted five minutes ago is now on tap and half gone.

Count the cellar last, after service has stopped, and tell whoever is on that nothing moves until you say so. If a keg has to be changed mid-count, write it down at the moment it happens rather than trusting anyone to remember at the end.

Or let Stocktake do it

Regentflow holds the empty weight of each keg size with the item, so the cellar count is a weight in and a number out — and voice mode means you can say it with cold hands.

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Questions

How do you tell how much beer is left in a keg?: Weigh it and subtract the empty weight stamped on the chime. Beer is close enough to one kilogram per litre, so the remaining kilos are the remaining litres. Divide by the keg's full volume for the fraction. Tilting it to feel the weight only distinguishes nearly full from nearly empty.
How much does a full 50 litre keg weigh?: Roughly 60 kilograms all up — about 50 kg of beer plus the shell. The shell is the part that varies: steel and plastic kegs differ by several kilos, so use the tare stamped on your own keg rather than a generic figure.
Why is my keg variance always high?: Usually beer that left the keg without being sold rather than a counting error. Line cleaning is the big one — a full line goes to waste every clean. Then foam from the first pours after a change, gas pressure set too high, warm lines in summer, and unrecorded tasters.
Can you count kegs without a scale?: Yes, but only consistently. Count full kegs exactly and record every open keg as the same agreed fraction each time. A rough number used identically every month still gives a readable trend; a fresh guess each month produces noise that looks like variance.