Bands on Barrels

You may remember my earlier post about a meal in The Old Smithy Inn during my recent trip to Devon. Well, after the meal I stepped outside to take some pictures and took this one of a load of, presumably empty, beer kegs in a lane at the side of the pub.

When I went to upload the photograph I found myself wondering about the significance of the coloured bands. I guessed they were to do with what brewery the beer comes from but I also discovered they help with security too.

Apparently hundreds of thousands of kegs go missing in the pub trade each year and the loss and misuse of them and casks costs the beer industry in excess of £50m.

I'm not surprised they go missing. We could quite easily have walked off with a couple. 😂

^{Be sure to click on the image to view it full screen!}

More Interesting Beer Keg Facts:

At any given time, there are up to 8 million kegs in use in the UK, supplying draught beer on a scale that is unique to Britain.

Using kegs and casks avoids the use of around 7.5 billion bottles or cans every year. 😱

Cask Colour Banding is a voluntary system created by The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) & Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) on behalf of UK brewers.

They maintain a registry and offer advice on how to keep kegs and casks secure.

According to their website it is vitally important that brewers are able to rely on the availability of sufficient kegs and casks in order to ensure the supply of draught beer. Something that is very important to a large number of Brits including myself. 😁

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