Empty kegs and casks: who owns them, missing-container charges, and the free stock check sitting in your yard

You never own the keg. Brewers keep ownership of every keg and cask they send out, and plenty belong to container-hire firms instead. Most beer containers in the UK go out without a deposit, but suppliers' trading terms put the job of getting empties back on you, and some reserve the right to charge a deposit, a replacement cost for a container that goes missing, or a charge for one that comes back damaged. The BBPA put the industry's yearly bill for lost and misused containers at over £50m. The bit nobody mentions: the pile of empties out the back is a free check on your draught sales, if you count it.

Search for anything about empty kegs and you get American brewers moaning about stolen steel, or a Morning Advertiser piece from 2006. Nothing written from behind a British bar about what you're actually liable for, what to sign, and how the empties tie back to your stock. So here it is.

Who owns the empties

Not you, and not the pub. The BBPA's good-practice guidance, published through Cask Marque, says brewers always keep ownership of their kegs and casks, that a large number are owned by third-party logistics firms, and that every container is marked with who owns it. Its figures: almost half of UK beer production goes out in kegs or casks, an average container lasts 15 years, and there are up to 8 million kegs in use at any one time. Those figures are from 2014, so treat them as the shape rather than this year's count.

Keg Watch, the non-profit the brewers set up to get lost containers back, is blunter. Containers aren't part of a property sale and should go back to their owners. You can't sell them on eBay or Facebook Marketplace, and they say they monitor those sites daily and a sale could end in prosecution. If a brewery's closed, the keg still isn't yours. They're usually sold on to another brewer.

What suppliers' terms actually say

There's no single industry rule here. It's whatever your supplier's terms of trade say, so read yours. These three published sets show the range:

If you're tied, your containers mostly come through the pubco's own distribution, so the terms that count are in your tie and supply paperwork. The principle's the same: the empties are somebody else's property sitting in your yard, and you've agreed to give them back.

The paperwork is where charges start

A container charge nearly always comes down to one number on one delivery note. The BBPA's checklist for pubs has six points, and four of them are about paper and people rather than storage:

BBPA good practice	What goes wrong if you skip it
Store containers safely, inside if you can, from delivery to collection	Empties left on the street get lifted, and they're still on your account
If they're outside, secure them and don't use them for anything else	A cask propping a door open is a cask you can't prove you returned
Return empties on every delivery, and ask for surplus ones to be collected	A pile builds up, nobody knows the count, and the supplier's record says you've got more than you think
Check the delivery note shows the right number of empties collected	The driver writes 4, you handed over 6, and those 2 are now "missing"
Sign it for both fulls and empties	An unsigned collection is your word against their system
If in doubt, ask for ID. Only authorised staff collect empties	Somebody in a van takes your empties and they were never the brewery's driver

Checking the empties line is the same job as checking the fulls. If you count a short delivery before you sign, count what goes out the door too. The short delivery guide covers the fulls side and the claim windows.

The free stock check in your yard

This is the bit I actually care about. Every empty keg is a keg that went down a line. So between two counts, you can work out how many kegs of each beer you used without guessing:

Kegs used = full kegs at the last count + kegs delivered since − full kegs now

(Adjust by eye for the one on the line if it's at a very different level from last time. Or weigh it. The keg calibration guide shows how.)

Multiply by what a keg really sells and compare with the till. A worked example, my arithmetic, for one lager line over a week:

Step	Figure
Full kegs at last count	6
Delivered since	10
Full kegs now	5
Kegs used	11
Sellable pints, at 84 to 86 a keg	924 to 946
Pints on the till	880
Gap	44 to 66 pints
At £5.34 a pint	About £235 to £352 at the till price

The 84 to 86 is the working figure from my pints-in-a-keg guide: 88 pints in an 11-gallon keg, less what's left at the bottom and what goes at each change. Log line cleaning separately, because it's a real cost but it's not missing. The line cleaning guide shows how much it is per line.

A gap that size isn't proof of anything. It could be free pours, a fobbing line, a keg that went back for credit, or a till button that's ringing lager as something else. But it tells you which line to look at this week instead of waiting a month for the stocktaker. The till not matching stocktake guide goes through what to check first, and what's a normal amount of draught waste tells you when to worry.

Then the empties count is the check on the check. Kegs used, less the empties that have already gone back on delivery notes, should match what's in the yard. If it doesn't, either one went back full and you didn't record it, or one's walked.

Full kegs going back

Faulty or out-of-date beer that goes back unopened is a different thing from an empty. Make sure it's written on the collection note as a full, with the product, or you'll pay for the beer and maybe the container too. Whether you get a credit for the beer depends on your supplier and on the duty rules, which changed in 2023. My ullage and wastage claims guide sets out who claims what.

Got old containers lying about?

Taken over a pub with a pile of empties from three breweries? Keg Watch says to contact them with a list of the quantities and the owning brewers, and they'll arrange for the owners or themselves to collect, free of charge. Don't bin them, don't sell them, and don't let a scrap man take them.

Where StockTap fits, and where it doesn't

StockTap counts the beer, not the steel. You set each keg or cask size once, count full containers, and weigh or dip the one on the line, then the spot check against the till shows the gap by line. It doesn't track who owns which container or reconcile your empties against the brewery's returns. That's still a delivery note and a pen. If you want the gap-by-line sum above done for you every week, that's what the count is for.

Common questions

Do pubs own the kegs and casks beer comes in?

No. Brewers keep ownership of their kegs and casks, and many are owned by container-hire firms. They're marked with the owner and have to go back. They aren't part of a property sale and can't be sold on.

Can a brewery charge me for missing kegs?

It depends on your supplier's terms of trade. Some published terms reserve the right to charge a deposit, a replacement cost for a container that isn't returned, or a charge for one returned damaged. Check yours, and check every collection is written on a signed delivery note.

Is there a deposit on beer kegs in the UK?

Generally not. The BBPA's guidance says deposits haven't been brought in across the industry because of the admin and the cash-flow hit to customers, but some brewers and wholesalers do charge one under their own terms.

What do I do with old kegs left at a pub I've taken over?

Contact Keg Watch with a list of quantities and the brewers that own them. They arrange collection by the owners or themselves, free of charge. Don't sell or scrap them.

How can empty kegs help with stock control?

Kegs used between two counts equals full kegs at the last count plus deliveries minus full kegs now. Multiply by what a keg really sells, about 84 to 86 pints for an 11-gallon keg, and compare with the till to see which line has a gap.