Leasing Programs
Many companies offer leasing options through finance companies as an alternative to purchasing kegs outright. $1.70 per keg per month is a typical advertised rate for a long-term (five-year) lease with a buyback at the end of the term. Sabco and Spartanburg Stainless Products Inc. (Spartanburg, South Carolina) are two companies that offer leasing.

Keg Management Programs
Keeping track of your kegs takes work. You must record deposits and track down wayward kegs. (Anheuser-Busch estimates that they lose 10-13% of their kegs a year.)

One company, S&S Traffic Management (Houston, Texas), offers a service called Kegspediter. The service is designed to help larger breweries, particularly overseas companies, manage their U.S. inventories; the company collects kegs from distributors, stores them, and ultimately returns them to the brewery.

The newest idea in keg management comes from Microstar Keg Management (Englewood, Colorado), who call their service an outsourcing program. Instead of paying monthly fees to lease a set number of kegs, you pay a fee whenever you use one of their kegs. The downside, of course, is that you don't own your own kegs, and consequently they don't have your name on them. But the potential advantages are compelling. The fees vary according to size of the market area, with lower fees charged for narrower distribution areas, and depending on your needs and usage, the costs can be competitive with standard financing deals. In exchange for the per-keg fee, the company picks up your kegs from the distributor, handles deposits, and delivers kegs to you as you need them, relieving you of the administrative hassle of tracking your inventory. If you own straight-sided Sankey-style kegs, they'll even buy them from you, freeing up your capital for other things. The company demands that its clients maintain strict cleaning protocols, and strictly prohibits its customers from putting anything but beer or cider into the kegs, so you won't be getting kegs tainted with root beer or wine.