Kegland are a brewing supply company that provide homebrewing equipment at a sensible price. I was in need of some small kegs for storage and clearing of my mead and fruit wines, so i bought myself a couple of their 9.5 litre kegs. As these are just half size versions of their 19 litre kegs, I thought I’d post a Kegland Keg Review.
I use other Kegland products, such as the Blowtie spunding valve, which I have reviewed here, and I have been happy with the performance of those. I was therefore looking forward to trying this new keg.
Outside the Keg
As a disclaimer, I have no affiliation with Kegland. I purchased these kegs, as a cheaper alternative to my usual AEG kegs. The Kegland kegs are less expensive than the AEG version , and therefore I worried that the quality may be lower. This is an honest assessment of the products I have received, which may help other buyers before they purchase .
Straight out of the box, the keg looks great. The steel is bright and unmarked. Inside and out, the keg has been acid bath passivated, which should give years of service without corrosion. The stamping/engraving on the front is very clear. Overall, the kegs look excellent.
The kegs are NSF approved, which gives some more piece of mind as to the quality for food and beverage handling.
The rubber handles look well bonded to the steel, and feel sturdy. There are no bubbles or gaps in the rubber, to indicate bad molding.
The top of the keg is a standard ‘corny keg’ set up. The lid has a pressure relief valve and the usual spring steel, flip over latch. The spot welding of the latch tabs looks as durable as my AEG lids.
Under the Lid
On the underside of the lid, the sanitary welding looks good on the pressure relief valve.
Also on the underside is a hook, for suspending a hop basket. The attachment method for this is three small ‘tack’ welds. Whilst the convenience of the hook is useful, there is a large area between the lid and the hook base plate that can collect bacteria. As the plate is very flush to the lid, this is difficult to clean. I can see this requiring careful attention when cleaning.
Admittedly, the liquid usually won’t be in contact with this section, however, I often store kegs on their side (that’s another article) so this lid contact would cause me concern.
Unfortunately, the lid seal that came with my keg is the old silicon style. You can tell this by the colour. The old silicon rings are white, whereas the new LOW2 O-Rings are yellow. The LOW2 o-rings are high-barrier elastomer O-Rings, which look and feel like silicon, however they have a much greater oxygen barrier capability. I like these O-rings, as they are much easier to seal than the black butyl rubber rings on my AEG kegs, and they keep the beer fresher for longer than the silicon rings. Check out the Kegland video on the testing of this here.
Inside the Keg
Looking inside the keg, it appears well finished with no rough edges or lips to trap dirt. The dip tube sits nicely positioned right to the bottom of the drain dimple in the base.
The sanitary welds inside are of very good quality. On close inspection, I can see no pitting or undercutting of the weld. This should make the keg very easy to clean, with no risk of trapping dirt or infection. If I run my finger along the weld lines, they feel smooth, with no spikes to catch cleaning cloths.
The inlet and outlet posts are of the ball lock type. I particularly like this style of post. The post fully diassembles upon removal from the keg
My other kegs have posts that trap the poppet valve and spring inside with a catch. These are difficult to dissassemble, and really require a pump to run cleaner through them.
The Kegland posts are, however, simple to clean and reassemble. Do not undo these posts with the keg in the sink. If the poppet falls out, it will easily fall down the drain.
Conclusion
Overall, everything I can see says that the Kegland kegs are of excellent quality. Certainly equal to more expensive brands. Time will tell whether they stand up to constant and hard use. I will update this article in the future, when i have used these for a good period.
More details can be found on their site here
The final question is: would I buy more of these kegs. Yes, absolutely.