PortlandKegs.com 503-760-7096

Home | Pricing & Rental Info | Beer & Draft Info | Contact Us & Directions

Beer & Draft Info

Draught Beer or (Draft)

Draught (or Draft) beer is almost always un-pasteurized and therefore is more fragile. It should be consumed after being "tapped", and is generally truer to the flavors of the ingredients as pasteurization exposes the beer to heat and changes the flavor profile. Always use brewery approved beer line if you want to have foam free fresh tasting beer. Serving it through a plastic tube from the hardware or discount store or the plain vinyl tubing in your beer tap system you will wind up with a foamy, off tasting beer. Real draught beer is not pasteurized. It must be kept refrigerated between 35F. and 44F. A beer will become wild, turn sour and cloudy in a day or two. Below 44F. a keg of draught beer should last 20-30 days before it loses it's fresh brewery taste and aroma. Craft beers (micro brews) tend to have a shorter shelf life and you should contact the brewery for their recommendations.

Why does my beer foam up?

The 3 most often causes of beer foaming up are:

The temperature of the beer keg
The balance of the draught beer system pressures
The cleanliness of the draught beer system

Beer Types

Ale	AN AROMATIC BREW THAT IS USUALLY MORE FULL-BODIED AND BITTER THAN "REGULAR" BEER PRODUCED FROM TOP-FERMENTATION.
Alt	OLD-STYLE DARK GERMAN BEER, VERY SIMILAR TO ALE.
Barley	A CEREAL GRAIN CONVERTED TO MALT THAT IS ONE OF THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF BEER.
Bock	A STRONG, DARK, HEAVY BEER ORIGINALLY BREWED IN THE FALL AS A WINTER WARMER.
Cream Ale	USUALLY A BLEND OF LAYERED BEER AND ALE.
Dark Beer	LAGER BEER MADE BY USING ROASTED BARLEY.
Draught Beer	TRADITIONALLY MEANT TO BE KEG BEER, BUT NOW ALSO PACKAGED.
Extra Special Bitter (ESB)	FULL BODY, STRONG, HOPPY AND AMBER IN COLOR.
Hops	NATURAL, AROMATIC HERBS THAT PROVIDE THE LEVEL OF BITTERNESS IN BEER AND ACT AS A NATURAL PRESERVATIVE.
Lager	BOTTOM-FERMENTED BEER THAT HAS BEEN "LAGERED" (STORED OR AGED) AT NEAR FREEZING FOR A FEW DAYS TO SEVERAL WEEKS, DEPENDING UPON THE BREWER. MOST AMERICAN AND IMPORTED BEERS ARE LAGERS. LAGERING IMPROVES BOTH THE TASTE AND STABILITY OF BEER.
Light Beer	LAGER BEER BREWED TO HAVE LOWER LEVELS OF CALORIES. THEY ALSO GENERALLY HAVE LOWER LEVELS OF ALCOHOL.
Malt	SPOUTED BARLEY THAT IS THEN KILN-DRIED. THE TYPE OF MALT DETERMINES THE LEVEL OF SWEETNESS IN THE BEER.
Malt Liquor	A LAGER BEER BREWED TO HAVE HIGH ALCOHOL CONTENT.
Micro-Brew	HAND CRAFTED, MADE WITH ONLY TRADITIONAL INGREDIENTS WITHOUT CHEMICALS. THESE BEERS ARE BREWED AND AGED SLOWLY TO ALLOW FLAVORS TO COME THROUGH.
Non-Alcoholic Beer	REQUIRED BY LAW TO BE CALLED "MALTED BEVERAGE". THEY GENERALLY CONTAIN LESS THAN .5% ALCOHOL. THE ALCOHOL IS REMOVED BY INTERRUPTING THE FERMENTATION CYCLE OR THROUGH VACUUM EVAPORATION.
Pale	MEDIUM MALTINESS, HIGH HOP BITTERNESS, AND GOLD IN COLOR.
Pilsner	A TYPE OF LAGER BEER, GENERALLY MEANING LIGHT IN COLOR AND RELATIVELY LIGHT IN TASTE.
Porter	A STYLE OF DARK BEER THAT WAS POPULAR IN ENGLAND TWO TO THREE CENTURIES AGO. IT RESEMBLES A BLEND OF DARK ALE AND STOUT.
Stout	A VERY DARK TYPE OF ALL THAT IS EXTREMELY MALTY IN TASTE AND SLIGHTLY BITTER, MADE USING ROASTED BARLEY MALT.
Wheat Beer	MEDIUM-BODY, CLOUDY OR CLEAR, FRUITY AND SPICY - LOW IN ALCOHOL.

Keg Valves

D = American Sankey	A = German Slider
S = European Sankey	G = Bass/Caffrey's
HS = Hoff Stevens	U = Guinness/Harp

Beer	Coupler/Tap	Beer	Coupler/tap	Beer	Coupler/Tap
Amstel/Amstel Light	S	High Falls	D	Old Milwaukee	HS
Anchor Steam	G	Hoegaarden	S	Old Speckled Hen	U
Bass Ale	G	Hornsby's	D	Old Vienna	D
Beamish	S	Ice House	D	Pabst	D
Beck's	S	Iron City	HS	Paulaner	A
Blue Moon	D	Ithaca	HS	Pete's Wicked	D
Boddington's	U	John Courage	S	Pilsner Urquell	S
Breckenridge	D	JW Dundee	D	Red Dog/Red Hook/Red Wolf	D
Brooklyn Breweries	D	Killian's Red	D	Rouge	D
Bud Ice/Bud Light/Budweiser	D	Labbatt's Blue	D	Sammy Adams/Saranac	D
Busch	D	Lowenbrau	S	Schaefer/Schlitz	HS
Caffrey's	G	McEwan's	S	Scottish New Castle	S
Carlsberg	D	McSorley's	HS	Shipyard	D
Cider Jack	D	Michael Shea's	D	Sierra Nevada	D
Coors/Coors light	D	Michelob/Michelob Light/Michelob Specialty	D	Spaten	A
DAB	S	Middle Ages	D	St. Pauli Girl	S
Dos Equis	D	Miller	D	Strohs	HS
Double Diamond	S	Milwaukee's Best	D	Warsteiner	A
Foster's	D	Molson	D	Watney's	G
Fuller's	G	Moosehead	D	Weinhard's	D
Genesee	D	Murphy's Irish Stout	S	Woodpecker	S
Guinness	U	Natural Ice/Natural Light	D	Yuengling	HS
Hacker-Pschorr	A	New Amsterdam	HS	Zebra	HS
Heineken	S	Odoul's	D