A standard 50-litre keg pours about 88 pints. The exact figure depends on keg size, glass size and how much you lose to foam and line cleaning.
If you are stocking a bar, planning an event or working out what to order, the number that matters is not the one on the keg — it is the number of saleable pints that reach a customer. Here is how the two differ.
How many pints are in a keg?
A 50-litre keg holds 88 imperial pints before wastage. A 30-litre keg holds about 52 pints, and a 20-litre keg about 35.
The arithmetic is simple: one imperial pint is 568ml, so 50,000ml divided by 568 gives 88.03. What complicates it is everything that happens between the keg and the till.
What are the standard keg sizes in the UK?
UK draught beer comes mainly in 50-litre and 30-litre kegs, with 20-litre and 11-gallon casks also common. Cask ale is measured in gallons rather than litres, which is why firkins and pins appear alongside metric kegs on the same order sheet.
| Container | Volume | Pints (before wastage) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50L keg | 50 litres | 88 | Standard lager and stout |
| 30L keg | 30 litres | 52 | Slower-moving lines, craft |
| 20L keg | 20 litres | 35 | Guest beers, small venues |
| Firkin (cask) | 9 gallons / 41L | 72 | Cask ale |
| Pin (cask) | 4.5 gallons / 20.5L | 36 | Cask ale, low volume |
How much beer do you lose to wastage?
Expect to lose roughly 5–10% of a keg to foam, line cleaning and pull-through. On a 50-litre keg that is around 4–9 pints gone before anyone pays for them.
Line cleaning is the biggest single cause, and it is not optional — a bar with long draw lines loses more per clean than one with short lines. When you are costing a keg, work from about 80 saleable pints on a 50-litre rather than 88.
How many kegs does a bar need per week?
Work backwards from sales, not from storage. If a line sells 200 pints a week, that is roughly two and a half 50-litre kegs, so you order three and carry the remainder.
The trap is ordering to fill the cellar rather than to match turnover. Beer has a finite shelf life once it leaves the brewery, and a slow line with too much stock behind it pours worse every week.
How long does a keg last once tapped?
A tapped keg of pasteurised lager under gas typically stays good for 3–4 weeks; unpasteurised and cask beer is far shorter, often 3–5 days once broached. Untapped and correctly stored, kegs last months.
This is why keg size is a stock decision, not just a price decision. A 30-litre keg of a slow-moving craft line will nearly always outperform a 50-litre of the same beer, because the last third of the bigger keg is served past its best.
Should you buy 50L or 30L kegs?
Buy 50-litre for anything selling more than about a keg a week, and 30-litre for everything slower. The unit cost per pint is lower on the larger keg, but only if you sell it before quality drops.
For a venue with several guest lines, a mix is usually right: your core lager in 50L, everything rotating in 30L or 20L.
Buying beer by the keg and case
Drinks Empire Company supplies wholesale beer in bulk to bars, retailers and distributors — Heineken, Guinness, Corona, Carlsberg, Stella Artois and more, in bottles and cans by the case and pallet.
We are a licensed UK alcohol wholesaler registered under HMRC’s Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS URN XZAW00000111737), which trade buyers can verify — see how to check an AWRS number. Tell us the brands and volumes you need and we will send trade pricing.