Copycat kegs will waste half your keg in spillage. They have non-removable taps and no spring to turn them off when bumped. You (or family members) WILL constantly knock the handle and fill your fridge, floor or car with spilled drinks.

The iKegger 2.0 tap has an auto-off spring and is designed to be hard to accidentaly bump. It also comes with a clip to lock the tap for transport.

Copycat kegs have to be stored and poured upright with the tap and regulator connected at all times (as they can't be removed without gas and liquid leaking). This means you have to take out half the shelves in your fridge, in order to put their keg in (and will constantly bump the tap).

Get Sideways with iKegger.

A quick twist of the spout lets you switch in seconds between pouring a drink from a lying down keg slotted into a fridge shelf and upright on your table.

The regulator can also be removed at any point, thanks to a click on and off valve, and the tap spout can be removed for ultra compact storage.

Copycat kegs will either shoot out glasses of foam, or pour flat lifeless drinks.

The cheap chrome taps they come with have no way to adjust the flow speed. If the inaccurate regulator managed to maintain the correct keg pressure, the tap would just shoot out foam when turned on. The only way to slow the flow is to turn the keg pressure down, which will cause your drink to go flat.

The intuitive iKegger 2.0 tap allows you to adjust the flow speed depending on how hard you press the button, while the regulator maintains the perfect keg pressure.

Press softly on the machined stainless steel tap for a slow trickle, ideal for filling a delicate cocktail glass with luxurious creme on top.

A little harder will pour the perfect pint, with just the right amount of head. Press all the way for a cold soda in a hurry.

Competitor products come in 2L or 4L sizes, and the tap is made for EITHER carbonated drinks (beer, soda, cider) or nitro-infused ones (coffee & cocktails). The tap system is what makes up most of the expense of the package and you are forced to buy a new one for each size of keg, and type of drink.

The 2.0 Tap fits all our mini kegs and pours any drink perfectly. Own one tap system, then swap the keg and gas bulb as needed.

Pour both carbonated and nitro-infused drinks perfectly, from 2, 4, 5 and 10L kegs, in both insulated and uninsulated versions.

Slide a little 2L standard keg into the work fridge on Monday for Nitro Coffee at the press of a button all week.

Switch the tap to a 5L insulated keg for the weekend. Get a refill at your local brewery or distillery (or from cans and bottles) & turn up to a BBQ with frosty cold drinks on tap and no need to drag a cooler of ice and rubbish around.

Our premium black kegs will keep drinks cold (or hot) all day. They have a double-wall of stainless steel with a vacuum between, the same way a Thermos is made. This gives excellent insulation so cold drinks will still be frosty 10 hours later, even on the hottest day. No need to buy ice and drag an esky to your next gathering.

Our standard silver kegs take up less space in your fridge or esky for the same number of drinks are a great budget-friendly option due to having a single wall design.

Look at the pictures on copycat keg websites / amazon etc. We almost guarantee that none of them will be real photos (look at the angle of liquid flow into glasses, whether the regulator has a gas bulb installed etc) because they are cheaply made, drop-shipped from China and the seller has never actually used them themselves to take photos of.

At iKegger we live and breathe mini kegs. We have thousands of photos and videos of our gear in use, because we use them ourselves daily and can give perfect customer support because of that.

We pack and send daily from our warehouse in Wollongong with Auspost and are available nearly constantly to answer questions or give customer support.

More Info On iKegger vs Copycat Differences

Mini Keg Usage Has Exploded Since 2015

There are now hundreds of companies selling mini kegs systems that all look kind of the same, but have wildly different price tags, so let's take a dive into what the differences are and whether they are worth the price tag difference.

So what are the differences between them?

Taps that stick shut and grow mould / bacteria inside them.

Regulators that don't maintain the set pressure

Taps and regualtors that can't ben removed from a full keg

 

 

 

Is it worth paying more for a brand name or just getting the cheapest option you can find?

It used to be that there was only iKegger, because they developed the original ones back in 2014-15 but since then hundreSome seem to have a higher price tag than othersMini kegs are our passion, it's as simple as that. No one else on the planet knows mini kegs like Oner or myself do.

We designed the original iKegger in 2015 and have used them every day ourselves since then. Over the 8 years since the original, we've expanded it's capabilities and performance using our 1st hand knowledge, combined with the feedback of over 40,000 customers. That is what made the iKegger 2.0 the easy-to-use, robust, compact, and versatile device that it is today. 

We know that there are cheap imitations out there that look similar to our products, but that's like saying an iPhone 12 looks like a Nokia 5110. Yeah, they have a similar shape and similar basic functions but that's where it ends. 

So let's breakdown how mini kegs work so that you can recognise the features in copycat kegs which will just be annoying vs those which will actually make it dangerous if you decide to spend your hard-earned cash on one.

A couple of quick things to look out for that will ensure you are buying from someone who has no idea how a mini keg works.

1. No real pictures or videos of it in use. Most of these copycat companies have never even opened the box so they use VERY fake pictures of the keg with drinks beside it or in situations like camping. 
2. Instructions with incorrect steps, bad translations or sequences of images that don't make sense. If they don't know that you need to have a gas bulb in the regulator to pour a drink, or that if the regulator is upside down lwith a bulb screwed in iquid CO2 will possibly do irrervsible damage to it, they really have no idea how the system works and just sell a $2 regualtor they can replace everytime someone complains. 

Let's start from the most dangerous and go through to just frustrating

1. Lack of gas safety features - regulators without vent holes, serial numbers, or pressure release valves. These can cause explosions and serious injury. No exaggeration, we had one we were testing go off like a rocket and punch through a wall with a SodaStream bottle attached. Without a serial number there is no way to track if there is an issue with a particular batch.
2. Un-passivated kegs - these will react with liquids and at best cause a very unpleasant metallic taste to develop within a day or two of having the drink in the keg. At worst they can rust insdie and out. (Yes, un-passivated stainless steel can rust, it has iron content at various levels depending on the grade of stainless steel).

 

 We've tested them all (most come from one of 2 factories in China, often using the same photos and flawed instructions and just changing the brand name) and unfortunately, you won't easily see what the differences are without having what to look out for pointed out to you. Nor will you know which differences are a mere inconvenience (like having to check 20 different joins for gas leaks each time) vs potentially dangerous (like regulators without safety features), until you part with your hard-earned cash for one, unless you continue reading below

 

What is the iKegger difference?

 

Brands selling copycat iKeggers do so by slapping together cheap parts that look similar to our products, but 90% of the people selling them have never used the kit themselves, let alone spent hundreds of hours testing the difference that a 0.5mm wider spout or a 5psi stronger spring has on a beer pour, or a cocktails foam retention. 

 

A quick check is to look at the images they use on their website, amazon or ebay.

 

I can tell you right now that they will have stock pictures of glasses of beer (or images stolen from our website) with their keg picture stuck onto it.

 

 

 

 

the image of the keg you will rarely see genuine pictures or video of it pouring. In those rare cases where they have them, videos showing pouring will be only a few seconds long and not show how the glass ends up, just the seconds before it turns into a frothy mess.

 

Unfortunately, the purchaser also doesn't understand what is missing as their frustration grows with being unable to pour a pint properly, or keep a drink bubbly, etc.

 

for the customer they don't understand the differecnes until after they start using it and realise how many issues they have. Then they either throw it in the cupboard and think all mini kegs are a waste of time, or they come to us wishing they had bought well and bought once.

 

We know because we've tested them all ourselves and we almost guarantee that if you buy a knock-off at least one of these things will happen:

 

1. The gas regulator will not stay at a steady pressure, you will need to constantly adjust it, and will end up with either flat or over-carbonated drinks.
2. The keg will not have been passivated and if you leave a drink in it for more than a day it will end up tasting horrible & metallic.
3. The tap will never stop dripping, or it will stick shut and have to be removed and cleaned out before you can pour another drink.
4. The tap system will be held together with a whole bunch of adapters and joiners, all of which are sites for potential gas leaks and dripping.
5. You will be unable to remove the tap or regulator to transport the keg or to store it in the fridge. It will take up twice the space because of this and you will be continuously bumping the tap and causing a mess in your fridge, car, or on your mate's carpet.

 

By heading to your local brewery, bar, coffee roaster, premix cocktail maker or kombucha brewer for a refill, you are preventing the huge waste caused by pre-packaged beverage logistics chains and supporting local businesses who need all the help they can get to compete with colesworth and liquordan. Plus you'll meet some legends in your area!

More Info On Refilling vs Recyling

Do You Know What These 3 Arrows Symbolise?

Most people, once they hear the words, know that the 3 arrows represent the words Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

These are the 3 things that individual people can do to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible.

However, what many people don't think about is that they are arranged in order from most to least effective in terms of how much pollution they prevent.

Especially common is using Reuse and Recycle interchangeably when actually they are very different things!

So... What Do They Really Mean?

Reduce - This really just applies to everything. Modern people consume so many resources unneccessarily for convienience or simply because they don't realise the damage their actions have. Using less products of any sort means less production / manufacturing pollution, less transport emissions, less packaging rubbish. It doesn't matter if the product is a plastic bag while shopping or an apple that just gets thrown in the bin rather than eaten. Reducing is by far the best thing we can do for the environment.

Most people think of plastics when they hear the word REDUCE and plastics are where we can really do better. Australia is the second highest producer of waste per capita in the world (after the USA) producing on average 690kg of landfill per person, per year. That's enough to cover Victoria, every year.

Australians used 5.66 BILLION plastic bags in 2016-17.
The amount of fossil fuels used in the production of 8.7 single use plastic bags is the same as it takes to drive an average car 1km (According to the 2002 Nolan ITU Report for Environment Australia on Plastic Shopping Bags - Analysis of Levies and Environmental Impacts).
Only 3% of plastic bags are recycled in Australia.
Those 3 facts together leave us with the figure that, with the recycled bags removed, 1,188 plastic bags per second are going into landfill or the ocean in Australia, all day, everyday.

In non-renewable fossil fuel usage that is the equivalent of one car driving 136km per second around australia constantly. That sounds fast but it's just one car I hear you say...

If we convert that one car going super fast into cars going a steady 50km/hr we get 10,000.

That means we throw plastic bags into landfill or the ocean with the same amount of fossil fuel locked into their production as 10,000 cars driving at 50km/hr. Every second of every day.

Reuse - Of those things we can't reduce in our lives (no one is saying you shouldn't buy food or clothes or luxuries when you feel you need to!) the second best thing we can do is reuse them. Whether that is reusing shopping bags, shipping pallets, clothes or anything else. Reusing means taking a product that has all those production, shipping and packaging pollutions attached to it's existence and instead of simply disposing of it finding a way to continue it's lifecycle. Reusing a plastic bag is a no brainer, selling old clothes or donating them instead of throwing them out is reusing. Turning an old shipping pallet into a coffee table takes more work but it is what all the cool kids are doing. By reusing an item rather than disposing of it you are preventing landfill, wastage and production pollution of the replacement product that would be purchased/used instead.

This is where iKegger comes in, we make our mini kegs to last a lifetime, literally. They are stainless steel and will be here long after you and I have departed (but can be 100% recycled into something else at any point). It's not the best business model out there but one stainless steel mini keg replaces up to 30 cans or botttles, their packaging, shipping emissions etc per refill, forever.

We think that's a better idea than selling something that's designed to break 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty runs out, although our bank manager might not agree.

Recycle - Recycling is when items are broken back down to their components and remade into something else. Aluminium is a great example of this, it uses 95% less resources to recycle an aluminium can back into a new can than it does to create one from scratch! Which sounds great until you realise that 10% of all the electricity generated in Australia is used to produce aluminium. It is a hugely energy hungry process so 5% of it is still a huge amount.

Even worse is when we look at how a can is produced or recycled.

The first time a can is made it goes something like this:

Bauxite (aluminium ore) is mined in Australia, we produce about 30% of the bauxite in the world.
1/4 of that ore we ship direct to China. For the other 3/4 we use 10% of our entire countries energy to turn into Alumina (a white powder that is smelted to produce aluminium). 90% of this Alumina is exported to China.
In China the ore and alumina are smelted into pure aluminium bars.
The bars are trucked to factories that form them into sheets
This is trucked to factories that turn it into cans.
The cans are packed onto pallets (approx 5-7000 per pallet) and wrapped in plastic to hold them together.
The pallets are packed into shipping containers and trucked to a port where they are loaded on a ship and sent back to Australia.
Breweries and other beverage manufacturers buy them so they are trucked out to them to be filled.
The brewery unwraps the pallets, throws out the packaging and usually about 5-10% of the cans that have been damaged in transit.
After filling them the cans are labelled and usually packed into plastic 4 pack holders, these are put into cardboard boxes.
The boxes are then put back onto plastic wrapped pallets to be sent out to bottleshops etc.
The retailers unloads them, throws away the plastic wrapping and some of the cardboard boxes and puts them out for sale
We come in and buy our cans, either indivdually, with a plastic 4 pack or in a box of multiple plastic 4 packs and take them home.
We throw out the plastic and cardboard (or hopefully reuse / recycle it)
We drink the beverage and hopefully put the can into the recycling bin, it is the easiest item to recycle after all!
Unfortunately despite this only around 56% of the cans sold in Australia are recycled, the rest end up in landfill or the natural environment.
Our recycling bin is picked up by a truck and taken to a sorting centre where machines and people get most of them seperated from other items in the bins.
The scrap aluminium is crushed into blocks, packed in containers, trucked to ports and 95% of the 56% that's been recylced is shipped back overseas to be melted back down into pure aluminium.
The missing 44% that's ended up as rubbish is lost and replaced by newly mined ore to create the same number of cans.
And repeat....
As you can see, while recycling is hugely beneficial to the environement (even with all those steps above don't forget that 95% less electricity, water and fossil fuels are used to recycle a can than to produce a new one!) reusing a single vessel over and over again without any further environmental impact is FAR better for the world.