Esprit Venture Challenge: Kegstand
We are producing a 40% lighter keg for beer and other liquid distribution. By doing this, we can directly reduce both distribution costs and environmental impact for brewers. In addition to reducing distribution costs and impacts, having a lighter keg means there will be less injury claims for handling kegs, which handling kegs currently causes around 50% of injuries in breweries.
Through 112 customer development interviews, we've found that the near unanimous problem with kegs is their weight. Equally as important, we've found that a brewer's top priorites are safety and maintaining beer quality throughout its lifecycle. The traditional stainless steel keg is causing the weight problem, while the alternative, the plastic PET Keg, solves the weight problem but ignores the brewer's priorities.
Our keg, the Fiberlite, is made from a thin inner stainless steel shell and is wrapped in fiberglass. This technique (thin steel and fiberglass) is already used to make pressure vessels for aerospace and military applications (COPV). This material combo is what allows us to cut the weight from the keg, as traditional kegs just have a thick stainless steel shell. In addition to that, our keg meets the brewer's priorities of safety and maintaining beer quality.