Cold Side, Episode 5: Six Hundred Kegs: The Asset You Never Counted Most brewers can tell you what one keg costs and almost none can tell you what the whole fleet is worth, where it is today, or how much of it is never coming home. This episode puts a number on the capital a keg fleet ties up, a separate number on what it quietly loses every year, and is careful about which of the two ever reaches your bank account. The number: $19,375 of steel you would not have had to buy. Assume 600 half-barrels at $125 each and 2,000 fills a year, and that fleet turns 3.3 times; at 4.5 turns those same 2,000 fills need only 445 kegs, leaving 155 surplus. Nobody sends you that money, though, because the steel is already bought: growing, it is kegs you don't buy next spring, and flat, it is surplus you would have to sell at a loss to realize. The figure that does leave your bank account is the other one, 8% attrition on 600 kegs, which is 48 kegs and $6,000 a year, every year. The action: Count the kegs in your building today. Empty, full, dirty, all of it. Then write down what you think you own. The difference is out in the world, and some of it isn't coming home. Segments: 0:00 First Runnings 1:16 Hot Side: what a keg fleet is worth, what it loses every year, and the difference between surplus steel and money 8:50 Ask BrewBuddy: "How many kegs did I deliver to accounts in June, and how many different accounts took them?" 9:38 Dry Hops 10:44 Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. Every figure we cite, we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. This episode carries no industry statistics at all: the $125 keg price, the 8% attrition rate and the 4.5-turn target are assumptions, and each one is labeled out loud on air in the same breath it is introduced. The Ask BrewBuddy segment is a live query run against a real account, played back unedited. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverage producers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com
