Best Way/Place to Buy Kegs

[Monovitae]

Hi, I currently have a C02 door mounted kegerator setup. I originally signed up for the generally better quality of draft beer as opposed to cans or bottles the cool factor and some other reasons as well. But to get to the point, I had always heard that there were considerable savings associated with draft beer sometimes close to 50% off of the canned price. However, I had done some calling around for prices of cans versus their kegs and performed some calculations as follows.
Smiths Food & Drug Keystone 30 Pk = 360 Oz $14.99. Price/Can $.50
Smiths Food & Drug Keystone 1/2 Keg = 1984 Oz $68.00 Price/Can $.41
Town and Country Keystone 30 Pk = 360 Oz $12.99 Price/Can $.43
Town and Country Keystone 1/2Keg = 1984 Oz $71 Price/Can $.43

The best case senario in this situation is a change from $.50 to $.41 or a change of 18% or if I compare the best price of cans to the best price of keg its a change of $.43 to $.41 or roughly 5% change.

Given the data it leads me to two possible conclusions. 1. The savings typically experienced are limited to higher priced beers, allowing me to say drink bud for the price of keystone. Or 2. There are other outlets from which I could be aquiring my kegs, in most grocery stores that I called their price per oz. was the same for cans as it was for kegs on most of their beers. I know of 3 distributors and 1 brewrery in my area and a number of packaged liquor stores will these places sell kegs for residential draft use? Is there a better way to go about buying kegs?

[Lou Marconi]

Mono,

I am new to this game too, but the local liquor store told me they can order just about anything you want. I agree that the savings are probably greater in a higher priced beer. If you are going to drink Keystone you might as well just buy the 30 pack and not go through the extra effort of having it on draft at home. Increase your "cool factor" by getting something that is a bit more "exotic".

Just my $.02

Lou

[Monovitae]

Yeh I have a double output regulator and I'm thinking of running two kegs, one for good stuff, and then keystone for other uses such as pong. I immagine it is the case that you see better savings on premium beers. I would be intrested to know in general if distributors will sell to residential customers, because my local stores say the same thing that they can order anything I want in within about half a day to a day, so what they are ordering has to come from one of the local distros and then I assume the grocery store just tacks on their own premium to the distro price.

[topgun3208]

dont know bout your state, but MD has the three tier system, cant buy from distributors here. you need to go to a liquor store for all purchases, I think it is crap. just my .02

"If I had to live my life over, I'd live over a saloon"

[CoreyD]

You should check around, it might be worth a drive. Here in New York you can still get kegs of Bud for about $60 and an 18pk of 12oz bottles for $9.99.

[BigStein]

Never thought I would see the day where someone took the time to break down the price per ounce on Keystone.

[topgun3208]

ooooooph! [xx(]

"If I had to live my life over, I'd live over a saloon"