The tap is what you put on top of the keg to open it and allow the beer to flow out and Co2 to push in.  If you went with one of the counter top units,  this does not apply to you at all since you only have one option and they are all the same.  For the rest of us, there are a huge number of different taps out there leaving you with a question of which one do I want.

The simple answer to this issue is to buy a US Sankey tap and ignore it entirely.  You will have access to probably 90 % of the types of beer that you can buy in this country.  If you can agree that this is okay,  you can skip this article and move on to the next page.  For the others.

There are two main situations that I would look to go to an alternate tap rather then a US Sankey.  The first is for home brewing.  Since I use the Cornelius kegs for home brew,  I have a special spout that is just for home brew.  This spout goes back to the proper ball lock connector to go onto the cornie keg and my Co2 is split to run to a ball lock gas in valve.

The other situation would be for someone who really enjoys drinking foreign beers.  Foreign beers tend to have different tap styles and I can’t tell you which one you need.  In the next section of the series when we talk about distributors, you will need to call them and ask what they tap style is for the type of beer that you like.  If you want variety, you can have one US Sankey for most beers and then a second one for whatever special beers that you like.

You can see the a list of the major types of taps and the brewers that use them at Micro Matic Beer Brand Keg Lookup.  I can’t vouch for the accuracy of it all, but these rarely change.

Now lets get to buying you beer.