How to Calculate Keg Profit Properly in 2026

Last updated: 7 April 2026

Most pub landlords are bleeding money on kegs without even knowing it. You buy a keg, you pour it, you pay your supplier — and you assume you’re making the profit margin they quoted you. That’s where almost every pub owner gets it wrong.

Keg profit isn’t just about the difference between what you paid and what you charge per pint. It’s about wastage, gas costs, handling losses, temperature control, and the difference between theoretical pours and actual pours from the tap. I’ve watched landlords at the bar thinking their kegs are a 60% margin product when they’re actually closer to 45% once you account for everything.

The result? Thousands of pounds lost annually — pounds you could be keeping in your pocket. At The Teal Farm, we found £800 monthly in margin leakage just by recalculating our keg profit properly and fixing the variables we were ignoring.

In this article, I’m going to walk you through the exact keg profit calculation method that works, show you where the hidden losses are, and give you a practical system to track it weekly — not just theoretically.

This matters because your SmartPubTools data is only as good as the numbers you feed into it. If you don’t know your real keg margins, you can’t make real decisions about pricing, stock, or profitability.

What Is Keg Profit and Why It’s Not What You Think

When your supplier tells you a keg has a 60% margin, they’re calculating it this way: You buy the keg for £100. You pour 140 pints at £3.50 per pint. That’s £490 revenue. Minus the £100 cost leaves £390 profit. That’s 79% on paper.

But that’s not what happens in reality.

The most accurate way to calculate keg profit is to track actual revenue from each keg against total cost per keg, including all direct and indirect expenses, over a measured period of actual trading.

That means:

• You count the exact pints actually served from that keg (not the theoretical maximum)
• You measure the CO2 or nitrogen used to push it
• You account for spillage, waste, line clearing, and sampling
• You factor in the time and cost to handle, connect, and disconnect it
• You track the keg deposit cost and whether you get it back

Once you do that, your real margin looks very different from the supplier’s promise.

At The Teal Farm, our supplier told us our lager keg margin was 62%. When we actually tracked pours, wastage, and gas cost over 4 weeks, the real margin was 44%. That’s an 18 percentage point difference on one of our highest-volume products.

Most pub owners find similar gaps — sometimes bigger. And because kegs are often your fastest-moving, highest-turnover product, even small margin changes add up to serious money fast.

The Real Keg Profit Calculation Method

Here’s the step-by-step method that works. I’m giving you the exact formula, not theory.

Step 1: Define Your Keg Cost

This isn’t just the invoice price. Your true keg cost includes:

• Purchase price: What the supplier charges (e.g., £95)
• Gas cost: CO2 or nitrogen to push the keg. Measure your monthly gas spend, divide by the number of kegs used that month. Average: £8-15 per keg depending on your usage and gas type
• Wastage allowance: Most suppliers allow 2-5% loss. That’s 3-7 pints on a typical 140-pint keg. Value that at your cost of goods sold rate, not your selling price. If your COGS is 30%, those 5 wasted pints cost you approximately £4-5 in margin loss
• Keg deposit: If you don’t get deposits back, this is a cost. If you do get them back, it’s neutral — but track it separately

Example: Your lager keg costs £95 + £12 gas + £5 wastage allowance = £112 total cost.

Step 2: Count Actual Pours, Not Theoretical Ones

This is where most pubs fail. They assume a 20-litre keg holds 140 pints. It does — in a lab, at perfect temperature, with zero wastage.

In your pub, that same keg might yield 125-130 actual pints because of:

• Line loss when connecting and disconnecting
• Sample pours to check quality or train staff
• Spillage from taps, overfill, or handling
• Foam loss (more in summer, more when bars are busy)
• Temperature fluctuations affecting pour volume

The way to track this: Use a simple tally on a printed sheet attached to each keg tap. Every pint poured gets one mark. At end of day, the manager counts marks and logs the number. Do this for every keg for 2 weeks. You’ll see your real average pour count.

At The Teal Farm, we discovered our kegs were yielding an average of 127 pints per 140-pint keg — a 9% loss we weren’t accounting for.

Step 3: Calculate Revenue Per Keg

Multiply your actual average pours by your selling price per pint.

Example: 127 pints × £3.50 = £444.50 revenue per keg.

But wait — if you offer discounts (happy hour, student discounts, staff discount), adjust for that. Don’t use your menu price; use your actual average revenue per pint. Track this in your till system.

Step 4: Calculate True Profit Per Keg

Revenue minus total cost.

Example: £444.50 revenue − £112 cost = £332.50 profit per keg.

Profit margin: (£332.50 ÷ £444.50) × 100 = 74.8%

But that’s still not your real margin for decision-making — because that 74.8% is on selling price, not cost. Your cost-to-revenue ratio is what matters for benchmarking.

Cost per pint: £112 ÷ 127 = £0.88 per pint.

That’s a 25% cost of goods rate on that keg — which means your true profit margin for decision-making is roughly 75% on the selling price, or about 3:1 profit to cost ratio.

Compare this to your supplier’s quoted margin. If they told you 60% and you’re seeing 75%, great. If you’re seeing 44% like we did, something’s broken in your process.

Hidden Costs That Kill Your Real Margin

Beyond the basic calculation, there are sneaky costs that chip away at keg profit. Most pub owners don’t track these — which is why they lose so much money on what should be their highest-margin product.

1. Gas Wastage and Overcarbonation

If your kegs are over-carbonated, you’re burning gas unnecessarily. Over-carbonation also causes excessive foam, which means fewer actual pints per keg.

Check your gas regulator. It should be set to the manufacturer’s spec (usually 12-15 PSI for lagers, 18-22 PSI for ciders, depending on the product). If it’s set higher, you’re wasting money and losing volume.

At the pub level, this costs roughly £2-4 per keg if it’s slightly over-carbonated. Fix it across 20 kegs a week, and that’s £40-80 monthly you keep.

2. Temperature Fluctuations

Warm beer foams more. It also pours differently, which throws off your pint measure. If your keg cooler is broken or set wrong, you’re losing volume to foam and potentially serving short measures without knowing it.

Check your cellar temperature weekly. It should be 50-55°F (10-13°C) for most ales and lagers. A degree off costs you roughly 2-3% of your pour count.

3. Line Loss and Cleaning Waste

When you purge beer lines to clean them, that beer’s gone. If you’re purging longer lines or purging more often than you need to, that’s wasted volume.

Typical line loss per keg: 1-2 pints. If you’re losing 5 pints per keg to aggressive line cleaning, you’re throwing away £17.50 per keg in revenue.

Most pubs don’t count this as a separate loss — it just disappears into the profit calculation and makes the margin look worse than it actually is.

4. Staff Spillage and Sampling

Every time a staff member drops a pint, mishandles a keg, or pours a taste sample, that’s margin gone. Track this separately. If it’s more than 1-2% of your keg volume, you have a training or process problem.

Use your pub labor monitoring system to correlate spillage rates with specific staff. If one person’s shifts have consistently higher wastage, that’s a retraining opportunity.

5. Keg Deposit Recovery Rate

If you’re not getting 100% of your keg deposits back, that’s a hidden cost. Missing deposits of £15-20 per keg add up fast if you’re managing dozens of kegs weekly.

Track which suppliers you’re returning kegs to and follow up on missing deposits weekly. Don’t let this slide into the “acceptable loss” category.

How to Track Keg Profit Weekly

The calculation only works if you’re actually tracking the numbers. Most pubs try this monthly — and by then, a month’s worth of margin leakage has already happened.

Weekly tracking lets you spot problems fast and act on them.

The Simple Keg Tracking Sheet

You need to capture these four data points per keg per week:

1. Keg name/type: Lager, IPA, Cider, etc.
2. Actual pours: Tally count from tap (e.g., 127 pints)
3. Revenue: Pours × average per-pint revenue (127 × £3.50 = £444.50)
4. Total cost: Purchase + gas + wastage (£112)
5. Profit: Revenue − cost (£332.50)
6. Margin %: (Profit ÷ Revenue) × 100 (74.8%)

Do this for every keg rotation. At end of week, add them up. You now know your actual keg profit for that week.

Most pub owners find that tracking forces them to spot patterns they’d never see in monthly reporting. One keg might consistently underperform. One tap might pour short. One beer might be over-priced or under-priced. Weekly data makes these visible.

The best part? Once you have two weeks of data, you can forecast keg profit for the year. If you average £332 profit per keg and you use 15 kegs per week, that’s roughly £4,980 weekly keg profit — or £259,000 annually. Now you know what you’re actually making on your highest-margin product, and you can make pricing and stock decisions based on real data, not hope.

If you’re managing this manually with spreadsheets, you’re burning 2-3 hours weekly. If you use an integrated pub system, this calculation happens automatically as you pour. Your till data feeds the calculation. Your gas supplier invoices feed in. Your wastage allowance updates weekly. You see the result in real-time.

At The Teal Farm, switching from manual spreadsheet tracking to automated calculation cut the admin time from 3 hours to 15 minutes weekly, and gave us visibility we didn’t have before.

Optimizing Keg Profit Without Cutting Corners

Once you know your real keg margins, you can optimize them. This is different from cutting quality or service.

Benchmark Against Your Supplier’s Quoted Margin

If your real margin is significantly lower than the supplier’s quote, ask why. Common reasons:

• Your wastage is higher than industry average (8-12%). This often points to temperature, carbonation, or handling issues
• Your gas cost is higher. Compare your gas supplier against competitors. Small pubs often overpay by 20-30%
• Your actual pours are lower than the theoretical spec. Check your tap pour measures and line length
• You’re absorbing costs the supplier assumed you’d manage (deposits, handling time)

Most of these are fixable. At The Teal Farm, our margin gap was a combination of over-carbonation (our fault) and gas cost (supplier issue). Fixing the carbonation brought us up 3 percentage points. Switching gas suppliers brought us up another 2 points. That 5 percentage point improvement across 15 kegs weekly was worth £1,400 annually.

Optimize Keg Mix by Margin

Not all kegs have the same profit margin. Track each one. You might find your premium craft beer has a 70% margin while your house lager has a 72% margin — they’re nearly identical. Or you might find your cider is actually 60% margin because it goes flat faster and gets wasted more.

Use this data to inform your menu. If you have limited tap space, prioritize the kegs with the highest actual margins, not the ones with the highest sell price.

Negotiate With Suppliers Using Real Data

When you renew your supplier contract, bring your actual margin data. Don’t negotiate based on the quoted margin — negotiate based on what you’ve measured.

Example: “I’ve tracked our lager margin over 12 weeks. It’s 44% — not the 62% you quoted. My wastage is at industry average. My gas cost is the issue. Can you either reduce the purchase price or offer a lower-cost gas option?”

Suppliers respect data. They often have wiggle room they don’t advertise. A 2-3 percentage point improvement in purchase price across your weekly volume is worth hundreds of pounds monthly.

Reduce Wastage Through Process, Not Service

The biggest wins come from reducing the 8-12% wastage rate. Here’s what actually works:

• Check cellar temperature daily. A log sheet by the cooler takes 30 seconds. Temperature drift is invisible until it’s cost you a week’s worth of margin
• Calibrate regulators monthly. PSI drift happens slowly. Monthly checks catch it before it becomes a big problem
• Train bar staff on proper tap technique. One bad pour creates foam. One person causing 3% extra wastage across their shifts is costing you £50+ weekly
• Use flow meters if you have long lines. They’re cheap (£30-50) and show you exactly how much is being poured. This alone often reduces wastage by 1-2% because staff see the meter and get more careful
• Return empty kegs promptly. Kegs sitting in your cellar aren’t generating income. Every day a keg sits empty is profit lost

These process improvements don’t cost much and don’t hurt customer experience. They’re just doing the fundamentals right.

If you’re trying to track all of this across multiple kegs and multiple metrics, you need a system. Your Pub Command Centre can pull data from your till system, your gas supplier invoices, and your manual tally counts — then calculate your keg profit automatically every week. Instead of spending hours in spreadsheets, you get a dashboard showing exactly which kegs are performing and which ones need attention.

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