Not anymore. Over the past event season, dozens of festivals and events across the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain have once again been supplied with tank beer instead of traditional kegs. And while tank beer at events is certainly not new, the type of events using it is changing.
Years ago, tank beer was mainly associated with large, multi-day festivals. These were events with high beer volumes where the logistical advantages of supplying beer in tanks were obvious.
Today, we see breweries increasingly choosing tank beer for much smaller and shorter events as well. Even one-day events and local festivals can now benefit from the same principles.
So what has changed?
For a long time, the business case for tank beer at events was largely driven by volume. The bigger and longer the festival, the easier it was to justify using tanks instead of 50-litre kegs.
But event logistics have evolved, and so has the equipment.
Duotank has continued to develop its Event Tank specifically to make temporary tank beer installations easier and more flexible. As a result, using tank beer no longer needs to involve a complex temporary installation.
The system has become increasingly plug & play, allowing breweries and event operators to deploy tank beer at locations where it would previously have been more practical to use kegs.
This has significantly broadened the range of events for which tank beer can be an interesting option.
At a busy event, every 50-litre keg eventually has to be replaced. And every keg change interrupts the beer supply, even if only briefly. It also results in a certain amount of beer loss during the changeover.
Multiply those changes across several bars, taps and thousands of visitors, and both keg handling and beer loss become a considerable part of the operation.
One 10 HL Event Tank holds the same volume as 20 × 50 L kegs.
Fewer beer changes therefore mean less handling, fewer interruptions and less beer loss, while helping to maintain a more continuous beer supply during peak moments.
For events where large numbers of beers need to be served in a relatively short period of time, that can make a significant operational difference.
Capacity alone, however, is not enough. At an event, maintaining the right beer temperature is just as important as having sufficient volume available.
One of the most important developments has been making the Event Tank a self-contained solution. The Duotank Event Tank combines beer storage with the technology required to keep the beer at the correct temperature and pressure.
With an integrated cooling system and compressor, the unit is designed as a plug & play solution. Connect the required utilities and the tank can maintain the conditions needed for serving cold tank beer throughout the event.
Temperature protection through the tank’s insulation, even if the power supply is interrupted.
Thanks to the high level of insulation of the Event Tank, the beer can remain at temperature for up to 24 hours even in the event of a power failure. This significantly reduces the risk of the beer warming up if the electricity supply at an event is temporarily interrupted.
That provides an important additional level of security in an event environment, where temporary power supplies and infrastructure can sometimes be less predictable than in a permanent hospitality venue.
Whether the tanks are positioned behind an event bar, in a temporary technical area or elsewhere on the festival site, breweries have much more flexibility in how the tank beer setup is organised.
Another development that has helped broaden the use of tank beer at events is monitoring.
Duotank has developed different options for monitoring the beer flow and tank conditions. This gives breweries and operators greater insight into what is happening during an event.
Instead of only knowing how much beer was sent to the event, tank beer systems can provide more visibility into beer volumes and consumption.
For larger events with multiple bars or tanks, this information can become particularly valuable. It helps operators understand beer consumption and makes it easier to manage supply during busy periods.
The Event Tank is therefore becoming more than simply a large alternative to a keg. It can become part of a more controlled and professional event beer operation.
Perhaps the best illustration of this development is the enormous difference between the events where the same basic concept can now be used.
At one end of the spectrum, an Event Tank can be an interesting solution for a local annual event with around 2,000 visitors.
At the other end are major international events attracting tens of thousands of visitors and operating for several consecutive days.
Tank beer is used at events on this scale too, including the three-day Formula 1 weekends at Zandvoort in the Netherlands and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
The volumes, logistics and number of tanks may be completely different, but the principle remains the same: provide a large volume of cold beer while reducing the dependence on individual kegs and keg changes.
This past season in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain once again demonstrated how broad the application of tank beer at events has become.
The question for breweries is therefore changing.
“Is this event big enough for tank beer?”
Increasingly, the better question is:
“Would tank beer make the beer operation at this event easier?”
With plug & play Event Tanks, integrated cooling, temperature protection through tank insulation, fewer beer changes, reduced beer loss and different options for monitoring the beer flow, the answer is relevant to a much wider range of events than it was only a few years ago.
From a local festival with 2,000 visitors to an international Formula 1 weekend, tank beer can provide a scalable way to serve large volumes of fresh, cold beer efficiently and reliably.
And that is exactly why we expect to see tank beer at an increasingly diverse range of events in the seasons ahead.