Kegging System

Kegs are a growth channel hiding in plain sight for juice brands. Selling cold-press juice on draft at a restaurant, cafe, or retailer removes the bottle cost, extends shelf life through a sealed keg environment, and creates repeat velocity at the account level that case sales rarely match. The problem is getting into kegs requires a real system: a filler, a CO2 or nitrogen supply setup, a sanitary transfer line, and a way to turn kegs around between accounts. That equipment package typically runs $60,000 to $200,000 for a commercial-grade setup.

We finance kegging systems for cold-press juice brands, kombucha producers, and cold-brew roasters. The transaction floor is $50,000, with many of our kegging-system clients coming in around $100,000 to $150,000 when they bundle the filler, cleaning station, and gas management into one deal. B and C credit are considered. Applications up to roughly $400,000 run on application-only terms, and funding typically closes in one to two weeks.

What a Commercial Kegging System Includes

A kegging system for a juice or beverage brand is more than a filler head. The core components are a sanitary filling station (counter-pressure or gravity depending on your product's carbonation level), a gas panel for CO2 or nitrogen, stainless-steel transfer lines and fittings, and a keg cleaning and sanitizing station. For non-carbonated cold-press juice, nitrogen purge is used to displace oxygen before filling, extending shelf life without introducing carbonation.

Counter-pressure fillers let you fill carbonated products (including nitro cold-brew and sparkling juice) without losing gas volume during the fill. Gravity fillers are simpler and less expensive, appropriate for still products like raw cold-press juice or kombucha with minimal carbonation tolerance.

The keg washer and filler is the anchor of any serious kegging operation. Some brands start with a manual or semi-automatic unit at $20,000 to $40,000, but for brands moving more than 100 kegs per week, an automatic inline unit at $80,000 to $150,000 is the better investment. It cuts per-keg labor cost and reduces variability in sanitation, which matters for juice brands with short-shelf-life products.

• Stainless-steel 304 or 316 contact surfaces across all product-contact components
• CO2 or nitrogen manifolds with adjustable pressure regulators per fill point
• CIP-compatible design allows cleaning without disassembly
• Keg-type flexibility (Sankey-D, European Sankey, ball-lock) depending on your account base

Who Is Adding Kegging Capability

The most common profile we see is a bottled juice brand that has landed its first major foodservice or grocery-deli account and needs to supply on draft. The account wants the brand, but the terms include a keg format, and the brand has never done kegging before. Financing the full setup, rather than trying to piece it together from used components, gets the account supplied faster and more reliably.

Kombucha producers are another strong category. Kombucha on draft has become a significant revenue channel for brewers who can maintain tap accounts, and the economics per keg are better than per bottle at scale once the equipment is paid down. We see both established producers adding a dedicated kegging line and newer brands that are launching kegged product first as their primary channel before moving into bottles.

Coffee and cold-brew roasters adding nitro cold brew to their lineup often need kegging capability alongside a nitro cold-brew system, and bundling both on one financing agreement is a clean way to equip the full cold-brew draft program without a large capital outlay in one quarter.

Costs and How Financing Structures the Investment

Entry-level kegging setups for a small juice brand start around $25,000 to $40,000, below our minimum. A mid-scale commercial setup with a semi-automatic filler, a cleaning station, a CO2/nitrogen panel, and a keg inventory runs $60,000 to $100,000. Full-production kegging lines with automatic washers and fillers for brands supplying 200-plus kegs per week run $120,000 to $200,000 or more.

An equipment loan on a $120,000 kegging system over 48 months gives the brand a consistent monthly payment against depreciating iron, with full ownership at payoff. An equipment lease on the same system can keep the monthly number lower and is sometimes preferred when the brand expects to upgrade to a higher-capacity unit in four to five years. We will model both scenarios in the quote.

Get Your Kegging System Financed

Tell us the equipment package and the vendor quote. We turn around a term sheet in 48 hours so you can move forward with the account you are trying to supply.

Related Financing Paths