More recently it's been used to bend steel truck frames or to produce beer kegs.
Not everyone thinks kombucha kegs and the mass commercial production of the tea is a good idea.
In Los Angeles, unfortunately, most high schools are powder kegs and Jefferson is really a pretty typical example.
In 18th-century London, instead of dumping old, sour beer, publicans would top off stale kegs with a fresh delivery.
No, in the fall of 1999 the Fed chief wheeled up to the party with Bud kegs and togas.
Robots were brought in to maximize space and allow for the quick loading and unloading of kegs and beer pallets.
For example, it's now tracking what happens to the kegs it delivers to restaurants and retrieving them sooner for reuse.
The vast majority are not bothered because they buy drinking water either in sachets or in plastic kegs from street vendors.
"Kegs are a pretty big expense for a small brewery, " Hilliard says.
Eric Childs, whose company KBBK Kombucha Brooklyn produces the tea in a variety of flavors, says he delivers kegs to nearly 30 restaurants, bars and cafes across the city.
Jeff Hack-Davies, the company's packaging operations manager, tells me this line alone has enabled them to produce 60 to 70 thousand kegs per week compared to 3, 000 eight years ago.
The event always begins on Saturday with a citywide parade and symbolic transport of kegs from downtown to the festival park, where the Mayor taps the first one and proclaims Oktoberfest open.
Diageo found creative ways to trim the price, by using local barley and sorghum, by putting the beer in big kegs rather than costly bottles and by inventing a cheap hand-pump to serve it.
"My gut tells me we're bigger, " says Brad Skerritt, the Whistler pub's manager, who backed down when he learned O'Hanlon's expects to go through nearly twice the 25 kegs Dubh Linn Gate anticipates selling Saturday.
WSJ: Little Pub on the Prairie: A Saskatchewan Tavern Tries to Pull Ahead on St. Patrick's Day
But the Uber offices themselves have the usual Silicon Valley accouterments as I walk with Mr. Kalanick to a cluttered conference room, we pass a game room with a Foosball table, a Pepsi-stocked fridge and two tapped beer kegs.
WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Travis Kalanick: The Transportation Trustbuster
Sky-high metals prices combined with the weak U.S. economy in recent years have led brazen thieves to strip copper wire out of vacant homes, swipe stainless-steel beer kegs from bars and even make off with manhole covers, street lights and parts of fire hydrants.
应用推荐