I have a beer barrel in 1:16 at home, http://www.bierfactory.ch/fass.html (it's the 50 litre barrel, the third one on the right), and wonder if anyone here knows how they looked like during WW2. Were they traditional wood ones during this time period or more modern looking, so I can use the one that I have at home?
Cheers, Jens
Beer barrels
Re: Beer barrels
think most would have been wood as the aluminium would have been in aircraft
Re: Beer barrels
Hi,
Interesting question. I know that pressurised containers were used in the UK as early as the 1930's (Watneys Red Barrel being one of the first).
I would guess that wooden barrels would not have been used in the field because they are fragile compared to metal kegs, expensive to make, difficult to fit with tamperproof seals and prone to leakage if handled too roughly.
I would also guess that the American taste for filtered, pasteurised fizzy beer (nitrogen or co2) helped promote the use of metal kegs for bulk storage and shipping and it is possible that WW2 made the spread of keg beers inevitable.
A lot of beer was also supplied in bottles. According to my Dear Old Dad, who served in North Africa and Palestine it was brewed specially and was awful.
There are records of beer being shipped to Europe after D-day in drop tanks fitted to Spitfires, but this may have been done as a propoganda stunt.
But what the kegs looked like, their size and capacity and the fittings on them I can't help and a quick search on Google was not much help either.
But didn't the Allies run a pipe under the Channel to supply fuel? I would have thought that a pipe for beer would have been almost as important!
Just my two pennyworth, based on a lifetime of experience of beer!
Peter
Interesting question. I know that pressurised containers were used in the UK as early as the 1930's (Watneys Red Barrel being one of the first).
I would guess that wooden barrels would not have been used in the field because they are fragile compared to metal kegs, expensive to make, difficult to fit with tamperproof seals and prone to leakage if handled too roughly.
I would also guess that the American taste for filtered, pasteurised fizzy beer (nitrogen or co2) helped promote the use of metal kegs for bulk storage and shipping and it is possible that WW2 made the spread of keg beers inevitable.
A lot of beer was also supplied in bottles. According to my Dear Old Dad, who served in North Africa and Palestine it was brewed specially and was awful.
There are records of beer being shipped to Europe after D-day in drop tanks fitted to Spitfires, but this may have been done as a propoganda stunt.
But what the kegs looked like, their size and capacity and the fittings on them I can't help and a quick search on Google was not much help either.
But didn't the Allies run a pipe under the Channel to supply fuel? I would have thought that a pipe for beer would have been almost as important!
Just my two pennyworth, based on a lifetime of experience of beer!
Peter
Re: Beer barrels
Maybe that would have been the biggest threat towards the invasion being a succes? Beer being pumped through the oil pipelines? 
Anyway, thanks for the answers. I'm planning on buying a 1:16 scale 1931 Ford civilian car, pickup or transporter to have beside my KT in our apartment, and maybe the beer keg could be used on that one.
Cheers, Jens
Anyway, thanks for the answers. I'm planning on buying a 1:16 scale 1931 Ford civilian car, pickup or transporter to have beside my KT in our apartment, and maybe the beer keg could be used on that one.
Cheers, Jens
