Free Draft Beer Cost Calculator — Price Every Pour for Profit
Pricing draft beer by gut feel is one of the fastest ways to leak profit behind the bar. This free draft beer cost calculator tells you exactly what each pour costs you and what you should charge — based on your actual keg cost, your pour size, and a realistic 20% waste allowance for foam, line cleaning, and spillage. Pick your keg size, punch in two numbers, and you have your answer in seconds.
Draft Beer Cost Calculator
Price your draft beers from keg cost — waste included
Waste is fixed at 20% to account for foam, line cleaning, spillage, and free pours. A 1/2 keg holds 1,984 oz (15.5 gallons); a 1/6 log holds 661 oz (5.16 gallons). Suggested price targets a 25% pour cost.
How Draft Beer Costing Works
Every keg has a fixed number of ounces. A standard 1/2 barrel keg holds 1,984 ounces (15.5 gallons), and a 1/6 barrel — often called a log or sixtel — holds 661 ounces (5.16 gallons). Divide the sellable ounces by your pour size and you know how many drinks you can sell per keg. Divide your keg cost by that number and you have your true cost per pour.
Why 20% Waste Is Built In
No bar pours 100% of a keg into paying glasses. Between foam, line cleaning, the first cloudy pours after tapping, over-pours, and the occasional buy-back, the industry rule of thumb is that 20% of every keg never generates revenue. This calculator deducts that waste automatically, so your cost per pour reflects reality — not the theoretical maximum printed on the keg.
What Is Pour Cost?
Pour cost is the percentage of a drink's selling price that goes to the product itself. If a pint costs you $1.00 to pour and you sell it for $4.00, your pour cost is 25%. This calculator prices every beer at a 25% pour cost — a healthy industry target for draft beer that leaves a 75% gross margin to cover labor, overhead, and profit.
How Many Pints Are in a Keg?
After 20% waste, a 1/2 keg yields roughly 99 sixteen-ounce pints, and a 1/6 log yields about 33. If you pour 12-ounce glasses, those numbers jump to about 132 and 44. The calculator does this math instantly for any pour size you enter.
How to Use This Calculator
Select your keg size — 1/2 keg or 1/6 log
Enter what you pay for the keg from your distributor
Enter your pour size in ounces
Instantly see cost per pour, suggested menu price, sellable pours, and total profit per keg
FAQ Section
How many pints are in a half keg? A 1/2 barrel keg holds 1,984 ounces, which is 124 sixteen-ounce pints at the theoretical maximum. After a realistic 20% waste allowance for foam and spillage, expect about 99 sellable pints per half keg.
How many beers are in a 1/6 keg (sixtel)? A 1/6 barrel holds 661 ounces — about 41 pints at maximum, or roughly 33 sellable 16-ounce pours after 20% waste. Sixtels are popular for craft and rotating taps because they keep beer fresher on slower-moving lines.
What is a good pour cost for draft beer? Most bars target a draft beer pour cost between 20% and 25%. At 25%, a beer that costs you $1.00 to pour sells for $4.00. Draft beer is typically one of the highest-margin items in a bar when priced correctly.
How do I calculate the cost per pint of beer? Take your keg cost, divide it by the number of sellable pours in the keg (total ounces minus waste, divided by your pour size). For example, a $120 half keg with 99 sellable pints costs about $1.21 per pint.
How much profit is in a keg of beer? A $120 half keg priced at a 25% pour cost generates roughly $480 in revenue across ~99 pints, leaving around $360 in gross profit per keg. Actual profit depends on your keg cost, pour size, pricing, and how well you control waste.
Why do bars lose money on draft beer? The most common causes are untracked waste (foam, over-pours, free drinks), incorrect pricing that ignores waste, and stale kegs on slow lines. Calculating your true cost per pour — including waste — is the first step to fixing it.