A kegerator pours from a keg. A bottle or can is packaged beer with a TTB label. Serving format, not a ranking and not tonight’s board. Parts live on the DIY home tap guide and the kegerator parts.

Two ways the same beer leaves the brewery

BJCP’s style guidelines describe the beer. Yeast family, strength band, bitterness. Not the vessel. A German Pils is still a lager style whether it comes from a tap or a 12-ounce bottle. The American Homebrewers Association’s ale vs lager page is the same split used on lager vs ale. Format does not change the yeast.

Kegerator: draft at home

A kegerator is a fridge or freezer with a keg, gas, beer line, and a faucet. Gas moves the beer; the line restricts the pour; the shank meets the fridge wall; the faucet is what you pull. That order is on the DIY tap page. A home keg is usually a Corny keg or a commercial sixth-barrel. It is not a growler fill unless the host says so.

Draft at a taproom is the same serving idea without the home fridge. The board names style and ABV. It does not reprint BJCP. Use the host’s page or the chalkboard; do not read this paragraph as inventory.

Bottles and cans: packaged beer

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau publishes beer labeling rules for packaged malt beverages sold in the United States. A bottle or can that enters interstate commerce carries a TTB-reviewed label: brand name, class and type, name and address of the bottler or importer, and net contents. Alcohol content on beer is optional under TTB in many cases; when a host prints ABV on a bottle, that is their label, not a number a number this page copies.

A six-pack is a labeled package. A kegerator pour is draft. Both can be the same recipe. The label is what TTB regulates on the package; the tap list is what the room writes on the board.

What this does not claim

Draft is not automatically fresher. Bottles are not automatically more stable. Those are cellar and turnover questions the brewery or the taproom answers, not a rule this page will write. Tasting notes and patio rankings stay with the rooms that print them. Yeast family still lives on lager vs ale.

How to use it

If you want a home tap, start with gas, line, shank, and faucet on How a home tap is put together, then the parts. If you are reading a bottle, read the TTB class/type line and the ABV if it is printed. If you are reading a board, style and ABV still come first. See How to read a tap list.

Updated 2026-08-31.

Sources

  1. BJCP Style Guidelines. beer styles by yeast family and fermentation, not by vessel.
  2. BJCP. Yeast and Fermentation. ale vs lager species and temperature ranges.
  3. American Homebrewers Association. Ale vs Lager. same yeast split used on this site’s lager vs ale page.
  4. TTB. Beer. federal beer pages, including labeling of packaged malt beverages.
  5. TTB. Beer labeling. brand, class and type, bottler, net contents on a package.
  6. Orlando Tap Works. DIY home tap. kegerator parts in pour order.