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Introduction
The ideal storage solution for beer is in sealed, pressurised vessels that are completely impermeable to light and air, since light can rapidly cause beer to go bad in what is referred to as "light struck", and the oxygen component of atmospheric air can cause the ever-dreaded and beer-ruining oxidation.
In homebrewing, cornelius (corny) kegs are often used as part of a draught dispensing setup, but this leads to the problem of not being able to easily determine how much volume is left in the keg since you can't actually see the contents. There's numerous ways to try and work out how much is left, from thermal stickers, to flow meters to measure and track how much has been dispensed, but in our opinion nothing is as simple, accurate and easy as weighing it.
What's more, a weight based system can also be used for measuring the remaining capacity of gas bottles, which in the world of homebrewing is carbon dioxide (CO2).
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| The Keg King KS1 can be used for weighing gas cylinders |
The KS1 from Keg King is a Bluetooth connected scale that when combined with the KegMaster app can be used to actively monitor the capacity of kegs and CO2 bottles. We got our hands on an early unit for testing and this review so let's take a closer look at what it's all about.
Why Weight?
As we mentioned previously, there are numerous ways to try and measure how much is left in a keg, but there are often drawbacks associated with them. Thermal stickers need to be warmed up to show the temperature difference on the keg where the liquid level is, and flow meters can be messy and are a potential source of leaks and contamination.
When measuring the contents of a CO2 gas bottle, the high pressure gauge on the attached regulator is also not a reliable guide, as the pressure inside will vary depending on temperature, and will generally remain consistent until just before the bottle is completely empty when it falls off the proverbial cliff.
Weighing on the other hand is easy and unobtrusive since it doesn't actually require contact with the contents of your vessel. It's also fast, accurate and works independent of temperature, so is definitely the way to go to determine how full (or empty) your keg or gas cylinder is.
A keg/gas weighing system like this is not a new idea either, with Plaato being the first to introduce such a device with the Plaato Keg back in 2019. We have one ourselves which we reviewed back in 2022, but since Plaato discontinued sales in late 2023 and with end of app access and support rapidly approaching in November 2025, there's a gap in the market that Keg King have pounced upon with the release of the KS1 KegScale.
We'll draw a few comparisons between the Plaato Keg and the KS1 KegScales in some of the key areas below.
Packaging & Contents
The KS1 comes packaged as a single, standalone device with nothing else included in the box. The only other thing required to get up and running is a USB-C cable for charging the battery.
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| KegMaster KegScale KS-1 Box (Front) |
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| KegMaster KegScale KS-1 Box (Rear) |
The rear of the box also has QR code links to the KegMaster app which you'll need to install to connect with your KS1.
Battery & Charging
The KS1 features a USB-C charging port on the front panel that is used to charge the onboard lithium ion battery. We like that nearly all electronic devices are adopting this connection type as the standard now (thanks European Union!), so although the KS1 doesn't come with an included USB-C cable, you've probably already got at least one lying around from your other devices, and if you don't, it's worthwhile investing in one as it can be used on most new electronic devices.
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| The KegMaster KS1 KegScale with USB-C charging cable connected |
The Plaato Keg used it's own proprietary cable connection so it's nice that a standardised cable has been used on the KS1 and special cables don't need to be ordered in the event of a loss or breakage.
Upon connecting the cable, the battery indicator light to the left of the port will light up red, until the battery is fully charged when it turns green.
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| The charging light turns green once fully charged |
A minor detail we noticed is that when charging the battery, the status will immediately show 100% within the KegMaster app so you need to check the actual KS1 light status to know when it is fully charged.
Interface
The front panel of the KS1 features (from left to right) a power button, battery charging indicator light, USB-C charging port, activity light, and another button on the right side with a circle that can be used to force the unit to send telemetry updates. Upon pressing this button, the activity light will flash green on the scales and go into a 10 second period of increased telemetry reporting (every half second for 10 seconds).
There is also a matching green flashing light within the app so this can help identify your KegScales if you're using more than one and need to work out which one is which.
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| The front interface of the KegMaster KS1 KegScale |
While most of these features are pretty self explanatory, that last button had us puzzled so we reached out to Keg King directly for clarification on exactly what it does. Some sort of documentation like a label on the button, a diagram included in or on the box would really help with this as we're sure we won't be the only ones who will wonder what this button is for.
Design & Construction
Constructed entirely of plastic, the KS1 features a donut-like shape, with a slightly recessed smaller circle within the larger outer one. The outer circle has a diameter of around 212mm and is the perfect size for a corny keg to sit on, while the smaller one is designed for sitting a CO2 gas cylinder on.
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| KegMaster KS1 diameter is approx 212mm |
Keg King state that the KS1 can be used for 50L kegs, which would inevitably lead to the keg overhanging and making the controls on the front of the KS1 pretty difficult to access (although once it's powered on you should only need to access it for charging.)
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| The KegMaster KS1 is the perfect size for a corny keg to sit on |
On the under side of the KS1, there are four pressure sensors (we're guessing potentiometers) which are used to measure the weight of what is sitting on the scales. Interestingly, the Plaato Keg only had three sensors.
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| KegMaster KS1 - underside with 4 sensors |
The finish is neat with lots of smooth edges, and appears to be well sealed which is important as the unit will inevitably be exposed to moisture; either from sitting in kegerators and other fridges, or from spills or condensation running down from kegs sitting on them.
With a height of approximately 25mm, the relatively low profile of the KS1 is important, since it needs to sit underneath the vessel it is measuring which ultimately raises its total height. With limited headspace in smaller fridges like kegerators, it's crucial that not too much of this working space is lost so kegs and liquid/gas disconnects can be added, removed and changed over.
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| KegMaster KS1 height is approx 25mm |
Working Capacity Range
The KS1 is suitable for kegs/cylinders of all shapes and sizes, all the way up to 50L commercial kegs. There is a stated maximum weight of 60kg (132 lbs.)
Powering On/Off
A short press of the power button switches the unit on and triggers an ascending chime. The activity light flashes for approximately 30 seconds while it starts up, after which another beep can be heard indicating the unit is operational.
There are no other visual cues to indicate that the unit is turned on after this initial startup sequence which is fine and presumably a method to prolong battery life.
Powering off is much the same, but with a slightly longer press of the power button being required to turn the KS1 off, at which point a descending chime is played.
Built-In Thermometer
Temperature is another important variable when serving beer (or other beverages), so the KS1 also features a built-in thermometer so it can measure and report on the temperature of the environment in which it is located. There's no obvious external temperature probe/sensor, so presumably the sensor is within the housing itself, meaning it can take a while for changes in temperature to register.
However, after sitting in our kegerator it eventually measured within 1°C of the fridge temperature (from the thermostat control) so it appears to provide a decent level of accuracy.
Bluetooth Connectivity
Keg King have opted to utilise only Bluetooth connectivity for the KS1. It also appears to leverage Bluetooth broadcasting so the KS1 doesn't actually need to be paired with the receiving device and will automatically appear in the KegMaster app if it's within range.
And speaking of range, we're actually pretty impressed with how good the Bluetooth signal range is. Even with the KS1 sitting underneath a full keg in our outdoor kitchen kegerator, we were able to get updates when sitting a couple of rooms away within the house on our iPhone, so don't be thinking you need to hold your phone up to the fridge door in order to get it to update, the signal penetration of the Bluetooth radio is great.
The decision to not include Wi-Fi connectivity is an interesting one, as it seems to be standard for most "smart" devices these days. But thinking about it, connecting a device to Wi-Fi means exposing it to the Internet, opening it up to a whole range of risks, vulnerabilities, and overheads. Bluetooth is a much more localised and arguably more secure option to use, but does mean some third party integrations that we saw with the Plaato Keg (like taplist.io) may not be feasible.
Bluetooth broadcasting and the lack of requirement for pairing with devices means it's a real plug and play setup, and getting up and running is pretty quick and painless.
Battery Life
The other benefit of Bluetooth connectivity is battery life, since Bluetooth radios use significantly less energy than Wi-Fi. This means you can expect several months of battery life from a full charge of your KS1.
If you really want to go for the hard wired option (like the Plaato keg has), you can run a powered USB-C connection to the KS1 and leave it plugged in, but in our opinion this isn't really necessary based on the aforementioned battery life.
Realistically, as long as the battery lasts as long as the keg that's sitting on it then this will meet most users needs and the KS1 can be removed and charged when a keg is swapped over. Depending on how long a keg lasts for you, you may even be able to go through a couple of full kegs between charges.
As a point of reference, we found the battery would drop 1-2% every day or two, but this may have been a little higher than normal with us powering on/off and messing around with other functions as part of this review.
In any case, we think battery power was a great call here so users have a choice as to whether they want to run cables into their fridge or kegerator.
The KegMaster App
The KegScales won't function without a dedicated app, so we'll now turn our attention to the KegMaster app which is the companion app to use with your KS1.
App Availability
In order to get things operational with your KS1, one of the first things you'll need to do is download the free KegMaster app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. There are convenient QR code links on the back of the supplied box as well, or otherwise just search for "Kegmaster" in your respective app store and it will be the first result returned.
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| The KegMaster app is available via the Apple App Store |
The detail and screenshots in this review are from the Apple version of the KegMaster app, though we assume the Google version of the app would be pretty much identical.
No Sign-Up Required
Once you've got the KegMaster app installed, there's no sign up or login required to get underway. Simply open the app and off you go.
It's an interesting decision to keep the app open like this, as not many apps seem to operate in this manner any more. With data security an ever-growing concern, we think it's a good idea to keep it simple.
The trade-off is that all the setup/configuration is performed and stored within the app itself, so if you lose your phone or upgrade to a new one you'll have to run through the setup process again (unless you're able to restore the app from a device backup or something similar), but once you're familiar with the app, setting it up can be done in a couple of minutes.
Colour Scheme/Interface
The app itself is nice, with a blue/white/yellow colour scheme and is reasonably intuitive to navigate with the core burger-style menu button located in the lower right corner of the screen.
Text size is nice and big making it easy to read, with some nice icons thrown into the mix to help enhance the experience. There's plenty of additional functionality too which we'll outline further below.
Customisations
There's plenty of customisation options like being able to set units of measurement between metric and imperial, as well as other things like whether to use Specific Gravity (SG) or °Plaato for gravity measurements or SRM/EBC for beer colour
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| KegMaster app Settings menu |
So no matter what region you're in you'll be able to customise the app to use units that you're familiar with.
Adding KegScales
After configuring the app to your liking, the next thing you'll need to do is add the KegScales. To do so, open the burger menu from the lower right corner then select My KegScales.
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| KegMaster app | Adding KegScale screen |
Ensure your KS1 is turned on, and it should automatically appear in the app under the Scanning section as seen in the screenshot above.
Select your KegScale and then on the next screen, follow the instructions to set the tare weight of the scales when there's nothing on it.
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| KegMaster app | Setting KegScale tare weight |
Adding Taps
Once the KegScales have been added into the app, you can then assign a Tap to the KegScales. The Tap contains all the key information about the beer (or other beverage) that is sitting on the KS1.
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| KegMaster app | My Taps screen |
After selecting the option to Add Tap, simply fill in the fields (Name, Style, ABV, Colour, Gravity/Density) and link it to your KegScale.
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| KegMaster app - Add Tap screen |
You can also select a beverage icon/image from the drop down list in the top right corner which is used as part of the My Taps screen (covered further below).
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| KegMaster app - Beverage icon options |
One additional field we would like to see included for the Taps is a kegged/packaged date field so you can easily track how long a particularly keg has been in use for.
The next part is the Set Start Volumes & Weight screen where you configure the starting volume of the keg or serving vessel you're going to use on the KS1 by filling in the blanks after selecting one of the options for Empty, Part Full or Full.
Empty
Empty is arguably the easiest to use and setup. After entering the full keg capacity and the gravity of what is inside, you can select the Set Start Weight & Volume button which tares/zeroes the scales based on the current weight.
From there, you can then fill your keg or simply use another keg of the same type/size as any weight difference between them would be minimal (if any). For us, this is the easiest option and what we used to get our KS1 going for testing.
Assuming you consistently use the same style and size of keg, this would essentially be a set and forget configuration for each of your KegScales.
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| KegMaster app - Start Weight & Volume Screen |
Part Full
If selecting Part Full, you can enter the Full Keg Capacity, Current Volume and the Gravity/Density. Entering the current volume is perhaps a little difficult to do, and arguably what we're trying to use the KS1 to determine in the first place, but we have some more detail on how to do this a little further below.
Full
The Full option only allows you to enter the Full Keg Capacity and Gravity/Density, and would be the option to use if using pre-filled kegs on your KS1.
Determining Current Volume
For the Part Full option, you can calculate what the current volume is within your serving vessel by accessing the Tools menu. From here you can enter the tare weight of the keg (and any fittings/connections if present) and gravity of the liquid inside and it will give you the current volume.
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| KegMaster app | Tools screen for volume |
The value displayed can then be copied using the copy button (located next to the "Tare" button in the image above) and then pasted/entered into the Current Volume (for Part Full) or Full Keg Capacity (for Full) on the Set Start Weight & Volume screen.
To us, this is a key feature/function, and we're glad it has been thought of and included, but unfortunately when going in for the first time and trying to set up your keg there is no way to know that this option is available as it's located in a totally separate part of the app (the Tools menu). We got stuck on the Set Start Weight & Volume screen the first time and were left scratching our head trying to figure out how to get the current volume, as we thought the KS1 was meant to tell us that!
Ideally, we'd like this screen to be moved from the Tools menu and integrated into the Set Start Weight & Volume screen as a fourth option in addition to Empty, Part Full and Full. This would help make the setup process faster, smoother and negate the need to access a different part of the app.
Perhaps these screens have been catered for customers purchasing pre-filled kegs, but even this method is assuming they are filled to exactly the specified volume (which perhaps they are), but any discrepancy here will of course lead to inaccurate readings.
How Much Does A Corny Keg Weigh?
For the record, it appears that a regular 19L corny keg weighs about 4.3kg with nothing else fitted to it. You would need to add a little bit more on top of this to account for gas/liquid disconnects and associated lines too.
My Taps Screen
For us, this screen is a real highlight of the app and gives you a nice summarised view of all the main information for each of your taps.
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| KegMaster app | My Taps screen |
What's more, you can switch to an alternative view which will show you a pretty picture of your keg (or other selectable container/vessel) with a visual indication of remaining capacity and a reduced summary of keg information underneath.
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| The My Taps screen in the KegMaster app looks excellent |
It's a nice touch that even the colour of what's inside the vessel changes depending on what beverage colour you selected during the tap configuration, and the percent remaining leaves no doubt as to exactly how much is left.
If you have more than one tap setup, it will automatically cycle between the taps every 10 seconds.
Adding Gas
Adding gas is virtually the same as adding a Tap, but with a few less options since we don't need to worry about setting a gravity/density, colour or specifying a particular style.
Similar to adding a Tap, the app wants to start by having you tell it what the current volume/weight of gas within the cylinder currently is, and you can choose from Empty, Part Full or Full options on the Gas Starting Weights screen.
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| KegMaster app | Gas Starting Weight screen |
This seems counterintuitive to us, especially since gas bottles have the empty bottle (tare) weight stamped on the neck, so we feel the default behaviour should be to enter the tare weight value into a text box then have the scales and app tell us how much gas is in the bottle based off this.
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| CO2 gas bottles have the tare weight stamped on the neck |
This is exactly what you can do from the Tools menu, but just like with the Taps setup, the value presented then needs to be copied/pasted from the Tools screen into the text box on the Gas Starting Weights screen.
We'd like to see the weight option from the Tools menu be included as a fourth option on the Gas Starting Weights screen so that the tare weight of the bottle can be used as a starting point.
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| KegMaster app | Tools screen for weight |
As an example, during our setup we entered the tare weight of our gas bottle (7.35kgs as per the images above), and based off this the scales calculated 2.698kg of gas in our full bottle. If we assumed our gas bottle was filled to 2.6kg and entered this as the starting value then the KS1 and app would have been showing us incorrect values.
Alerts
The Alerts section allows you to set thresholds for different alerts to be triggered like low volume/weight on your keg/gas, battery level, temperature high/low and the length of time since the KegScales were last seen by the app.
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| KegMaster app | Alerts screen |
The options here are good, particularly with the low volume/weight for the keg/gas where you can opt to use percentage, litres (or whatever unit of volume you've selected in the app), or pints (pint size is also configurable), so you've got ample time to either brew or purchase your next keg of beer (or refill your gas cylinder).
You'll also get notified if your fridge stops working and the temperature of the KS1 climbs above the configured threshold.
Each alert has it's own slider so they can be individually enabled/disabled as desired.
Pour Notifications
Another feature we'd like to see included is pour notifications. This was a feature with the Plaato keg, which gives you a push notification from the app after each pour letting you know how much was poured (and from what tap).
A minimum pour threshold could also be included to help prevent "ghost pours" from minor blips/disturbances in weight, or so you're only notified of larger pours.
Arguably not a game-changer, but something we feel this feature would be a nice addition, especially since alerts like this can be turned off within the app if they're not wanted.
Multiple Devices
Since the KS1 uses Bluetooth broadcasting technology rather than direct device pairing, the packets that are transmitted can be received by an infinite number of devices within Bluetooth range. The catch is that because of the lack of sign-in and centrally stored data, each device running the KegMaster app needs to be setup individually, including setting up the starting volumes/weight.
You can see in the example below we have the KegMaster app setup on our iPhone and iPad, and to illustrate the point about the configuration being independent on each device, we had one setup with the scales as a Tap, and the other setup to use the same KS1 scales to measure gas.
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| The KS1 can work with any number of devices within Bluetooth range |
We can see plenty of scope for avid homebrew programmers to potentially write their own pieces of software to display and potentially log the broadcast data sent from the KS1 since the data is readily available to any Bluetooth capable device within the signal range of the KS1.
You will need to be mindful if you want to set up the KS1 and KegMaster app on multiple devices, as you need to be able to set the unloaded weight of the scales when adding them into the KegMaster app, which means removing anything that is currently sitting on the KS1 during the setup. This is potentially inconvenient if it's sitting under a keg in the back of your kegerator or fridge so we'd recommend setting the KS1 up on all devices you wish to use at the same time.
Offline Functionality
As you'd expect, if opening the KegMaster app when not in range of the KS1, it will simply continue to display the last read values.
There is a Last Received field too, to eliminate any doubt as to when your KegMaster app last communicated with the respective KS1.
Telemetry Reporting Frequency
The KS1 appears to broadcast/report in to the KegMaster app approximately every 20 - 30 seconds. This does seem to vary though, in some cases it would update more frequently than this, and other times it may take more than a minute to update.
The app does continue to run and update in the background, but on a couple of occasions we found the it stopped updating altogether. A simple force-close and re-opening of the app fixed it whenever this happened.
You also have the option to press the circle button on the right side of the KS1 interface to force the unit to send it's telemetry data via Bluetooth. Entering this mode see's the unit report every half second for 10 seconds, during which time the green activity light flashes on the KS1 unit and in the app.
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| Note the flashing green light above the battery status indicator |
This is a neat feature, but we'd like to see this time extended if possible as this would be particularly useful when filling kegs for example, especially when approaching capacity and more frequent updates would be necessary to get the keg as full as possible without overfilling.
Historical Data
One notable feature that is lacking, especially when compared to the Plaato Keg is the lack of historical data. Though we don't consider this a particularly big deal as we don't feel much need for tracking of keg levels and pours over time with pretty graphs and so on, but it's a point of difference worth highlighting for those who may have particularly liked this feature with the Plaato Keg which stored data for the previous month.
Accuracy
With a weighing and measuring system like this, accuracy is of course a fairly important factor, so we did a quick test to see just how accurate the KS1 scales are.
We have a couple of sets of digital kitchen scales, so we thought we'd try adding known amounts of water (via weight instead of volume) to an empty keg in the hopes of a more accurate test than by using volume alone, since temperature can have an impact on volume but weight remains constant regardless of temperature.
We started out with an empty corny keg on our KS1, and zero'd it using the Empty option on the Start Weight & Volume screen.
We then measured out 500g of water using 2 sets of digital kitchen scales (to ensure our measurement was accurate).
We then added the 500g of water to the empty keg and checked the reading in the KegMaster app, and as you can see in the screenshot below, it matched the weight exactly.
We repeated these steps a couple of times with 500g additions, then moved to 1kg additions, then finally onto 2kg additions, and every time the KS1 updated it's weight to match perfectly with what we were adding, all the way up to the kegs full capacity of 19L.
Changing the gravity for the keg contents within the app has a direct impact on volume (as it should) but we're unsure if temperature also effects the readings.
We must admit we were pretty impressed at how accurate the KS1 was, and although this is of course not an exhaustive test, it certainly gives a good indication that the readings you get from the KS1 will be given with a fair amount of accuracy which is great.
Firmware Updates
When looking at the KegScales within the KegMaster app, there is a Firmware field (currently showing v1.0.0 for us). It will be interesting to see if there are firmware updates released over time and if so, how these would be deployed - perhaps via the USB-C connection?
Price
The KS1 KegScale is currently available from Keg King with an advertised price of AU$99. We can certainly see the value in it, and Keg King are currently offering discounts if purchasing multiple units.
As a point of comparison, we paid US$129 for the Plaato keg back in 2022, which worked out to be just under AU$190 at the time (including international shipping), so if you're in Australia at least, it costs significantly less than the Plaato Keg did when it was being sold a few years ago.
Conclusion
The KS1 KegScales mark Keg King's introduction into the software and more technological side of brewing and dispensing, and we feel with the KegMaster app it's a great first step.
The KS1 is well thought out and put together, and combined with the KegMaster app we feel it does a pretty good job at walking the line between functionality, complexity and user-friendliness.
For an initial release, the KegMaster app has a great feel to it and aside from some minor improvements that we feel could be made to the way you initially setup taps and gas bottles for measuring, but it looks very promising and has some excellent features already built-in.
We love the My Taps view, and feel it would be good enough to sit permanently on a display above or near your dispensing fridge to keep you up to date on your current keg volume situation. In saying that, we will not be at all surprised to see some neat end-user created displays and contraptions using raspberry pi's or other lightweight devices to pickup the broadcasted Bluetooth signal and display it some other way.
The battery performance and accuracy of the KegScales is excellent, and we feel we'll more than likely be purchasing another one or two of these so we can monitor all the kegs in our kegerator more easily.
We feel that this is just the beginning for the KegMaster app, we're very interested to see how this app is further improved, developed and what other products may be in the Keg King pipeline that could integrate with it.
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