Golden Gate Kegs are a style of beer kegs developed around the early 1950s. Golden Gate kegs were unique in that in addition to the then-standard bung hole, they had two separate ports for dispensing. On the keg top was a built-in valve where the gas inlet fitting connected with a quarter turn. On the sidewall just above floor level was the second built-in valve where the beer line fitting connected, again with a quarter turn of that fitting. Each valve could be removed and serviced by unthreading a lock-ring, ideally with a special tool.
The previous styles that Golden Gate replaced connected solely to the keg top with a quarter turn. Next, the long tap would be driven with a mallet through the keg top fitting, forcing a small wooden plug into the keg, and then the tap was slid down to the bottom of the beer. Beer would invariably squirt out in this process. The Golden Gate design required no mallet for driving in the tap, and the taps being far smaller were much less cumbersome. Each connector fitting had a thick rubber washer to seal onto the keg. When these were old or damaged, they would leak. The beer fitting being low toward the floor could easily be knocked and leak, often out of sight. The kegs were also difficult to empty completely, and it was not uncommon for even a skilled operator to leave a pint of beer in each keg. Golden Gate kegs and Hoff-Stevens kegs competed for market share around the same time.
Bibliography