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Which Sanke keg coupler does my keg need?
A commercial keg only taps with the coupler type its valve was built for, and the letters D, S, A, G, M and U are not interchangeable.
Why the coupler has to match the valve
A Sanke keg has a single spear valve in the top that carries both the gas in and the beer out. The coupler clamps onto that valve, opens the ball and poppet inside it, and links your gas line and beer line to the keg. If the coupler geometry does not match the valve, it will not seat and lock, so the keg stays sealed.
This is different from a homebrew Cornelius keg, which has two separate posts. On a Sanke you are dealing with one integrated valve, and the coupler style is dictated entirely by who filled the keg and where.
The common coupler letters
D type, the American Sankey, is the most common in the United States and covers most domestic and craft kegs. S type, the European Sankey, fits many continental European lagers. A type is the German slider used on a lot of German brands. G type, sometimes called Grundy, appears on some UK and Irish ales.
U type is used for Guinness and several nitro stouts, and M type turns up on a handful of German brands. Because a brewery chooses the valve, two beers from the same country can still need different couplers.
How to tell which one you have
Read the top of the keg first. Many valves are stamped or labelled with the type. Failing that, the brand and country are strong clues: a US craft keg is almost always D, a Guinness keg is U, and a German pale lager is often A or S.
The physical tell is the probe and the way the coupler engages. A D coupler pushes straight down and turns; an A type slides sideways to lock. If in doubt, match by brand rather than forcing a coupler onto a valve, because a mismatched probe can damage the seal.
Where the gas and beer lines attach
Every Sanke coupler carries a beer-out tail and a gas-in port. In the UK these are frequently 5/8 inch BSP beer-nut threads, which seal on a washer, so you do not wrap the flare face with tape. Many US couplers present a 1/4 inch barb for beer and a gas inlet for a check valve.
Once the beer leaves the coupler you can adapt it to whatever your setup uses, whether that is barbed tubing, a flare fitting, or a push-in line into a Cornelius rig.
Get the right fitting
Open the KegFitFinder toolMatch a coupler to your keg valveFind sankey keg coupler D type on eBayaffiliateRelated
Sources: American Homebrewers Association ยท Micro Matic keg coupler reference