pony keg

plural pony kegs

1. USA container for beer holding 7.75 US gallons, equal to half the size of a standard beer keg.

   Depending on the crowd, a keg or pony keg may be the way to go. […] For fewer than 20 guests, consider a pony keg, which serves 80 drinks.

   2006 February 1, Sadie Jo Smokey, “Beer lineup impressive for Super Bowl Sunday”, in The Arizona Republic, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2006

plural pony kegs

1. CincinnaticolloquialA drive-through liquor store; by extension, any convenience store.

   For example, a pony keg is a small beer keg. In Cincinnati it is a place to buy a small beer keg.

   1976 February, Walter S. Adams, “Queen City Report”, in Cincinnati, volume 9, number 5, page 72

   5 more examples

   A visitor may well be baffled by “pony keg” and “jack salmon,” but Cincinnatians know that the first is a store where beer may be purchased and the second is deep-fried pike.

   1967, Robert E. McLaughlin, The Heartland: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →OCLC, page 16

   A pony keg (a few survive to this day) is a drive-through structure with cases of beer stacked on skids — golden liquid mountains, lining the walls of elongated garages or steel Quonset huts, looming above the consumer […] Our pony keg of choice was on Montgomery Road, on the Norwood-Pleasant Ridge border, a small affair next to a hairdresser's, neatly tucked behind the drugstore at the corner of Quatman and Montgomery.

   1999, Richard B. Schwartz, The Biggest City in America: A Fifties Boyhood in Ohio, Akron, Oh.: University of Akron Press, →ISBN, pages 163 and 165

   In the Cincinnati area one can also find drive-through liquor stores (and for some people, regular liquor stores) referred to as pony kegs. (Elsewhere in the US, on the other hand, pony keg usually refers to a small keg.)

   2007, Caitlin Claire Vincent, editor, Roadtripping USA: The Complete Coast-to-Coast Guide to America, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 47

   Not in “Cincy,” with the twang that was so often heard in casual conversation in the corner “Pony Keg” mini-marts. There you could buy snow cones, the daily Cincinnati Enquirer, Hudepohl beer, five-cent Ibold cigars, and Reds baseball trading cards.

   2010, Ben Kamin, Nothing Like Sunshine: A Story in the Aftermath of the MLK Assassination, East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press, →ISBN, page 1

   Their heyday might be in the rear-view mirror, but the region’s remaining pony kegs still sell cigarettes, lottery tickets, six packs and salty snacks. The Gertz Pony Keg is one of two remaining in Reading, a community that once had six of the little corner stores known for selling small barrels of beer.

   2014 February 2, Lance Lambert, “Pony keg tradition lives on in Reading”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2016