The Kooler-Keg Company was established in 1926 era located in Belleville, NJ. Kooler-Keg began as a manufacturer of draft beer dispensing equipment which included beer tapping faucets and chilled coils inside of wooden and steel beer kegs also known as “Inner Cooled Kooler Keg”. KoolerKeg was actually a division of the Novadel-Agene Corporation located in Belleville, NJ.
The Novadel-Agene Corporation marketing tagline that was used at the time was “Retains Brewery Flavor” as well as a stand alone Kooler-Keg logo. They used their logo on a variety of lighted signs and “sidewinder” beer taps. Kooler-Keg produced 2 styles of beer taps, one with a long chrome stem and the other shorter which was molded with the body; both had a square shank. Both versions were usually made of black or colored bakelite and some had wood accents. The faces of the knobs would either be made of porcelain enamel, painted brass, or celluloid plastic.
Various breweries from across the country hired KoolerKeg to make ball tap knobs for them. Breweries like Old Reading, Barbey’s Sunshine, Yuengling, Chester, Lebanon Valley, Esslinger, Lion, Gibbons, Schmidts, Graupner, Adam Scheidt, Valley Forge, Duquesne, American, Altoona, Peter Fox, Golden West, Schoenling, Buckeye, East Side, Wehle, Chr. Heurich, Senate, Stroh’s, Genesee, and Krueger just to name a few.
Below are a few examples of Kooler-Keg beer tap knobs:
