PHILADELPHIA — It was 1994 and Yards Brewing Co. needed to keep costs down. So the fledgling microbrewery began shipping its ales, porters and stouts in old-fashioned metal beer barrels.

        They were dinged and dented, but cheap.

        The microbrewing craze that took off in the late 1980s gave the Hoff-Stevens keg — the once-ubiquitous beer barrel that filled innumerable American mugs in the middle decades of the 20th century — a new lease on life. The old-style kegs could be bought for $5 or $10 each, perfect for small brewers trying to reduce overhead.

        Now, even the micros are abandoning the Hoff-Stevens in favor of the straight-sided Sankey keg, and the classic metal beer barrel is becoming a thing of the past.

        While there are no reliable statistics on the number of Hoff-Stevens barrels still in circulation, the Denver-based Great American Beer Festival says their numbers are dwindling.

        About 95 percent of the 1,200 beers on tap now come from Sankey kegs, said Paul Gatza, director of the Institute of Brewing Studies, the festival's organizer. A few years ago, only two-thirds of the kegs were Sankey.

        Hoff-Stevens kegs are no longer made and the old ones are wearing out. But in their heyday from the 1940s through the 1970s, countless numbers were rolled into dormitory rooms and fraternity houses, backyard barbecues and neighborhood taverns.

        The Hoff-Stevens has two holes, one on the side for filling and another on top for tapping. Once filled, a wooden “bung,” or cap, has to be pounded into the side hole.

        If the keg wasn't tapped just so, beer would shoot all over the place.

        “Most of the time I got it right, but there were a few times I got a pretty good shower,” said Gregg Smith, a beer historian whose books include “Beer in America: The Early Years.”

        Most large breweries abandoned the Hoff-Stevens in the late 1970s and '80s, switching to the sleeker Sankey because it was easier to fill, easier to clean and easier to transport. And because there was no bung to drive home, the breweries could save money on labor.

        Plus the Sankey has handles, unlike the Hoff-Stevens.

        “This is just another technological improvement,” said Smith, who is also general manager of Idaho Brewing Co. in Idaho Falls, Idaho. “Nobody missed the old hand-crank starters on the car, either.”

        Yet for all its flaws, the Hoff-Stevens allowed small startups like Yards to devote money to expansion. The brewery, which sells beer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, has grown so much that it's had to move twice to larger buildings.

        D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc., the nation's oldest brewery, decided to keep its Hoff-Stevens kegs rather than invest millions in the newer Sankey model. That allowed Yuengling to build a new brewery.

        The old kegs are durable — and well-traveled. In Yards' Philadelphia brewery is a 1969 keg from Schlitz Brewing Co., a 1948 barrel from Berghoff Brewing Corp. and a 1973 model from Carling Brewing Co. All will be put back into service.

        Still, these warhorses are nearly worn out. For every 100 kegs filled by Yards, two or three leak.

        Vice president Bill Barton predicts the brewery will switch to the Sankey keg by the end of the year. Yuengling is also planning to switch.

        “Wholesalers are reluctant to take the Hoff-Stevens,” Barton said. “Bars don't want them because they want uniformity. They want it to be easy.”

        But the Hoff-Stevens isn't quite dead: Home brewers are busy converting them into brew kettles.

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