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After a party this weekend with some of my neighbors, it was brought to my attention that there are in fact two meanings of the word “keggle.”  Ignorant to the intricacy’s of female anatomy exercises, I have been known to talk about my “Keggles” and how I’ve been working on them for years.  So to clarify the differences, I decided I would outline both and how they are different.

Whats a Keggle and a kegel?

First off, a keggle is an informal word for a keg that has been converted into a kettle.  The kegs used are traditionally 15 gallon beer kegs with a hole cut in the top by a torch, plasma cutter or a saw.  In most cases, a hole is cut in the side for a spigot using stepped drill-bit to ensure proper sizing.  There is generally a welded or weldless ball-lock, silcock or other spigot affixed to the hole.  In some cases a hop strainer is also attached to spigot (inside the keggle) to keep hops out of the finished wort.  Keggles can be found as both home-made and store bought. 

When looking at a keggle compared to a kegel, there are several major differences between the two.  For example, a kegel is defined as:

The aim of Kegel exercises is to fortify muscle tone by strengthening the pubococcygeus muscles of the pelvic floor. Kegelis a popular prescribed exercise for pregnant women to prepare the pelvic floor for physiological stresses of the later stages of pregnancy and vaginal childbirth. Kegel exercises are said to be good for treating vaginal prolapse and preventing uterine prolapse in women and for treating prostate pain and swelling resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis in men. Kegel exercises may be beneficial in treating urinary incontinence in both men and women.  Kegel exercises may also increase sexual gratification.

Note that while a keggle is used for brewing beer, a kegel is generally used to exercises pelvic muscles, treat “vaginal prolapse” and possibly increase sexual gratification in women.  A kegel consists of contracting and relaxing the muscles that make up the pelvic floor, whereas a keggle consists of a keg with a hole in the top and a spigot on the side.  Finally, in the case of a kegel, a “kegel  exerciser”can be used to work these muscles.  In the case of a keggle, if anything besides a keg were used, it would not be a keggle, just a kettle or brew pot.

Use of the word

While it appears that there are many physical differences between a keggle and a kegel, the two words are both spelled similarly and pronounced the same.  With that said, generally there are very different uses of the words.  For example:

“I built a new keggle this weekend, I can’t wait to try it out” 

This compared to the use of the word kegel:

“It hurts every time I do a kegel.”

Now when used in the plural, the possibility of confusing the two words increases, both because of the context and because it is less common to meet someone with multiple keggles:

“I was cranking out on all keggles this weekend, it was awesome”

Note that this can sound very similar to:

“All my kegels are starting to pay off, I was cranking this weekend, it was awesome”

Finally, to further confuse the issue, if you are talking about things that improve a keggle, a statement can easily be misconstrued:

“I picked up a metal bar so that I can hang a bag of hops in my keggle”

Compared to:

“I picked up a device to increase the effectiveness of my kegels”

Now hopefully we, as brewers, can move forward to ensure that there is no further confusion about the difference between a keggle and a kegel.  This newly equip knowledge will keep us from party Faux pas like “My keggles are awesome, they really help things down there (pointing to the basement)” or “Did I hear the word keggle?  Whats up? You ladies brew?”  or “it’s a keggle, it really helps make the whole process easier and increased my volume ten-fold.” 

Cheers.