Jennifer S. e-mailed me to ask where she can purchase a pony keg of beer (preferably craft) in Sarasota.

I'm a big fan of draft beer, and (of course) kegs are where draft beer comes from.

A keg is essentially a big can of beer, and while the beer in kegs is usually the same as the beer in bottles, it may taste better because it's not exposed to light (beer's enemy) like bottles. I like drinking draft because I don't have a keg setup at home -- even my ever-suffering wife, the Beer Widow, has her limits.

A pony keg, also known as a quarter barrel, holds 7.75 gallons of beer -- just under 83 12-ounce servings. It is half the size of a standard 15.5-gallon American keg (165 12-ounce servings), which is also called a half barrel. There aren't full barrels anymore, although breweries usually measure their output in barrels. You can also get sixth-barrel kegs.

Some breweries also package beer in 5-liter mini kegs that are meant to be recycled instead of returned to the store/brewery like regular kegs.

This brings me to an advantage of kegs: Price. The per-ounce cost of kegged beer is typically cheaper than bottles. Take an example from Total Wine & More's price sheet: A half-barrel of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale costs $150, or 8 cents an ounce. A six-pack of the same beer is $7, or 10 cents per ounce. Buying in bulk saves.

Of course, kegs have several disadvantages. They're heavy, and you need special equipment to have them at home if you don't plan to drink all the beer at once -- those party taps pump in air, which will turn the beer stale in a day or so. To keep beer longer you'll need a tank of carbon dioxide to both carbonate and preserve the beer, not to mention a refrigerator to keep the keg cool.

And the price benefit of a keg (bulk buying) can also be a disadvantage: You had better like the beer, because you now have several gallons of it. (Invite the neighbors!)

But to answer your questions, Jennifer, and not just turn a simple question into an entire column, many places sell kegs of beer, and most will get you just about anything you want if given enough notice.

If you don't want to wait, Total Wine & More off University Parkway near Interstate 75, 351-7895, probably has the largest in-stock selection.

Many liquor stores (Sweetbay, Publix, ABC, independent places, etc.) also sell kegs in various sizes and would be happy to order one for you.

Beer fast

Alert co-worker Kris Kudenholdt informed me of Jay Wilson, an editor at the Adams County Free Press in Iowa, who -- in the tradition of the Paulaner monks of Germany -- will spend Lent fasting on beer and water.

According to Wilson's blog, diaryofaparttimemonk.wordpress.com, this was no rash decision. He has been planning it for a couple of years.

From reading his blog, I see that Wilson is a very spiritual man, and this isn't meant to be a stunt. He writes that if the monks could survive on only beer for 46 days, so can he.

An especially interesting part of this is that he brewed the beer he's drinking. It's a double bock, a strong lager known as "liquid bread" developed by the Paulaner monks to sustain them in their fasts. It has more calories, vitamins and carbohydrates that regular lagers. According to a story in the Toronto Star, Wilson is drinking four 12-ounce beers each weekday, and five a day on the weekends. Each beer has 288 calories and is 6.67 percent alcohol.

He's doing this under medical supervision, and so far has lost more than 10 pounds.

From his blog entries, I can see this fast isn't easy. Of course, it's meant to be hard and part of a spiritual journey. His ultimate goal is to write a book of the experience.

I don't think I'm nearly tough enough to attempt a similar endeavor. Godspeed, Jay Wilson.

Read about craft beer at ticketsarasota.com. Contact Alan Shaw at beergeek@ticketsarasota.com or 361-4914 and follow him at Twitter (@alancshaw).