HOUSTON – Hours before the Fourth of the July, perhaps nothing sells as much as beer.

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“Oh yeah, this time of year,” explained Ryan Holder, Spec’s Liquor Store manager, “Keg sales are up substantially!”

Spec’s moves out dozens of kegs for this holiday. Unlike many places though it doesn’t take a deposit for them.

“We sell ‘em,” Holder continued. “We sell them the tub, the tap and the hull [the keg]. The complete set up. If they choose to return it. Great. If they don’t. It’s theirs.”

But with metal prices higher than they have been in recent years many kegs get sold for scrap and are never returned.

In fact, a couple months ago someone even cut through two padlocks and chain link fences on the dock of Spec’s Midtown store and got away with a dozen empty ones.

That was before night vision cameras and improved lighting.

The Beer Institute, a Washington D.C. based trade association for the industry, said breweries have been losing up to 300,000 kegs in recent years nationwide. It’s starting to add up, too, when you consider each one costs $150 to replace.

It’s still only a small fraction of the 10.7 million kegs in circulation nationwide.

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” said Dennis Laviage, the high profile owner of C&D Scrap Metal. “Whatever they can do to get money. We don’t buy them unless they are cut in half and that would only be if it comes from a distributor.”

During the spring, Laviage said, when metal prices were higher kegs fetched up to $70 a piece, considerably more than many cost full of beer.

Not now, though. Laviage said the ever fluctuating prices have now fallen for steel and aluminum making kegs only worth $15 to $20.

But Holder said breweries are now embarking on another deterrent, too. Some kegs are now made out of hard black rubber.

Spec’s says they keep beer just as cold for customers and better yet, not as attractive to thieves.