Beer kegs are disappearing by the hundreds all over western Wisconsin. Brewers and beer distributors are blaming high scrap metal prices, and that means you may soon see higher beer prices.

Park Ridge, a beer distributor based in Eau Claire, is now attaching red plastic tags to all their kegs. That way when a bar or restaurant empties a keg, they know just who it belongs to, and Park Ridge gets the barrel back, but thieves could just cut the tag off and scrap the metal. With thousands of kegs in circulation, the problem is getting expensive for everyone.

For weeks, scrap metal thieves stole kegs from Buffalo Wild Wings in Eau Claire.

"It was every week, fairly standard. Monday morning. We would end up doing our inventory on Sunday nights and end up losing barrels on Monday mornings," says Bill Conroy, an assistant general manager at the restaurant.

Eau Claire police installed two motion cameras and busted two men a few weeks later, but most cases go unsolved. That means the restaurant loses its $25 deposit and the distributor pays about $150 to replace each keg. That cost adds up quickly- Park Ridge lost 65 to 100 kegs in the past year alone.

"Used to be, especially in small towns like this, you could leave things out back and nobody messed with em, nobody messed with a keg. It wasn't worth that much to anybody,” says Park Ridge Sales Manager Kevin Dougherty.

For now, the distributors are picking up the tab, but soon, you may notice an increase on your bar tab

"If it's costing the bars, taverns, stores more money to carry our products, its costing us more to put it out, obviously the price of everything goes downhill and its gonna cost everybody more money," Dougherty says.

That's because thieves are getting more to scrap the stainless steel than they would if they returned the keg and collected the deposit. The distributors have to depend on the scrap yards to turn away people who bring in stolen kegs. Park Ridge works with the police and several scrap yards around Eau Claire to make sure that happens, and Park Ridge says with their higher deposit and the red tags, they're hoping to have plenty of kegs to go around.