Jaxford

Recipes 

Question to you in the know...

I've been brewing for a little while and am at a point where I could use some advice. I'm trying to determine if I should ditch the bottles and go to Kegs.

Honestly I'm a little intimidated by keging. Seems complex and expensive. Also there is something "traditional" about bottling.

The questions...

1. What does it cost to keg for an occasional brewer like me like me and is it really worth it if I only brew 3-4 times per year?

2. Does it save time? I'm thinking - save bottle, wash bottle, sanitize bottle. bottle beer, etc.

3. Does it add or take away from the brew method... change fermentation, temp, that sort of thing?

Thoughts?

Jaxford

Recipes 

Question to you in the know...

I've been brewing for a little while and am at a point where I could use some advice. I'm trying to determine if I should ditch the bottles and go to Kegs.

Honestly I'm a little intimidated by keging. Seems complex and expensive. Also there is something "traditional" about bottling.

The questions...

1. What does it cost to keg for an occasional brewer like me like me and is it really worth it if I only brew 3-4 times per year?

2. Does it save time? I'm thinking - save bottle, wash bottle, sanitize bottle. bottle beer, etc.

3. Does it add or take away from the brew method... change fermentation, temp, that sort of thing?

Thoughts?

Yuri_Rage

Recipes 

One post is enough...moved them both to the correct forum.

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HairyDogBrewing

Recipes 

1. It's about $200 to get a keg, regulator, and CO2 bottle.
2. There's only one container to clean and sanitize, so it takes a lot less time.
3. The big change in process is that you can carbonate without using priming sugar.

I love kegs because I hate doing 48 bottles all at once.
But if you like bottling then it's a bit pricey.

Chip

Recipes 

I went to the Tap-a-Draft system as it lets my use a small tank for a somewhat kegged beer and still be able to bottle some that I can stash away for longer storage. It really works as a mid-way system.

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Primary - Orfy's Mild Ale
Secondary - Hard Cider
Bottled - my version of a simple English Mild

Jaeger48

Recipes 

I just picked up my first keg system and a spare keg, that was a about 250 shipped. When I look at how much I have to worry about with losing infected batches from a scratched bottling bucket (at least 3)- then it's really worth it.

Jaxford

Recipes 

I like this because it gives you the opportunity to bottle age too. What does it take to do this (cost and gear)?

Trenchant

Recipes 

I spent $20 / keg (purchased used kegs off of restraunts at the deposit cost), got a free regulator with a gas ball connect and line, and I got a 20# CO2 tank for $80.

The CO2 tank will last me forever and all I did to the regulator was replace the guages. I need to buy some kind of a beer out connection and thats it. So far I'm doing pretty good budget wise. A regulator will run about $70-$75 shipped from an online store.

CDN prices btw. Our dollar is different from the USD one again

Yankeehillbrewer

Recipes 

If you really only brew 3-4 times a year it hardly seems worth the effort & money to get set up for kegging,IMO. BUT..maybe if you go to kegging you'll brew more often. That's definitely worth it.

I would love to switch to kegging, but I don't have the space(no garage)

Chip

Recipes 

A Tap-a-draft set up runs about 60-70 bucks from multiple suppliers. The beer is stored in large bottles in the fridge and charged with small CO2 cartridges. Certainly not a keg system, but I generally drink a glass of beer every other day or so and it fits my consumption needs just fine.

The archives will tell lots of info on this product, some like it and others have had trouble. Mine had a leak that once solved with a phone call back to the maker has worked perfectly ever since.

__________________
Primary - Orfy's Mild Ale
Secondary - Hard Cider
Bottled - my version of a simple English Mild