Bottling Preferences - 12, 22, liter, caps, flip tops...

Just curious what people prefer. I started with 12 oz bottles, but after a couple bottling days moved to 22s. Now I'm wondering what most people do, pros and cons. Kegging sounds like a whole other ball of (complicated) wax.

I use primarily 12oz, stupidly cheap and some people I give beer to do not warrant a 22oz bottle. For special beers or people I actually give a crap about I have a nice collection of .5l flip tops about 50/50 EZ and Miasel's Weiss. I also have a case or two off 22oz that I mostly use for apfelwien.

Kegging is very easy. Much easier then bottling. But it requires a lot more equipment.

I keg & then fill bottles off my keg with a counter pressure filler. If your entering competitions you will want to stick with the simple 12oz bottles. If your just gonna drink the beer then any size is good but I still recommend the 12 oz or maybe the 16oz grolsch flip tops. Those sizes make a drinkable portion and they fit in the fridge easier.

I started out with 500 mL swing tops. That seemed fine until I found that they didn't always seal properly causing inconsistent carbonation. Also, it's a bit much to drink in one sitting, especially if it's a really strong beer. I prefer a 12 oz. serving size. I can have two or three different homebrews in one night without getting trashed.

After abandoning the big swing tops, I switched over to capping recycled New Belgium 12 oz. bottles. No more carbonation issues and hey, it's free! Prefect, right? Well, it was until I wanted to submit some beers to competitions (they should be unmarked and the NB bottles have raised lettering on the neck). I also tried shipping some homebrew bottled in NB bottles to some friends and all 4 boxes I packed up were damaged in transit (the New Belgium bottles are pretty thin).

I spent a few weeks trying to figure out a brand to switch to as my new recycled bottle source but couldn't come up with one that met all of my criteria: no markings, sturdy, 12 pack boxes with dividers, enough variety to not get bored of, etc. No dice, nothing seemed perfect for me.

Now I'm just picking up cases of 12 oz. amber bottles from my LHBS. They're far sturdier than the New Belgium bottles (8.2 oz. vs. 6.9 oz. empty), have no markings and come in good boxes with dividers. It also liberates me to buy beers just for the contents, not for the purpose of recycling the containers.

Well, that's my bottling saga so far.

When I'm not kegging, I use 650mL crown cap bottles because I prefer to make bottling a hasty affair... I use my flip-top bottles as give aways because my LHBS charges out the ass for new gaskets and I haven't been able to get consistent seals with them once they've been used more than 4 times. Although, using some keg lube might push that to 5 or 6 uses...

1L swing tops

Thanks everyone - I'll probably try the .5L swing tops at some point just for the fun of it... but I think for the long term I'm going to spend more time making bottling the 12 ozs less tedious (I know there's a good thread here) - that's just a real good serving size and they're FREE.

If you have the space in the garage or basement or man cave for another fridge, consider kegging. It's SOOOO much easier then bottling. And you can pour a 2 oz taster or a pitcher.

I have some prejudices against kegging that may be completely unfounded, as in "ignorance."

The first one is that unless I'm having lots of parties or drinking my weight in beer every night, then the beer will go flat. Another one is : high maintenance. I assume they are more components than bottles (like co2, keggerator, etc.) But who doesn't want to have a tap in their basement?? Thx for the suggestion - I'll have to find some noob threads on kegging.

you have the keg under pressure the whole time it's on tap so it will not go flat. There is a bunch of equipment you will need but I would not describe it as "high maintenance". Imagine you put your entire batch into one giant bottle. So you only need to clean one bottle and you only need to fill one bottle. Kinda makes bottling a whole lot easier? But it gets better. This is a magic bottle. You can pour any amount of beer from this bottle and it never goes flat or gets oxidized. And you can dial in the carbonation level to whatever you want. You can even adjust the carbonation after you've tasted the beer. You will learn that proper carbonation levels make a HUGE difference in beer flavor. The keggers ability to adjust carbonation levels is a big advantage. Lastly, how freaking cool is it to have beer flow from a tap in your house. Ask anybody who owns a keg, kegs rock!