To keg or not to keg

That is my question. Is it really that much better? I'm so new at this. I want to transform my old fridge into a kegarator . What are the pro's and cons? I really enjoy a good draft beer one with a lot of drink ability and not filling what kind of brew would be suited for me.

The only con to kegging is the initial cost of buying the equipment.

I decided to keg instead of bottle because I wanted my beer faster. You have to wait 1-2 weeks after fermentation to get good beer in bottles. You can be drinking your homebrew in only 2-3 days with a keg. The downside is that the startup costs are more expensive than bottling. Eventually I want to brew well enough to enter in local competitions. For that reason I need to learn to bottle a few.

Do both. After a year of bottling I finally have a dual draft kegarator. I bottle my beers that need to sit.

The con is the startup cost, and (depending on how you look at it) you will consume more beer. (at least I do)

The pro is faster drinking time, and also easier to keg a batch than bottle.

+1 for A4J... Cost is the only reason that most people don't want to start kegging. It is totally worth doing though. When you keg you brew more often, because you have less work to do per batch.
Just because you keg does not mean you can't also bottle. With a counter-pressure filler or Blichmann beer gun you can fill bottles from the keg or you can rack some of the beer to bottles and use carbonation tags if you want to bottle condition beer.

Go kegs! It is the best thing you will ever do to make your brewing more enjoyable.

Cheers,
schoolmaster

I keg my English Bitters. They taste completely different with very low carbonation than bottled beers, and essentially flat bottled beers just don't taste right.

-a.

Well it looks like I'm keg'n soon! But you say I can still bottle from the keg? And you only have to wait two-three days? I'm all over that !

lazarus0530 said:

Well it looks like I'm keg'n soon! But you say I can still bottle from the keg? And you only have to wait two-three days? I'm all over that !

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Like everything in the hobby the time frame to carb is debatable. Here's a good link

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

If I'd done the math on how much the kegerator was going to cost when I started gathering the bits, I probably wouldn't have done it. Which would suck because keggings is great.

One advantage not mentioned yet; total control of carbonation level. Too much, purge the keg a few times. Too little, up the pressure.

I'm slowly accumulating the gear I need as it pops up at a good deal on craigslist. I think I would rather go all grain before sinking the money into a full-on kegging setup.

I have my choice of 12 different beers at any time now because I have them in bottles and can put any mix of them in the refrigerator. How many kegs can you afford or have space for?

I'm lazy and impatient, so kegging is best for me. Bottling is too time consuming both in filling them, and cleaning/sanitizing after use. Also I don't have to wait three weeks for bottles to carb.

I keg about 2/3 of my beer and bottle the rest for portability.

kegging is the best thing i ever did... so rewarding too. nothing like pulling a pint from your own keg.

Legging rules!

I prefer kegging now. After a year or so of bottling I broke down and bought a kegerator. As well as making it easier and faster to store the beer, it also forced me to increase my )still limited) knowledge on other aspects of homebrewing. Nothing wrong with bottling though.

Pro: Not having to mess with all them bottles

Con: That sound of air coming thru the line when the keg is empty

Have you ever heard of someone giving up kegging and going back to bottles.

Kegcowboy said:

Legging rules!

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Or Kegging.

No I haven't heard anyone going from kegging to bottles.

There are several tools to take kegged beer and put it in a bottle. That is someone going back to bottles.

Both have their pros and cons. I don't think I'd ever completely stop bottling, even if I do keg one day.