Alternative to Bottling or Kegging for a Wedding

I'm brewing beer for a good friend's wedding. I'm planning on bottling about 14 gals, which would only provide about 1/2 the beer. Brewing more would be the easy part, but I'm looking for an inexpensive alternative to more bottling (which would take a lot of time and bottles) or kegging (which would be expensive to get started).

Ideally, I could somehow "bottle condition" in a large vessel(s) and dispense directly from there. Since all the beer will be consumed in one day, I'm not concerned with how well it would stay carbonated that long. Anyone ever hear of bottle conditioning in glass carboys? Could they take the pressure (approx. 2 volumes CO2) and how might one dispense?

Thoughts?

Guh?

You could do a "real ale" style thing where you rack it to casks and use gravity to serve. Keep in mind that you will have VERY LOW carbonation on those beers, which a lot of people here in the US do not like at all.

Sounds like just the approach I'm looking for. It would be a weiss beer and as long as it's semi-cold and has a head when poured it would fit the bill. Ideally I could get by using air tight 5-gal plastic buckets with a spigot on the bottom. Could I simply prime at racking for 1.5-2 vol CO2 as I would if bottling and just ensure I could get a lid on that would be air-tight and take some pressure?

chrisedjohn said:

Sounds like just the approach I'm looking for. It would be a weiss beer and as long as it's semi-cold and has a head when poured it would fit the bill. Ideally I could get by using air tight 5-gal plastic buckets with a spigot on the bottom. Could I simply prime at racking for 1.5-2 vol CO2 as I would if bottling and just ensure I could get a lid on that would be air-tight and take some pressure?

Click to expand...

In a bucket, the top would blow off before you got the pressure you needed for carbonation.

What you could do is put the beer in kegs ($25 each or so). Then, prime just like for bottles. Use a co2 charger gun to push the beer out ($20?). When done, sell the kegs for what you paid if you don't want to keep them.

YooperBrew said:

In a bucket, the top would blow off before you got the pressure you needed for carbonation.

Click to expand...

...even with an air-tight screw on lid?

best bet is to get the 'best men' and put them to work filling bottles. glass carboy under pressure is bad,bad,bad. and plastic may not hurt you,it is still a bad ideal.

I'd think so. The surface area of one of those lids is over 100 square inches, so even at 10 psi you are talking about 1000 lbs of force pushing on that lid...

YooperBrew said:

What you could do is put the beer in kegs ($25 each or so). Then, prime just like for bottles. Use a co2 charger gun to push the beer out ($20?). When done, sell the kegs for what you paid if you don't want to keep them.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is a great idea. You do need to cool down the kegs for a few days ahead of time (either in buckets of ice water or a fridge if you can free up the space) to give the CO2 a chance to go into solution.

Those $25 kegs are also awesome secondaries (cheaper, lighter, and more light-proof than a carboy, and easier to clean)--plus if you hang on to them, you'll have them for whenever you actually start kegging. And if you have the CO2 charger, you'll have the option of using them at parties and such.

http://stores.kegconnection.com/Categories.bok?category=*Homebrew+Kegerator+Kits:Portable+Keg+Kits has the type of keg charger Yooper's talking about (I think). $19 plus S&H, but you need the CO2 cartridges (sold on the same page). The 10-pack is probably enough to push 3 kegs, the 20-pack will do it for sure.

Are these $25 kegs I keep hearing about Craigslist finds or what? My LHBS sells 'em for $36, but after adding new seals, gray post, black post, gas line, beer line, and picnic tap, I walked out of there nearly 70 bones poorer.

Where should I be looking for these treasures?

If it is going to be drank in a day, could he just keg condition then dispense from the gas post on the keg with a party tap, letting it gravity feed?

I don't know how well that would work because it would create a vacuum. I guess if you regularly pulled the pressure relief valve it might work. You'd have to stand the keg up normally and then create a siphon from the post. It wouldn't necessarily have to be the gas out post...

carrotmalt said:

Are these $25 kegs I keep hearing about Craigslist finds or what? My LHBS sells 'em for $36, but after adding new seals, gray post, black post, gas line, beer line, and picnic tap, I walked out of there nearly 70 bones poorer.

Where should I be looking for these treasures?

Click to expand...

Kegging is the way to go

It takes some work to find good deals these days, but they're out there. Craigslist and Ebay are your best bet, especially if you can pick up locally. I bought 7 Cornelius/Firestone kegs in the last few months for $20-$22 each on ebay and I bought replacement from Mcmaster-Carr for about $20 (100 pack of the two smallers sizes and a 10 pack of the big guys).

Your best bet on ebay is to be close enough to a seller to go pick the keg up locally and save the shipping charge which can run up to $35. As an added benefit you can pick out which kegs you want when picking up if they have a ton of them sitting around.

honestly, the ideal containment device that you are describing to fufill your needs is kegging. Good as time as any to take the leap!

SumnerH said:

http://stores.kegconnection.com/Categories.bok?category=*Homebrew+Kegerator+Kits:Portable+Keg+Kits has the type of keg charger Yooper's talking about (I think). $19 plus S&H, but you need the CO2 cartridges (sold on the same page). The 10-pack is probably enough to push 3 kegs, the 20-pack will do it for sure.

Click to expand...

...so with that $60 system (keg, charger, dispenser) I could prime with sugar and carbonate in the keg, cool it down, and I'd be good to go?

carrotmalt said:

Are these $25 kegs I keep hearing about Craigslist finds or what? My LHBS sells 'em for $36, but after adding new seals, gray post, black post, gas line, beer line, and picnic tap, I walked out of there nearly 70 bones poorer.

Where should I be looking for these treasures?

Click to expand...

I bought 8 last year from kegconnection.com during 4-for-$100 or whatever sales. No need to replace the posts, I just replaced the O-rings (that adds $3/keg if you buy them as one-offs from kegconnection; I got 10 lid rings and 100 each post/tube rings for a total of $20ish from Mcmaster-Carr).

No need for gas line/coupler in the scenario above (that 16oz carb charger goes onto the gas in post). You would need a picnic tap, though, which is another $10 or so.

The full cost aside from kegs would be something like:
$20: Carb charger
$25: 20-pack CO2
$10 picnic tap with quick disconnect

So $55, plus whatever you can find the kegs for, plus $3 per keg for O-rings.

Worth noting that a full 1-keg dispensing setup is somewhere around twice that (accounting for the 1 keg included and the need to get the tank filled).

chrisedjohn said:

...so with that $60 system (keg, charger, dispenser) I could prime with sugar and carbonate in the keg, cool it down, and I'd be good to go?

Click to expand...

As noted, you need the CO2 cartridges which is another $25 or so, and $3 for a pack of new O-rings.

Plus you need wrenches to do the initial work on it (cleaning it up and replacing O-rings)--I'm assuming you already have (or can borrow) those.

YooperBrew said:

In a bucket, the top would blow off before you got the pressure you needed for carbonation.

What you could do is put the beer in kegs ($25 each or so). Then, prime just like for bottles. Use a co2 charger gun to push the beer out ($20?). When done, sell the kegs for what you paid if you don't want to keep them.

Click to expand...

+1 on this,
or if you want to be cheaper don't use the keg charger and just dispense with the pressure built up from carbing it then when thats gone pay a kid at the wedding $20 to sit under the bar and push the beer out with lung power (just make sure you don't get a sick one or the beer will be flowing fast/slow/fast/slow when the kid coughs - no a very professional look!).

So...... back to the real world......