Official Member

I am now an official member of the "Haters of Bottling" club. I guess everyone should go through it at least once but I will be sweet talking swmbo for a kegging kit soon.

The volume came up pretty short only hitting 44 bottles but I think I was a little shy on the full 5 gallons to start and I took a few readings.

I like the color but the clarity is not quite what I was hoping for. It's also quite a bit sweeter than expected but I am hoping that is just the priming sugar and will mellow as it carbs.

Yeah I'm with you. And yeah if you're tasting after priming it will be sweet. It'll dry out as it carbs and it'll clear with time. Looks great!

The acidity of the carbonic acid will help to offset the sweetness too. Also the longer you leave it in the fridge the better the clarity will get. Let it carb up for a couple to three weeks and toss it in the fridge. If it lasts a month it will be nice a clear.

Welcome to the club. I got the kegging pretty quick, but I still like to bottle every now and again.

I like to have more than 5 gallons in the primary. Keg 5. Bottle a few. Then I can taste it while I'm waiting for a tap to free up. Helps with the impatience.

I dont mind bottling all that much.

I use PET bottles and grolsch bottles though.

Bottling sucks, but being a member of multiple keg owners club; it is nice to go back to the bottling roots. Especially when you are making stouts and porters.

I bottled one batch been kegging since

I'm a bottler- no plans to keg... That's just me, I think it's part of the process for me

When I started brewing I bottled, then switched to kegs a few years ago. I still keg, though, because there are some batches I want for take-out!

B

I too bottled an entire 1 batch before switching to kegging. Even though I LOVE kegging, I may bottle a batch soon just because it's good to keep up on the process.

I bottled up until christmas..then I got my kegging system up... I dont think ill ever bottle sessions again...something about a fresh pull of my esb to wind down my day...so nice...

Larger bottles and swing-tops...it will cut your bottle number by 25% and your bottling time in half. I do about 6-7 a minute and most 5 gallons only fill 30+ bottles...get 22oz swing tops to really cut it back.

acuenca said:

I bottled up until christmas..then I got my kegging system up... I dont think ill ever bottle sessions again...something about a fresh pull of my esb to wind down my day...so nice...

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I too love to pull a pint, only problem....my kegs have leaks or something because they empty FAR faster than bottles

I bottled my first 4 or 5 batches, then moved to kegs. If I do bottle, I do it off the keg where I have nice, clean beer going into bottles, and usually its when I am nearing the end of a keg and want to switch it out for something new.

Not sure what the big deal is with bottling haters?

I throw on some iTunes shuffle and blast my stereo to 11 - only takes me 1 hour and it gives me a chance to clean my kitchen counters every now and then.

As people mentioned above, to each their own. You're going to have people that dont mind it, and others that hate it with a passion. I'm sure you could find people that despise kegging. Meh, we wouldn't have the ability to make our own decisions and draw our own opinions if we weren't human.

Unibrow said:

Not sure what the big deal is with bottling haters?

I throw on some iTunes shuffle and blast my stereo to 11 - only takes me 1 hour and it gives me a chance to clean my kitchen counters every now and then.

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I didn't mind the bottling itself, but my kitchen is small and in order to have the bucket over the dishwasher (to keep from dripping on the floor or down the cabinets) I am stuck with either bending over or squatting down when filling. There is no room for a chair so my back and knees were screaming by the time I was done. Sort of kills the mood.

Ok, I am done whining now.

You know I only bottled my first batch, then kegged everything after. Since I've been brewing, my tastes in beer have changed drastically and I started to realize that the breweries that I really, really respected were bottle conditioning: Jolly Pumpkin, Boulevard, Trappist beers.

I'll never get rid of my keezer, but the next foreseeable batches I have planned are all getting bottled. Something about it being a living, active, evolving thing inside that bottle is attractive to me. I could give a shi*t about clarity either. When I drink a good farmhouse/sour/Belgian ale and it's got some floaties and some haze in it, I love it that much more.

My beer-tor told me I will be going kegging after I tried it my first time. After my first batch I began talking SWMBO into kegging. It worked out for me because she hated helping and she also just got diamond earrings for her bday. I will probably bottle a 6 or 12 pack but kegging is for me.

So what do you guys think about these:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/kegg...ems/2-5-gallon-mini-draft-system-new-keg.html



Actually looks like a pretty neat little set up, I know there were others like it out a couple of years ago that took pretty bad reviews but this looks a lot more efficient. I'm a fan of bottling and not looking to get into a large kegging system, nor could I afford it with a kid on the way, but this looks promising, for those who want to bottle and keg, or just cut back on the bottling all together.

After bottling 2 batches in the beginning without knowing what a bottling wand was you can imagine the delight after simply racking to a keg and closing the lid... anything over 7% ABV still gets bottled though. That there is some danger waiting to happen!