Ran out of bottles; Time for first kegging

So, I keep buying cases of 22 oz's to fulfill my beer bottling needs; usually I have enough bottles for each batch. Well, I'll finally caught up to myself and have little to no empty bottles available. I have too many friends that want to take a bottle home.

I can either buy another 24 bottles or finally buy a used keg (keeps my beer in my home). I have the whole set up (CO2 tank, regulator, tap, etc.) except for the actual soda keg.

So, long explanation short, I was hoping you guys can either point me to some literature about carbing and/or let me know what you think is the best method of doing so. Yes, I know this will probably bring up a cliche argument like using a secondary or glass carboy verses plastic bucket, but it can't hurt to see what you guys think.

Thanks!

So, force carbing is the best way to go, huh?

If you DO want to get some more bottles, I've got a bunch of freebies that you're welcome to (a lot of bombers). I'll be out east in a few weeks, at the Utopias 3 brewfest. If you wanted to come hang out with a bunch of us dumb ****s, I'll toss them in the car with me.

There's several different methods of carbing the beer. I've done the 10-12psi set and forget for a week or two, force carb in a matter of hours at 30-40psi, and naturally carbonating with priming sugar in the keg.

By far, the easiest is set and forget, but that leaves me with one of my four taps not all set to consume for a week or two. The fastest is force carbonating, though I've only done that twice - I understand there's a big risk of over carbonating, which definitely is no fun. Naturally carbonating is nice when I've got 4 full kegs in the fridge, and I want to carbonate another so its ready to go as soon as one is kicked.

Never hurts to have more bottles; available cheap at the right places.

FensterBos said:

I have too many friends that want to take a bottle home.

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If they can't wash and bring the bottles back, find new friends. Or tell them to cough up for more new bottles. If they don't think it is worth it, they are cheap deadbeats. Trust me, I've known quite a few of who I speak. Even been related to a few.

Giving bottles out is on one hand great because you want people to try your beer, but I know I can't help but think "... thats 6 empties out the door I might not get back." And to make it worse, I have only 1 family member who drinks anything with pry offs.

I passed over a kegerator a while back, but that might not happen again in the future.

FensterBos said:

So, I keep buying cases of 22 oz's to fulfill my beer bottling needs; usually I have enough bottles for each batch. Well, I'll finally caught up to myself and have little to no empty bottles available. I have too many friends that want to take a bottle home.

I can either buy another 24 bottles or finally buy a used keg (keeps my beer in my home). I have the whole set up (CO2 tank, regulator, tap, etc.) except for the actual soda keg.

So, long explanation short, I was hoping you guys can either point me to some literature about carbing and/or let me know what you think is the best method of doing so. Yes, I know this will probably bring up a cliche argument like using a secondary or glass carboy verses plastic bucket, but it can't hurt to see what you guys think.

Thanks!

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Then get a couple--they're the cheap part of the setup!

I generally force carb (12 PSI, set and forget), unless the kegerator is full and I know a keg isn't going to go in there for a few weeks. Then I'll prime it with sugar.

#1 Keg, unless you have friends that like to take a keg home. Your friends can always bring a growler and fill it up at your place.

#2 It's not excessive to ask your friends to bring you bottles as "payment" for your brew. Neither is it wrong to want those bottles back. Sounds like they need to do their part for your beer and prime the pipeline.

You could find yourself a package store that accepts empties (pays the deposit) and see if they will sell them. If they pay a nickel each for the deposit, see if they will sell them for a dime each.

Thanks for the help guys. I think I am going to set it at 12 psi and "forget it" since I don't want to over-carb. It is really easy for me to screw up a batch and I have enough bottle conditioned home brew that I can wait the week or two it takes to carb up.

You could go the 2 liter bottle route if you need to bottle before you find a keg. You already have CO2 so you could force carb some in them as well.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/carbonating-soda-bottles-92867/

I gave out allot of Six packs out for Christmas.... those that return them get a refill for next Christmas....

The rest get a Fruitcake

the_bird said:

If you DO want to get some more bottles, I've got a bunch of freebies that you're welcome to (a lot of bombers). I'll be out east in a few weeks, at the Utopias 3 brewfest. If you wanted to come hang out with a bunch of us dumb ****s, I'll toss them in the car with me.

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Your such a good guy! What date is utopia? I keep forgetting to write Yeager.

bschoenb said:

I gave out allot of Six packs out for Christmas.... those that return them get a refill for next Christmas....

The rest get a Fruitcake

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OUCH!!! Are you licensed to give out Fruitcake? Doesn't that count as either cruel and unusual punishment, or put you on the list for crimes against humanity?

Not getting bottles back is one of the reasons I've not given brew to anyone (that I've not been there to take the empties home, if we're not at my place already)... I'm using the Grolsch style bottles for most of my brews... Going to use some Belgian bottles for the first time (this weekend) for a BarleyWine. I'm thinking of printing up some decent labels for that one...

Also thinking that I should make up something that I can rest on the bottle neck (maybe tied on) about returning the bottle to he who brewed what it contains... Otherwise, I might have to sic the Black Knight on the offenders. :rockin: