Purchase: AG System or Kegerator?

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Ninkasi

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I am looking to upgrade my system but I don't have a lot of money or space.

I would like to start doing AG but I don't have any of the equipment (i.e. coolers, SS Kettle, burner, or 10 gallon fermentor), which means I would have to buy everything. I would have to start by doing 5 gallon batches of AG but purchase the equipment that will allow me to do 10 gallons in the future. I don't want to bottle 10 gallons of beer!!

OR...

Should I buy the equipment necessary to build a kegerator so I could keg my current 5 gallon partial mashes? It would be great to have my beer on tap and not have to clean 50 bottles every batch!

I can't afford to do both. So...should I upgrade to AG equipment or make a kegerator? Which one should I do first?
 
Personal choice I suppose but here's some questions to consider.

Are you happy with the quality of your existing brews?
Are you happy with the current cost of a batch?

If the answer to them are yes then I'd say the kegerator if not then go AG.
 
Bottling 10 G is no big deal if you are using plastic.
I would not want to cap 110-120 bottles..way too much work.
If you are moving to 10G consider using 2L plastic bottles. They are nice for summer and make quick work of bottling.

For 10Gs, I use about 10-12, 2L bottles...which is about 5 gallons worth give or take. This makes 10Gs as quick as bottling 5.

To answer your question...go ALL GRAIN...it is well worth. You will spend more money upfront, but will save in buying grains in bulk.. .Further savings will be realized if you buy bulk hops - and re-use yeast and /or save yeast from a starter.

Be warned though, AG will take anywhere from 5-7 hours - so you will need the free time to do it.
 
Kegerator.

Kegging chages the game completely. I was getting tired of brewing because of the bottling, but kegging is so much easier.

So after you make things easy, THEN think about complicating it with all grain.
 
Kegerator! Absolutely, it will greatly increase your enjoyment and massively reduce your processing time. If you get a used 10-14 cu. ft. fridge, you can install a 1 or 2 tap setup and have room for two more kegs/taps later.

Imagine 100 bottles at a whack ... Only two kegs.
 
I'm in the process of starting to keg, but I don't regret going AG first. Bottling sucks, but for me, AG is a much more enjoyable process than extract brewing. Plus, it's probably a bit cheaper to put together an AG system than a kegging system.
 
I started kegging before AG (still haven't gone AG yet). For me the issue is time, which I have little of lately and saving time by Kegging > extra time spent doing All Grain. Ultimately though, you can hear different opinions, but the choice is going to be what you want.
 
As much as I love doing AG batches, 1) not having to bottle and 2) being able to draw a pint right off the tap are just too wonderful not to have a kegerator.
 
you can build a kegorator fairly cheap if you shop around for the parts, im in the process of building one now and have around 120$ so far i still need a fridge or freezer which i dont plan on spending much more than 60$ for then the regulator, faucet, lines im thinking around 350+-50 bucks if i have calculated right.. which is quite a bit cheaper than actually buying one :) my main motavation on building one is i hate bottling. bottles are such a pita!
 
Cheesefood said:
Kegerator.

Kegging chages the game completely. I was getting tired of brewing because of the bottling, but kegging is so much easier.

So after you make things easy, THEN think about complicating it with all grain.

I agree with Cheese on this one. I got the kegerator worked out, and then went to AG. The kegerator made brewing much more enjoyable because I hated bottling....I may just be lazy though. I didn't even have to cap, cause I had grolsch bottles but still too much hassle compared to the beauty of kegging :fro:


That, and your friends'll think you're cooler cause you have a kegerator. And women will find you more attractive....as long as they sample a sizeable amount of your kegged beer. :rockin:
 
I did both at the same time and can honestly say either one, taken ONE at a time, is great. I actually think the kegger is going to be a little more costly so tackle that first.
 
You could always go the poor mans route with the AG system and out the money into the keggerator then upgrade your AG system when you can afford it.

All you need is a cooler or bucket. When I first got into AG I used a plastic bucket for a mash tun and use a piece of coper, made into a circle with thin slots in the bottom attached to a siphon hose and siphoned the wort. I batch sparged at the time. The only thing you can't skimp on is a kettle.
 
Dennys Fine Consumptibles said:
You could always go the poor mans route with the AG system and out the money into the keggerator then upgrade your AG system when you can afford it.

All you need is a cooler or bucket. When I first got into AG I used a plastic bucket for a mash tun and use a piece of coper, made into a circle with thin slots in the bottom attached to a siphon hose and siphoned the wort. I batch sparged at the time. The only thing you can't skimp on is a kettle.

This is the way I would do it. AG on the cheap and get the kegorator. You can always improve your AG system over time. You can skimp on the kettle to BTW if you get another kettle the size of the one you use for extract and do two boils for one batch. If the budget is still too tight for the poor man's AG system and kegging I would go with kegging.
 
Dennys Fine Consumptibles said:
You could always go the poor mans route with the AG system and out the money into the keggerator then upgrade your AG system when you can afford it.

All you need is a cooler or bucket. When I first got into AG I used a plastic bucket for a mash tun and use a piece of coper, made into a circle with thin slots in the bottom attached to a siphon hose and siphoned the wort. I batch sparged at the time. The only thing you can't skimp on is a kettle.

Yep, I agree here. Get the kegerator, and do cheap AG until you can upgrade.

My first AG batches were on the stove top, using two cheap 5 gallon pots and it was all fine. Chances are you have one pot and a chiller already. So add a 5 - 10 cooler mash tun and a good thermometer, and you are set.
 
D2T said:
That, and your friends'll think you're cooler cause you have a kegerator. And women will find you more attractive....as long as they sample a sizeable amount of your kegged beer. :rockin:

I didn't consider the added attractiveness I would have with women. That is a major plus. Also, I would like my friends to think I was cool because of my personality and companionship....but if they are shallow and simply enjoy my company because I have fresh, tapped beer in my living room I could live with that too :tank:

It looks like the kegerator is winning out here.
 
i'd say kegerator. once you start kegging more you're not going to be pleased with the cost associated with pm for very long. and moving into a 10 gallon system with a kegerator already in place will be the ticket.
 
Both are cool - drinking a beer made from real grain ONLY, and pulling a pint in your own home. Going AG costs about $200 to do it adequately. Kegerator is upwards of $500 with new parts.

That being said, If you are happy with the quality of your beers as of present, go with a kegerator.

I found that just having the means to control my fermentation temps ($70) improved my beer more than going AG alone ($200 mostly DIY stuff).

Whatever you choose, you won't regret it.
 
I'm sorta in the same boat, but I'm definately planning on getting a kegerator here before too long. I have 6ish cases of bottles that I have to store, clean, sanitize, fill, botttle, clean up afterwards etc. Bottling is a long procedure, and it requires assistance, I can't wait to start kegging. 10 gallons of beer in the kegerator at a time. ahhhh yes.
 
Here's the trick woth keggorators.

Get a USED fridge. Large or small, often older firdges you can get for free. Get your taps and tower USED. There are many beverage supply places that deal with your local bars that will have a ton of used equipment.

The kegs, well you sometimes pick up them up real cheap of pepsi or can spend a small fortune for them. There are a few online palces in the US that aare selling them pretty cheap right now.

I paid $80 for and almost new Danby bar fridge (simular to the sanyo) out of the paper. And aboutt $100 for my tower, taps, hoses and connectors from a local beverage supply place. All this in Canadian $.

I didn't buy my co2 tank. I rent a swappable 20lb tank from Praxair. I can;t fit my tank inside my fridge but I donlt care. I actually prefer having an external tank. I just fed an air line into my fridge.

The regualtor you'll have to buy, but they are not that expensive and the beverage palce might have some used ones. I just have one reg that is split into three lines. I can't control my presures seperately, but most of my beers fall within a simular co2 level anyway. My fridge can only fit 2 kegs so I use the third line for misc things like pushing beer from one keg to another, etc.

Now, go for the cheapest setup you can, and leave yourself room to expand. A single reg for now and later you can do the multiple reg thing. If you have the room, go for a full size used fridge, preferably for free, and fit 2 or 3 shanks into the door. I think you caqn fit 4 kegs in there if you need to. You can add the extra 1 or 2 shanks, faucets later. Like I said Used stuff is key for keeping costs down.

Or you can try and find a used bar fridge, or "wine cooler" (mines was a wine cooler. I just moved the thermoeter lead so that it ran cooler). drill a hole in the top and add a tower.

oh, and i use compressed air quick disconects and the seem realtively cheap. Or you can just hard wire the hoses in.
 
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