I'm getting tired of bottling

I'm getting tired of bottling. Just bottled my 4th 5 gallon batch since starting brewing last November. I have my process down but it still takes me a long time from start to finish. Tester it took an hr and 45 minutes to bottle the batch. How long does kegging take? Howmanymbatches did you

How many batches did you do until you switched to kegging?

A lot! But I'm glad I switched.

I bottled for over five years and around two hundred batches. What pushed me totally over the edge was having to bottle 20 gallons in one afternoon - on the hottest day of 2010 - in the middle of MAY!

I was paranoid about wee beasties drifting into buckets and bottles so I had all the windows closed and the AC off. The house got to within an eyelash of 90°F by the ~200th bottle, and I vowed that was it for the whole bottling thing. That evening I had ordered all the parts I needed to build a six faucet keezer, and with Craig's List's help the rest is history...

Cheers!

I switched after four batches. Second best thing I've done for my brewing. First was going all grain.

I switched after a year. If your keg is empty and clean it takes 20 mins

Carbing takes a week or so. Best part for me was clearer beer consistently.

My bottling day was a ridiculous amount of time and energy. I bottled every batch from 1996 until 2012, but I brewed A LOT less because the bottling day always sucked. From cleaning each and every bottle with a scrub brush and then sanitizing to transferring, boiling up priming sugar, filling bottles, and capping. If I really wanted to torture myself then I'd get to start the whole process by cleaning labels off of old commercial bottles. I DO NOT miss those days. I think my typical day from very start to very end was about 4 hours. It wasn't hard work but it was very mundane..... and the worry of contamination the whole time.

Kegging is much more my speed. It can still take a bit of time to thoroughly clean multiple kegs but it's still only in the range of 1.5 hours to clean a batch of 4-6 kegs; the equivalent of ~250 bottles. Split it up and it takes about 20 minutes to clean and sanitize a batches worth of bottles. Once I clean a batch of kegs then I'm good for many more brews. That's the bulk of the time. Transferring from primary to keg is 5 minutes, and then just clean the fermenter, cane and hose. So 20 + 5 + 15 is about 40 minutes of time for kegging one batch versus the 4 hours it used to take me. Plus, the only time I'm worried about contamination is while it's transferring which is a matter of minutes.

I started out kegging, but I still bottle a bunch. I have 3 batches to bottle this week.

If you have brewed 4 batches in 8 months I question the logic of buying a kegging system.

It'll likely be your most expensive piece of equipment

I have 25 gallons ready to package. I can't imagine putting all that in bottles. Kegs is the way to go. I only use bottles now for high gravity beers that will sit for a while and take a long time to drink.

Keg it!!!!!!!! You'll never turn back!!

Only bottled 14 batches. We like bottling but it's more a issue of space. 2 cases in the spare room. 8 in the hallway with 3 carboys and a carboy in the bathroom.

We can get that down to 4 kegs in the shed.

We're still going to bottle big beers for the most part and all the sours. Anything that would like to sit for months and months.

Going to try to get my two fermenting batches into kegs this weekend. w00t!

Xpertskir said:

I started out kegging, but I still bottle a bunch. I have 3 batches to bottle this week.

If you have brewed 4 batches in 8 months I question the logic of buying a kegging system.

It'll likely be your most expensive piece of equipment

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Why would you question the logic of buying a kegging system since I have brewed 4 batches in 8 months? Part of the reason it has been only 4 batches is that I had to get enough bottles to put the batches in. I brewed 2 batches in the last 2 months and 3 in the last 4. Would probably brew even more often if bottling wasn't such a pain.

You are right though it would be my most expensive brewing investment so far.

Bottling sucks..Kegged after a few batches. I only bottle Apfelwein, twice a year. Why clean 50 bottles, when you can clean one.

I've brewed 5 batches and bottled two. I switch to kegs next week when my other batches are ready.

"Why would you question the logic of buying a kegging system since I have brewed 4 batches in 8 months?"

Because an hour or 2 every 2 months isn't a lot of time compared to the cost of kegging, keezer etc. Kegging is a no-brainer if you are cranking our beer, but kinda marginal for small volumes. If you are looking to increase your volumes, kegging makes a lot more sense.

However, it's never taken me 1:45 to bottle 5 gallons, so I think you've got a lot of room for process improvement even without kegging. What is your current procedure?

2 batches
1 with the bottling wand on a siphon (not auto siphon) and one batch from a bottling bucket. That was enough for me,
After 3 weeks of ferment, I crack the airlock bung off my primary stick the auto siphon down the hole and strait into the sanetised keg,

Sanetizing keg and siphon 5 minutes
Siphon into keg. 8 minutes
Put the lid on. 5 seconds
Carrying 2 full kegs up stairs to the kegerator with a big $&#&@$ smile on your face. Priceless

billl said:

"Why would you question the logic of buying a kegging system since I have brewed 4 batches in 8 months?"

Because an hour or 2 every 2 months isn't a lot of time compared to the cost of kegging, keezer etc. Kegging is a no-brainer if you are cranking our beer, but kinda marginal for small volumes. If you are looking to increase your volumes, kegging makes a lot more sense.

However, it's never taken me 1:45 to bottle 5 gallons, so I think you've got a lot of room for process improvement even without kegging. What is your current procedure?

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Here is my current procedure. Let me know if there is something I can improve on.

1. I sanitize my bottling bucket, auto siphon and tubing.

2. Transfer the beer from my carboy to the bottling bucket.

3. Sanitize the bottle and place on bottle tree.

4. Fill and cap 6 bottles at a time (bottling want attached directly to the spigot)

I bottled ten batches and then did what my more experienced friends told me to do in the first place: started kegging.

Like Xpertskir said, it's a serious capital outlay: CO2 canister, regulator, fittings, keg(s), frig/keezer - all in, I dumped several hundred dollars into it, and I'm still going (just paid $25 for a CO2 exchange today). However, I am super duper mega massive happy that I made the switch.

Even with my 12 y/o daughter (good quality time) helping me on a quiet Sunday morning, I spent an hour bottling, and then had to clean everything up - and wait two to three weeks for the bottles to carbonate. Now, I can keg in minutes and have carbonated beer in under a week.

A few things to be aware of with kegging - might be positive, might be negative:
1) When you're drinking from bottles, you know how many you've had. When you're drinking by the glass, not so. Several mornings I've awakened and realized I had drank more than I had intended...
2) When you're drinking from bottles, you are clearing inventory space as you consume. With kegs, you have to kick the entire batch before you can start over. Put another way, you can only have as many batches as you have kegs; but with bottles, you can have almost unlimited batches on hand.
3) Harder to transport a keg system than bottles. (Can be done, but more difficult.) I've gotten around this by bottling from the tap. Nothing fancy, just poured in there with a little foam to fill the headspace.
4) It's really awesome to walk over and pull a fresh draft beer. Especially when your friends are over. Particularly when the beer's been sitting in the cold for a while, and becomes super, ultra clear. Any you know that you created that amazing concoction!

I am one of the few who actually LIKE bottling. I find it therapeutic. And I've never taken more than an hour start to finish bottling a 5 gal batch. A big part of that success is keeping bottles clean and ready to go. I am super diligent at rinsing bottles after each use. I don't put labels on that I have to remove (typically). As a result, I never have to scrub them with a bottle brush.

On bottling day (usually while I am mashing or boiling), I :

1. Sanitize the bottling bucket and rack the beer over from the fermenter.
2. Pull out the already-clean bottles and sanitize with Star San and set on lower dishwasher rack.
3. Hang my bottling wand over the open dishwasher door to catch drips.
4. Pull up a chair and start filling. I bottle about half the batch and then cap.
5. Repeat.
6. Rinse off all of the bottles and wipe with a towel.
7. ID the brew on the cap with a sharpie
8. Box/crate them up for conditioning and storage.

Simple. Only one bottling infection in over a thousand bottles. I don't drink fast enough to keg, and I like to share and trade with friends. I also like to enjoy a variety of brews rather than having 5 gallons to plow through before switching to something else.

adiochiro3 said:

I am one of the few who actually LIKE bottling. I find it therapeutic. And I've never taken more than an hour start to finish bottling a 5 gal batch. A big part of that success is keeping bottles clean and ready to go. I am super diligent at rinsing bottles after each use. I don't put labels on that I have to remove (typically). As a result, I never have to scrub them with a bottle brush.

On bottling day (usually while I am mashing or boiling), I :


[*]Sanitize the bottling bucket and rack the beer over from the fermenter.
[*]Pull out the already-clean bottles and sanitize with Star San and set on lower dishwasher rack.
[*]Hang my bottling wand over the open dishwasher door to catch drips.
[*]Pull up a chair and start filling. I bottle about half the batch and then cap.
[*]Repeat.
[*]Rinse off all of the bottles and wipe with a towel.
[*]ID the brew on the cap with a sharpie
[*]Box/crate them up for conditioning and storage.


Simple. Only one bottling infection in over a thousand bottles. I don't drink fast enough to keg, and I like to share and trade with friends. I also like to enjoy a variety of brews rather than having 5 gallons to plow through before switching to something else.

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That's my exact routine.
I always loathe the thought of it until I start doing it. 1500 watts of Pandora cranked, no one home, 5 gallons of beer and 54 bottles ends up being a blissful situation for me. I realize this when I'm about done. Cleaning up sucks.

After talking with several of my home brewing friends, I started kegging from the get-go and don't regret that decision one bit. Sure it's somewhat costly...but to me it's well worth it. I have a three keg system (expandable to four) and I finally have a small pipeline started. I keep some empty bottles and a few growlers on hand and bottle via the "no stinkin' beer gun" method when I want to share a brew or two.

I disassembled, cleaned, replaced o-rings, reassembled, sanatized, and filled a keg with an IPA last night and had it hooked up to gas in about 40 minutes. And I was taking my time. Do it!

I bottle strait off the kegerator tap, they never last long enough to worry about oxydation.I have it down, turn off the bottle release some pressure on the keg and pour strait into the bottle on a 45 it works every time and no foam overs.

Oh yeah and its cool drinking right out the bottle sometimes.

For those of you that are saying and/or thinking that a full kegging setup is too much or to expensive there is a half way point. I hated bottling as well (though I still bottle about 1/3 of each batch to give out), so I looked into Kegging. My problem is that I really dont have the space right now for a Keezer. I live in a townhouse with a garage on the bottom floor. Sadly it's a tight fit for any kind of storage and a car. So I looked into the mini-kegging systems, did a ton of research. I found the Tap-a-draft system and love it. It's honestly perfect for me. 1.5 gallon "kegs" that fit in the fridge, although my wife has informed me that they take up too much room for her liking so I'll be buying a "beer" fridge in the near future. Of course with any system, there is a cost but it's less expensive than a full kegging setup, though even I admit I'm going to need some additional bottles/kegs soon. Someday I'll get to a full kegging system, but for now this works. It cuts down on my bottling time, and makes transporting 100x easier. I just took 3 gallons(2 1.5 gallon "Kegs") with me down the east coast to visit some friends. Put the "kegs" in a cooler with some ice, and brought some CO2 carts and the taps. Worked great. It's just another option to consider.

Krieger said:

For those of you that are saying and/or thinking that a full kegging setup is too much or to expensive there is a half way point. I hated bottling as well (though I still bottle about 1/3 of each batch to give out), so I looked into Kegging. My problem is that I really dont have the space right now for a Keezer. I live in a townhouse with a garage on the bottom floor. Sadly it's a tight fit for any kind of storage and a car. So I looked into the mini-kegging systems, did a ton of research. I found the Tap-a-draft system and love it. It's honestly perfect for me. 1.5 gallon "kegs" that fit in the fridge, although my wife has informed me that they take up too much room for her liking so I'll be buying a "beer" fridge in the near future. Of course with any system, there is a cost but it's less expensive than a full kegging setup, though even I admit I'm going to need some additional bottles/kegs soon. Someday I'll get to a full kegging system, but for now this works. It cuts down on my bottling time, and makes transporting 100x easier. I just took 3 gallons(2 1.5 gallon "Kegs") with me down the east coast to visit some friends. Put the "kegs" in a cooler with some ice, and brought some CO2 carts and the taps. Worked great. It's just another option to consider.

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I was considering that but didn't know anyone that tried it. How long do the kegs last before you need to replace them?

First off, I both keg and bottle. Kegging for the daily drinker and bottling for sharing (full batch) and Big Beers. Bottling is NOT a time consuming process compared to kegging if you exclude the time it takes to delabel and clean the bottles. This is made easier by buying bottles that haven't gotten a bunch of moldy scum on the bottom. I can bottle a 5 gallon batch in under an hour easily.

Kegging definitely costs some up-front money. But, if you are into homebrewing and drinking beer, it's a definite advantage for a couple or reasons:

You can bottle easily from a keg with no special equipment needed.
Growler fills...
CO2 on hand for purging headspace.
CO2 system for carbing anything that doesn't have yeast!
Kegs can be jumpered for clean beer to take to parties in a keg. Try that with a bottle!

Just keep in mind that until you get a goof feel for a kegging system, there could be a bit of trial and error to get it balanced and pouring good beer. Nothing that can't be overcome, but line length and diameter, pressure, temp, etc. all combine to make kegging a joy when done right.

Kegs still need to be cleaned but they are usually faster and easier to clean than a whole batch worth of bottles. You have beer lines and faucets to clean.

Overall kegging probably does save time, especially when you can swap kegs often. When you have to clean them every batch (2-3 months) like I do, it's less of an advantage. I think if you have the $300-400 to spend for a basic system, go for it. The advantages outweigh the cost. If you don't think you brew often enough to make it worth it, you should be able to shave you bottling time down to under an hour easily once you have a good supply of clean bottles.

Revvy has a nice thread with tons of bottling tips.

Homercidal said:

First off, I both keg and bottle. Kegging for the daily drinker and bottling for sharing (full batch) and Big Beers. Bottling is NOT a time consuming process compared to kegging if you exclude the time it takes to delabel and clean the bottles. This is made easier by buying bottles that haven't gotten a bunch of moldy scum on the bottom. I can bottle a 5 gallon batch in under an hour easily.

Kegging definitely costs some up-front money. But, if you are into homebrewing and drinking beer, it's a definite advantage for a couple or reasons:

You can bottle easily from a keg with no special equipment needed.
Growler fills...
CO2 on hand for purging headspace.
CO2 system for carbing anything that doesn't have yeast!
Kegs can be jumpered for clean beer to take to parties in a keg. Try that with a bottle!

Just keep in mind that until you get a goof feel for a kegging system, there could be a bit of trial and error to get it balanced and pouring good beer. Nothing that can't be overcome, but line length and diameter, pressure, temp, etc. all combine to make kegging a joy when done right.

Kegs still need to be cleaned but they are usually faster and easier to clean than a whole batch worth of bottles. You have beer lines and faucets to clean.

Overall kegging probably does save time, especially when you can swap kegs often. When you have to clean them every batch (2-3 months) like I do, it's less of an advantage. I think if you have the $300-400 to spend for a basic system, go for it. The advantages outweigh the cost. If you don't think you brew often enough to make it worth it, you should be able to shave you bottling time down to under an hour easily once you have a good supply of clean bottles.

Revvy has a nice thread with tons of bottling tips.

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I use Revy's process except I do not bottle in my kitchen.

I've probably bottled 60 batches since I started brewing two years ago and I've never really found it to be the tedious chore that others find it to be. Aside from the two hour dishwasher sanitize cycle I managed to get the process down to an hour, including setup and clean up. All that said the wife just bought me a two tap system for my birthday which I'm really looking forward to getting set up. My thoughts are that my ipa's will improve with the ability to dry hop in the keg and that fact that ill be able to get drinking a little earlier.