The problem with 10 gallon batches

I love the fact it doesn't take much longer to brew a 10-gallon batch, but the bottling takes twice as long. It took all afternoon(probably a total of 5 hours) to bottle a ten gallon batch and a 5-gallon batch.

It'll be worth it in a couple weeks, though.

10 gallon batches? Oh...it ain't that bad....LOL But seriously, I bottled around 6 cases of beer last year off the kegger for x-mas. Never again....

I'm kegging now, but I did this for a while. Doubletime bottling.

Kegging is one of my goals. I've been building up my equipment for fermenting 10-gallon batches. Now I have to figure out whether to focus on kegging or switching to electric.

That's pretty clever doing the double bottling. I've never seen that before.

snowblind5150 said:

Kegging is one of my goals. I've been building up my equipment for fermenting 10-gallon batches. Now I have to figure out whether to focus on kegging or switching to electric.

Click to expand...

Honestly, go for kegging first. The sheer time saving it brings you will be well worth the waiting for the electric setup. Plus the feeling I get when I pull a home brewed pint from my kegerator is indescribable.

turkeyjerky214 said:

That's pretty clever doing the double bottling. I've never seen that before.

Click to expand...

And a great use for the ping pong table when not playing beer pong

Just kegged 5 gals, took me 20 mins total. 10 gals would have been like 25 mins. All the work is in the cleaning and sanitation. I don't miss bottles.

edmanster said:

And a great use for the ping pong table when not playing beer pong

Click to expand...

I have that Kettler table too, it's freakin awesome. Mines outside, wind can have an interesting affect on play. I don't use it for bottling though..

Ricand said:

I have that Kettler table too, it's freakin awesome. Mines outside, wind can have an interesting affect on play. I don't use it for bottling though..

Click to expand...

That one is outside, too (and I love that table, but they are fairly expensive - the blue was an extra $100). Wind isn't a problem, but those pavers make us chase the ball a lot - it doesn't bounce straight back up, and often ends up in the pool.

Smashing said:

Just kegged 5 gals, took me 20 mins total. 10 gals would have been like 25 mins. All the work is in the cleaning and sanitation. I don't miss bottles.

Click to expand...

I can sanitize 2 kegs(already cleaned and ready to go) and a hose, then fill the kegs on my lunch hour and still have time to eat lunch.:rockin:

+1 more for kegging first

I've got 20 gallons in my basement I'm planning on kegging later today. My kegs are already cleaned and sanitized. Not counting cleanup (which I'll do when I brew in a few days) it'll probably take me half an hour to fill 4 kegs.

turkeyjerky214 said:

+1 more for kegging first

I've got 20 gallons in my basement I'm planning on kegging later today. My kegs are already cleaned and sanitized. Not counting cleanup (which I'll do when I brew in a few days) it'll probably take me half an hour to fill 4 kegs.

Click to expand...

Now imagine putting all of that in bottles...

Although there is something to be said about keeping at least a 12 pack of bottled homebrew for sharing / sampling.

EricR said:

Although there is something to be said about keeping at least a 12 pack of bottled homebrew for sharing / sampling.

Click to expand...

Bottle off the keg. I haven't bottled a full batch that way yet (just for taking places and competition), but I'm planning on carbing my barleywine in the keg and then filling a bunch of 22 oz bottles. Same with a smoked porter a buddy and I made for him as a thank you for a big favor. Gonna carb it up and then bottle when he comes back in town in January.

I never could quite get the right level of carbonation back when I naturally carbed.