Best Route For A Newbie - Bottle Or Keg?

Getting back into home brewing after a 20+ year absence. So much has changed that I am really starting from scratch. This board and you guys and your advice have been fantastic. I have purchased a beginners brewing kit and I am going to follow the Cincy Pale Ale in John Palmer's book which I am using as my guideline. The kit is geared towards bottling (it included what looks like a cap crimper but I still have to purchase bottles and caps).

I was all set to bottle my first attempt but in researching this site I have found threads where more experienced brewers lament the fact that they did not go the keggedd/corny route from the beginning. It sounds like the corny route is less work in some respects which I would be more than happy with.

Any advice either way would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Montanaandy

Answer the following:

Do you think you'll be at this a while (a period of years)?
Do you have the space to devote to the kegging equipment?
Do you have the money to devote to the initial equipment investment?

If you answered NO to any of those questions, you may want to bottle for a few before diving into kegging.

+1 to answering those questions. Although it sounds like you know what you're getting into. I bought cornies and built my kegerator even before my first brew! So yeah, do what fits best for ya! There's no pre requesites here.

Kegging is a wonderful thing, but the above is correct. If you have the money and space.. keg... if not bottle. Bottling is my least enjoyable part of making beer. Haveing the kegs now is just the best!

There is one question that you might want to add to that series. I left it off because I was on the fence but I'm starting to think it is really very relevant:

Do you have a good mechanical aptitude for design, assembly and troubleshooting a closed air system?

Some of us actually like bottling.

1. Easy portion control.
2. Low cost (especially if you reuse commercial bottles).
3. Unlimited variety of beers on hand.
4. Portable and easy to share with friends.

All good advice.

One thing to consider. If you keg, you can still bottle some of your beer. It's a bit more difficult to keg if you only have bottles.

I'd say start by bottling a batch or two. You'll know after that whether or not you want to keg. Trust me you'll know.

There are good reasons for bottling but the OP did say that the drop in labor with kegs was the attractor. I didn't address the differences between bottling and kegging, though once one has the kegging gear in place, there is nothing stopping people from bottling their kegged beer.

Once the keg gear is in place, the user can still bottle their kegged beer and gain all the advantages of both systems.

Regarding some of the questions:

1. I would like to do this for years to come and don't see why I would not unless I am a complete tool and can't get the hang of it. I am a good cook and a foodie and I love the taste of good beer paired with my meals.
2. I have a large unfinished portion of my basement where my kids used to play roller hockey to give you an idea of the space size. I can store all of the equipment down there
3. I can afford it but I don't need everything the top of the line - just decent equipment

My main goal is to be able to produce and consume the best tasting beer that I can as easily as is humanly possible

Montanaandy said:

Regarding some of the questions:

1. I would like to do this for years to come and don't see why I would not unless I am a complete tool and can't get the hang of it. I am a good cook and a foodie and I love the taste of good beer paired with my meals.
2. I have a large unfinished portion of my basement where my kids used to play roller hockey to give you an idea of the space size. I can store all of the equipment down there
3. I can afford it but I don't need everything the top of the line - just decent equipment

My main goal is to be able to produce and consume the best tasting beer that I can as easily as is humanly possible

Click to expand...

I think you're gonna fit right in, welcome aboard!

Great advice so far all I can offer is my own opinion, I started on bottles for about the first 3 brews. Since these brews were back to back we had 144 bottles in various stages. Everything was great..

Until, the cleaning, sterilizing, storing, <rinse and repeat> game was in full effect. Then it quickly became apparent kegging was for me. I started with 1 keg and within a month grew to 5.

I still have 2 cases of bottles around now for hand outs but other then that I am bottle free!

Good luck and have fun with your brew as I have learned 98% of the time the result is some sort of beer.

Missed the one about mechanical aptitude. I am handy but I am not the DIY type that tries to tackle projects that are over my head. I have some background in plumbing/heating from years ago so the hooking up the tanks and such does not worry me per se although I don't want to blow the house up either. The wife would really frown upon that.

Thanks for all the info. I think that I am going to go the keg route. I am going to call our local homebrewing shop here in Billings to see what they carry in the way of keg equipment. Truly appreciate your assistance. Montanaandy

Andy, nothing has changed about beer in 20 years. We still use malt, hops, yeast, and water. yeast still consume sugar and excrete CO2 and alcohol. So don't worry bout that, you CAN make beer. The epuipment still does the same thing although the might be more purposen driven and made from other materials. As for kegging VS bottling, kegging is easier, and if time is money it gets cheaper with each batch you do. It also takes less time kettle to glass. Once I went to the keg I never looked back. A beginning kegging kit isn't all that expensive and can be upgraded over time. Most of us started out with a tank, reg, keg and cobra tap and expanded from there. My vote is go kegging then you wont have a closet full of empty bottles to get rid of when you decide to keg in 3 months.

Shop around on the internet you can get keg setups cheaper than any LHBS.