Noobs Pointless Post #3.

For half the morning and most of the afternoon, I de-labeled, washed, sanitized, filled, capped and stored 89 bottles of beer. I hope those of you who keg your beer can contain your envy. What with your ability to keg 10 gallons of beer in a few hours, including prep and clean up. I mean I got to spend the majority of an entire day being a “brewer.”
You keggers are also denied the minimum conditioning period with your practically instant gratification of force carbing. You get no sense of anticipation. You don’t know what it’s like to chill one beer at day 14 knowing it’s not ready and then opening to discover, it’s not ready. Then chilling one beer on day 20, opening it to find that its good and wishing you had put 12 in the refrigerator on day 20. Delayed gratification, it’s a human thing, you wouldn’t understand.
When you keggers decide to return to grass roots bottling, just let me know. I have an address to which you can ship your corneys, CO2 bottles and regs for “recycling”. You might as well send your keezer too.

I feel your pain brotha. I'm fixing to buy a keg kit though

Ha Ha Thats a very positive outlook.

Keep up the good work and mabye some day the keggers will see the err of their ways and send you their kegging equipment

I feel for you, man. Just save your pennies and pray to the Beer Gods for good blessings. I got a kegerator set-up for free (someone was going to throw it away to make moving easier for them) including a 20# CO2 tank. Thankfully I had been saving for a corny keg and regulator. Then a few months later I got a free chest freezer to convert into a fermentation chamber. But this is after doing it poor college-student ghetto-ass style for 3 years first.

I know it seems tedious now but good things come to brewers who are patient and appease the Beer Gods.

its reasons like this that keeps me bottling, and the fact i cant afford a kegging system atm.:cross:

when I use to bottle (and sometimes still do) I use 22 ozers. makes bottling much quicker.

Don't be to jealous guys, but I get to bottle 25 gallons of beer next week sometime. I have to have it bottle conditioned by the 23rd of July for my sister's wedding. It's not to bad though. I am going to have 3 other people helping me, and I made my sister clean and de-label all the bottles.

superjunior said:

when I use to bottle (and sometimes still do) I use 22 ozers. makes bottling much quicker.

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22 bombers are expensive if you don't have em.

I was rinsing out some bottles today, using my jet bottle washer prior to the de-labeling soak. Some were returns from friends with a little liquid in the bottom, some were still labeled.

I upended one over my sink/ washer only to find it about a quarter full of old tobacco spit. talk about stink!

I keep a short garden hose hooked up under my sink and washed everything down real good, at least I was in my brew room and not the kitchen...

threw that bottle away... (Waaaay away..)

Oh the joys of bottling!

89 bottles of beer! Might as well make it 99.

Did you know that buying a keg has been show to reduce keg envy?

I got my kegs before I brewed the first batch. Priorities!

scotched said:

89 bottles of beer! Might as well make it 99.

Did you know that buying a keg has been show to reduce keg envy?

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I considered buying a keg but realized my beer would sit in it, hot, uncarbed, and unextractable

Lol at the OP. It's not that I can't afford to keg, its that my liver would never hold up. For some unknown reason the decision to open another bottle weighs heavier on my conscience than pulling the tap.

hops2it said:

Lol at the OP. It's not that I can't afford to keg, its that my liver would never hold up. For some unknown reason the decision to open another bottle weighs heavier on my conscience than pulling the tap.

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This.

Shaneoco1981 said:

22 bombers are expensive if you don't have em.

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before brewing my own most of the craft brews I bought came in bombers so I started saving them. expensive yes but over time I ended up with over 10 cases of bombers. I use to bottle 25 gallon batches (split between a friend or two) and I couldn't imagine doing that with shortys

HA, awesome post!

Yup, yup. I'm poor and brewing the cheapest way I know how. I figure I'm better off spending money on quality ingredients for now.

But hey, you're right. If we jumped right into kegging and got super-awesome AG setups, how could we *truly* appreciate it without having first been bottling boobs and stove top suckers.

:rockin:

I love bottling. Cant exactly share it with family members accross central florida with a keg.

Irishpenguin13 said:

I love bottling. Cant exactly share it with family members across central Florida with a keg.

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I can just picture doing that with a keg. "Open wiiide!...incomiiiiing!".

Kegging is also a real pain with beersmith. I mean, all the default aging periods are 30 days now, and every time I make a batch I have to go in and edit it to 1 day.

It just couldn't be more bothersome.

FifteenTen said:

What with your ability to keg 10 gallons of beer in a few hours, including prep and clean up.

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I wouldn't want to cut down on your time as a 'brewer', but you can probably keg 10 gallons in less than a half hour.

petep1980 said:

Kegging is also a real pain with beersmith. I mean, all the default aging periods are 30 days now, and every time I make a batch I have to go in and edit it to 1 day.

It just couldn't be more bothersome.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My GOSH that is TOO funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

unionrdr said:

I can just picture doing that with a keg. "Open wiiide!...incomiiiiing!".

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I guess I can try the extremely long tubing approach. Wonder how I can make 45 miles of a tube from a keg to my sisters house.....hmmmm.

And one to my dad in tampa. Id better get to work

I have been brewing for close to a year now and have bottled close to 10 batches so far. I just ordered my keg setup a few weeks ago and let me tell ya, I am relieved that I won't have to clean/sanitize all those bottles anymore. I will still do some bottling here and there for beers that need aging but the majority of beers that i brew are styles like APA's, IPA's ect.. that don't require a long aging period so they will be kegged.

One bottle at a time:

After the bottles are delabeled it goes quicker. For me to sanitize (they are already clean) fill and cap 50 bottles it takes 2 hours or less. I like the individual bottle portions. So at this point I do not see myself kegging.

I also recommend Sam Adams commercial beer because A: I like the flavor - B: the labels come off easily.

cheers, Mike

I started bottling all my beers then I bought a keg system. After a couple of kegged beers, I went back to bottling. Beer in bottles is more portable for me plus if I had a keg on tap in my house I don't think I would get anything done.

MikeinCT said:

One bottle at a time:

After the bottles are delabeled it goes quicker. For me to sanitize (they are already clean) fill and cap 50 bottles it takes 2 hours or less. I like the individual bottle portions. So at this point I do not see myself kegging.

I also recommend Sam Adams commercial beer because A: I like the flavor - B: the labels come off easily.

cheers, Mike

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BigRock947 said:

I started bottling all my beers then I bought a keg system. After a couple of kegged beers, I went back to bottling. Beer in bottles is more portable for me plus if I had a keg on tap in my house I don't think I would get anything done.

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Good points I agree with. And the labels on Paulaner (Germany) come off several times faster than even SA's in some PBW! From setting up my bottling station,bottling,to clean up,takes about an hour,hour & a half. I fill bottles on top of my 12 pack cooler covered with a dish towel on my right. As is the bottling bucket/hose/wand set up. A squat,round table about 34" diameter in front of me to bottle/cap on,with a small round pot holder to keep bottles from sliding while capping.
I stop to cap every ten bottles or so,with the bottling wand propped up in a bottle instead of turning off the spigot. Less air in the line that way. Caps in a small glass bowl of star-san.
Bottle tree with sanitized bottles on a wooden chair to my left. Box for bottled beers on the floor in front of that. No reaching,stooping,etc. Just sit down,& bottle away. I gotta get a video of this soon...

I can't wait to keg my IIPA tonight...should only take about take about 15 mins....Then I can't wait until next weekend to drink it....but in the mean time I guess I can drink one of the other three beers I have on tap....oh.... then when I get done drinking those said beers I only have to wash one glass.