Looking for experienced brewers opinions

I have just a little but of money to spend and wanted to know what u should spend it on.

A) Larger brew kettle and banjo burner for PMs and/or BIABs

B) Draft system with 1 or 2 legs

I see the benefits of both, but can only do one now.
What's the consensus? A or B?

That's a tough one. If you like the beer you are making now go with the kegs. Kegging is much easier and less time consuming and will make you want to brew more.

A. The ability to do full boils and larger batches will allow you to make better beer in larger volumes. Kegging is wonderful and convenient, but it does nothing to improve your beer.

Personally I hate bottling with a passion so a keg system was one of my first upgrades.

I'd go with A. As much as I hate bottling, are you going to have a dedicated fridge for the kegs? I had a leak a couple of weeks ago and lost a full five gallons of awesome beer. Kegging isn't as great now for me.

But being able to brew beer from scratch? Now that's worth the money.

I was in the same spot just a little bit ago. I ended up buying both and i will tell you that getting a bigger kettle and burner is the way to go. Kegging is awesome... if you have money to spend on the endless list of stuff you need for it.

Check out williamsbrewing.com I got their 10.5 gal kettle with a ballvalve for under 100 bucks. Sweet deal for sure

Tough question without knowing more about your brewing process and goals.

[post removed by author. it was nonsense; Grinder12000 made me see the light]

A. Make better beer. You can alway do party pigs instead of bottling.

I had the same dilemma (not dilemna, apparently, we were all taught that wrong!) about 2 months ago, and I chose the kettle. I really wanted to do all-grain but was afraid of the equipment costs until I read about BIAB. You will make better beer that way.

I'm still looking into kegging but even without a money issue I haven't bought a system. One real reason is that I have no place to put the keg to keep it cold. Bottles are just more convenient that way.

Grinder12000 said:

A. Make better beer. You can alway do party pigs instead of bottling.

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I change my vote. For some reason (not reading OP completely) I thought you were going from 5g to 10g batches. And I just assumed you were already doing all grain.

So, I would HIGHLY recommend you first go all-grain. If that means larger kettle, then do that. Only speaking for myself, all-grain brewing made a huge difference in my beers. I wouldn't be brewing right now if I hadn't moved away from extract. I did 2 PM's first and they were far better than the extract beers.

I'm removing my post above, it was nonsense. Cheers and good luck.

Get a bigger kettle. And a chiller if you don't have one.

Skip that nonsense about PM and go right for AG, even if it's BIAB for now. (although the cost of a cooler mash tun is pretty low...)

Getting a kegging setup going is going to cost a LOT more than a kettle upgrade. Fridge/freezer, kegs, regulator, tubing, fittings...

Yeah, it's nice, I won't lie, but having a good sized kettle makes the actual brewing process more relaxing, and doing full boils alone will improve your beer. Going AG is a mode of brewing that can feel even more rewarding and gives you the ability to do things you can't do with extract.

passedpawn said:

I would HIGHLY recommend you first go all-grain.

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+1 This.

Even on a small scale, you can get a nice cooler with a braid pretty cheap. I do AG split boil batches inside during the winter so if you can do that or better already, then get a cooler and convert it to a MLT.

Then look on CL for Turkey fryers I bet you find one cheap if you look long and hard enough.

Kegging is nice but does nothing but save you from bottling. Many went through this same thing, including myself. You can even score kegs on CL used...

Homercidal said:

Skip that nonsense about PM and go right for AG, even if it's BIAB for now. (although the cost of a cooler mash tun is pretty low...)

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This. I built my mash tun for like 20 bucks (including a brand new Ice Cube cooler).

Scour Craigslist for a turkey fryer setup and you'll be good to go. And then you'll can spend the money later on the kegging setup - you know it's only a matter of time

edit: it's like Zamial's in my head....

I don't recommend the banjo burner. I bought one at my local shop and it draws propane so fast that your tank freezes before your boil will be done. So, back to my bayou classic turkey fryer burner, which takes a little longer but doesn't freeze up my tank. If you are going to get the banjo, then you will need at least a 20 lb tank to avoid freeze ups.

Thanks to all who answered my question. After taking a few days to think about it, I've decided to go all grain.

Hopefully next year I'll be kegging.

Brianyear said:

Thanks to all who answered my question. After taking a few days to think about it, I've decided to go all grain.

Hopefully next year I'll be kegging.

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You made the right choice.

Brew on!!!!

good choice, i would love to keg but i don't really have the means in my small apartment. if you haven't bought anything yet i just built/bought a rubbermaid cooler mlt per flyguy's thread, a 44 quart bayou classic stainless pot (overstock.com), and a bayou classic sq14 burner(overstock.com) for around 180 bucks total.

That's a touch choice!

I met some great new neighbors while spending the winter in Texas, and they brew extract batches but went with a kegging set up as their upgrade. Their beer might be better if they went AG or had a chiller, but they do extract with full boil and chill in a big ice chest. They don't have good temperature control. Normally, I'd say fix those first. But you know what? They love their beer, but hate bottling. And so they made the right choice, by kegging.

What I would have chosen (and did choose) was to upgrade my mashing before my packaging. I bottled something like 200 batches of beer! That was the right choice for me, when I made it.

I guess the point (and I do have one!) is that what I think is "best" may not be what you think is best. If you love your beer, and can't imagine it tasting any better, kegging is the way to go. If you taste some flaws, you can fix that by upgrading equipment but still bottling. So it's really up to you to decide what the priority is.

My first major 'upgrade' was jumping into kegging. I can tell you that I wouldn't have continued brewing without switching away from bottling. For me, every part of the brewing process is enjoyable except the bottling. I bottled one batch and said screw it, I'm kegging and haven't looked back. If you don't mind bottling, get the bigger kettle. If you are like me and hate bottling, go for the kegging set up.

IffyG said:

My first major 'upgrade' was jumping into kegging. I can tell you that I wouldn't have continued brewing without switching away from bottling. For me, every part of the brewing process is enjoyable except the bottling. I bottled one batch and said screw it, I'm kegging and haven't looked back. If you don't mind bottling, get the bigger kettle. If you are like me and hate bottling, go for the kegging set up.

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I'm the opposite. My last major upgrade was kegging. I went all grain, then I bought a chest freezer and temp controller with the intention of making the switch to kegs...and it ended up as my fermentation chamber...then I got my keg setup. I will admit, I'm happy as all hell to be kegging, but I don't regret waiting.

kettle

I'm surprised how anathema bottling is to some people. I actually kind of enjoy the process, and I really like being able to both easily share bottles with friends/family. Also, it seems like kegging doesn't remove the hassle of bottling, it is just a different process. I sanatize bottles in the dishwasher, which is easier to me than sanatizing a keg, and I mess with priming sugar instead of a CO2 tank. I need a dark room temp location to age beer a couple weeks, instead of a repurposed refrigerator/freezer and temp controls. I grab beers from the fridge and uncap instead of installing a single-purpose kegerator.

In fact, I came across a free fridge recently which I was originally planning to turn into a kegerator...but the more I think about it I think it will just be summertime fermentation chamber for the time being.

In the perfect setup with a lot of extra cash I would totally keg and then bottle a few for sharing...but it seems like more of a different process to me as opposed to an upgrade of the process.

So long story short, I would vote going AG (which i know you already decided on...but in case anyone else has a similar internal debate). Using the BIAB method, there are very minimal costs associated with AG, and each batch of beer will cost less (grain is cheaper than extract) so you can save money faster for the eventual keg upgrade if you want. With kegging you might save on bottlecaps and priming sugar, but it will be offset by CO2 fills.