Pros and Cons Bottling vs Kegging...

Ok so im pretty new to this as you probaly all see my posts... but i was wondering what is the difference in kegging and bottling besides carbonating faster? like maybe a Pro and Con list?? thanks

Patrick

Wow- that's a big question that really took me a couple of years to answer for myself!

The cons with kegging- expense. That's it.

I no longer clean and separately bottle 53 bottles of beer and store them for three weeks at 70 degrees, and then put them in the fridge and drink them. I don't label bottles (or caps), I don't have empty bottles when I'm done drinking. I don't have hundreds of full bottles all over the place (since I brew often), and If I want to fill a few for friends or competition, I do that with the BMBF (like a poor man's beergun) in about 5 minutes. I have no sediment in my beers (for my non-homebrew drinking friends), and I have draft beer anytime I want it. I can pour three ounces, or twenty- depending on what I'm in the mood for. I think I'll have a pint now!

Seriously, I can think of no cons at all. I brew lots of beer, and I drink lots of beer. That means kegging is perfect for me. I just started kegging at Christmas time, so I'm new to it, and I can't believe that it took me so long!

+100 Just keged my 3rd batch after brewing dozens. I will say that I do keep cases of empties around for when I get the insane idea to do Lambics..

I'm definitely a Yooper Trooper on this one. I have recently started kegging, and I don't miss bottling at all. I never minded bottling, but I don't miss it. I will still be bottling a few here and there, I can't afford to tie up a cornie till Christmas so I'll be bottling that one, and things like BIG stouts and stuff.

The only down side is in fact cost, but you can only spend it once, and once it's gone it's gone...Spend it on what makes you happy.

For the most part I agree with Yopper but I can think of one other con to kegging. I take my beers a lot of places to share with friends and kegging is bulky to haul around. You can buy or rig a gun to bottle from a keg but for me it's just as easy to bottle directly. For me it's not one or the other, I keg and I bottle depending on the end purpose of the beer I am brewing.

well at some point ill start kegging it then hah... pretty decent price for all the EQ??

shop around, while there are some deals out there its just as easy to spend a lot of money kegging. Wait till you find the deals and get those parts then. Check CL often for things like kegs welding equipment(co2 bottles), used freezers or fridges to convert, use your imagination when searching it can often save you money(I'm planning on converting a H2O fire extinguiser to a 2.5 gallon keg for a portable). Check ebay for pickup only deals, I saw a couple of 5 tap towers on there today dirt cheap for someone in Boise, ID? Read up on the stuff that you want before you buy, so you don't end up with something unusable. some items you will want new, but most are just fine used.
I was so happy when I started kegging, for all the reasons listed above. I would never go back to bottling except when I use the BMBF to take a quick sixer with me.

C'mon, there ARE a few disadvantages to kegging....

1) Price. Way cheaper to bottle, period.
2) Converted fridge required. This may not be possible for some people due to space concerns.
3) Lack of portability. It's always fun to hand your buddy a 6 pack of your homebrew. Although you CAN bottle from kegs, you need a beer gun or a homemade rig. I guess this one isn't so bad.
4) Gotta keep those kegs clean, and they don't last forever. Cornelius kegs have recently been discontinued and although we will have access to them for many years, eventually they will be hard to come by. Hopefully by then we will have a suitable replacement.

That being said, kegging IS better than bottling, by far. Even though I haven't actually set mine up yet, I will love the ability to drink draft beer whenever I want it.

1) bottles break, don't get returned, or worse yet are returned with someone's tobacco spit in them.
2) the space it takes to store 8 cases covers the footprint of the fridge.
3) I would rather clean 10 kegs than 500 bottles, cheaper in time and chemicals
4) When we run out then we switch to sanke. They are easy to dismantle, just harder to clean.
Bottles are good, just kegging is better

It is not as easy to take over to a friend's house for the ballgame if all your beer is in a keg.

lots of insight. do the cornys tops just come off and you syphon it in or is it pushed in with CO2 or how does that work?

pcolson said:

lots of insight. do the cornys tops just come off and you syphon it in or is it pushed in with CO2 or how does that work?

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The tops just pop off and you rack into them the same way you would a carboy.

The only thing I haven't seen mentioned is that bottles are nice because you can have as many varieties of beer available as you want. Some people have kegerators with like 8 beers on tap, but I would bet most people only have 2-4 at any given time. I do love the variety of making a mix pack to take over to a friends house, they can really get the scope of your homebrew style.

I keg and love it, but I do still bottle sometimes. Mostly when I make a novelty batch of something that I know I am not going to want taking up a tap for weeks at a time. I made a ginger peach recently, great beer, but I don't want to drink it every day, so that got bottled.

Neunelfer said:

It is not as easy to take over to a friend's house for the ballgame if all your beer is in a keg.

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Meh, I dont really agree with this. I can bottle up a nights worth of drinking from a keg in less than 10 minutes. I guess you could call this a disadvantage, but it really is no big deal.

The only disadvantage to kegging is the price.

cubbies said:

Meh, I dont really agree with this. I can bottle up a nights worth of drinking from a keg in less than 10 minutes. I guess you could call this a disadvantage, but it really is no big deal.

The only disadvantage to kegging is the price.

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I filled a growler yesterday for last evening and it took about 2 minutes. I filled some grolsch bottles with one kind of beer, though, since it isn't my favorite. So, I took two kinds of beer in three different containers and it took about as long as it takes to pour three pints.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Anyone who thinks it's a problem to bottle from a keg, search for "we don't need no stinkin' beer gun!"

I think it's a better way to bottle, whether you need a few for a get-together, or want to store a whole batch long term. Bottling from the keg is the only truly easy way we homebrewers have of producing sediment free beer.

Carbonation levels in keg carbonated beers are adjustable. Not so in bottles. Beer not carbonated enough? Turn up the pressure. Beer too carbonated? Drop the pressure to fine tune. You can't do that with bottles.

Ditto that, portability is a problem. Unless I bottle, the cosmonots I hang with are always at my damn house!

Neunelfer said:

It is not as easy to take over to a friend's house for the ballgame if all your beer is in a keg.

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I bottle up from kegs all the time for back yard BBQ's and quick visits to friends houses.

This cooler took me just under 20 minutes to bottle up using the BMBF.



It took us just a bit longer to "do the deed"...

Tankard said:

C'mon, there ARE a few disadvantages to kegging....

they don't last forever. .

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While this is technically true They should last at least 500 years with a modicum of care. Plus it's fairly easy to rebuild or replace the parts that wear out.

Other cons of kegging I didn't see mentioned include:
The corny connections at the posts can be finicky and leak, same with the poppets and the lids.

Some of the old Firestone cornies have plastic pressure relief valves that are cracked and you can't find replacement parts for them ( although they can be removed and replaced by a nut & bolt with 1 rubber and 2 metal washers {the metal parts should be Stainless steel} ).

You need to carefully check for leaks or you may end up with an empty CO2 tank or flat beer (although flat beer can be recarbonated).

You really need a spare CO2 tank as like LP tanks they tend to run out of gas at the most inopprotune times.

PROs
I don't have a problem with portablity. A small 2.5 or 5 lb CO2 bottle, corny keg and cooler on wheels ain't a BFD to me . But I don't drive a Mini Cooper either.

You don't have to worry about exposure to light skunking your beer.

I didn't think kegging was expensive when my time was entered into the equation. Some people value their time some don't.

All in all, the Pro's far out weigh the Con's IMHO.

Anyone using something like this for home keg beer?

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11245244&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|103|325&N=4000009&Mo=17&pos=5&No=13&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=325&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC119-Cat103&topnav=

Living in the city in a decent size condo doesn't alow for a beer ridge.

If not out comes the dishwasher!
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070505&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|103|325&N=4000009&Mo=17&pos=5&No=6&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=325&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC119-Cat103&topnav=

abracadabra said:

I don't have a problem with portablity. A small 2.5 or 5 lb CO2 bottle, corny keg and cooler on wheels ain't a BFD to me . But I don't drive a Mini Cooper either.

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Hehe...I've brought a keg to several parties in my Mini! I drop the keg into a round wastebasket that's a little bigger in diameter and grab a picnic tap and one of my spare tank/regulator combos. Sits upright in the "boot" of the Mini, no worries. Once I'm there, we ice it down.

My biggest concern is that sediment gets stirred up, and I don't want want to pour cloudy beer and tell people I made it. So I either bring the keg the night before, or I bring hefe!

Been kegging for about 2 years

Cons to kegging:
- Up front expense
- A batch does not last as long (meaning I drink more often when all I have to do is pull a tap)

The portability issue is easily solved as others have mentioned.

Special Hops said:

A batch does not last as long (meaning I drink more often when all I have to do is pull a tap)

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That's no joke...it's SO easy to just pull another pint, or top off the one you've already got going. Just ask my belt buckle, which has moved a few notches since I built my kegerator.

BlindLemonLars said:

Hehe...I've brought a keg to several parties in my Mini! I drop the keg into a round wastebasket that's a little bigger in diameter and grab a picnic tap and one of my spare tank/regulator combos. Sits upright in the "boot" of the Mini, no worries. Once I'm there, we ice it down.

My biggest concern is that sediment gets stirred up, and I don't want want to pour cloudy beer and tell people I made it. So I either bring the keg the night before, or I bring hefe!

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The other option would be to transfer to a different keg before you take it over. You can make a jumper and transfer it pretty easily. Just something to consider.

BlindLemonLars said:

.it's SO easy to just pull another pint, or top off the one you've already got going.

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+there is no evidence of empty bottles all over the counter in the morning....Just try not to mention anything when you kick a keg, and try to have 2 or 3 or 4 going all the time. I can pretty easily see a keg not lasting more than about 2 or 3 weeks at this rate....just for the evening beer. It usta be like 1 or 2 or 3, but the tap pulls pretty easy to 3 or 4 or 5...

Special Hops said:

(meaning I drink more often when all I have to do is pull a tap)

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Much easier than working a bottle opener

hey whats the site again to buy kegs?? chi someting??

I always thought that one con to kegging was how long the beer stayed "fresh" once the keg was tapped. How long does a keg last? Most of my friends are not sophisticated beer drinkers so most of the time it is just me, myself and my big stein.

Thanks

Beers only go "bad" when a party tap is used, the type that pumps environmental air into the keg and oxidizes the beer. Using a CO2 tank skirts that issue and beer stays good indefinitely.

A downside of kegging is not knowing how many you had the night before!

kegging

Pros: faster in all respects, easier to pull a pint, easier to clean/sanitize, you can still dispense into bottles with the proper equipment
Cons: gets finished faster, more expensive

bottling

Pros: easy to give bottles to friends, ready for competitions that require bottles, only way to go for certain bottle-conditioned beers (all my strong ales are bottle-conditioned), practically free if you reuse commercial bottles
Cons: PITA, takes forever and you have to be careful with your sugar and conditioning

Nurmey said:

For the most part I agree with Yopper but I can think of one other con to kegging. I take my beers a lot of places to share with friends and kegging is bulky to haul around. You can buy or rig a gun to bottle from a keg but for me it's just as easy to bottle directly. For me it's not one or the other, I keg and I bottle depending on the end purpose of the beer I am brewing.

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Just from your post I can tell you do not have a BMBF...

Laurel said:

A downside of kegging is not knowing how many you had the night before!

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Nah. Just like bottles, you look around and see how many empties are laying around...

I've been looking into kegging recently and the convenience factor is pretty much convincing me to get a kegging system I just don't know anything about kegging at all. I looked at AHS's kegging outfits with the corny kegs but I don't really understand a lot of the equipment.

1) How big of a CO2 tank do you guys use? I was looking to get the 5 lb one for money reasons, how long can I expect this to last on a 5 gallon keg. Does the CO2 gradually flow into the keg or does it go in at the same rate your pour beer from the tap?

2) What's the difference between a dual guage economy regulator and a dual body triple gauge?

3) Why do people say you need a seperate fridge to start kegging. I have a bunch of plastic bins I just fill with snow to keep the kegs cold for a night, is temperature control THAT important for kegging your own beers?

4) How did you guys start kegging and what do you think the best course to take is (DIY or kit etc..)

1. 5 and 20 lbs 5lbs fits into keezer, but it only cost $1 more to fill the 20lber, I believe it is said to be able to push 4-5 kegs, however it does vary as to frequency and method of cleaning, force carbonating. Co2 flows the same as air going into your car tire, it is faster at first, but as the pressure equalizes it will slow down, draw a little beer out, a litte co2 flows
2.dual gauge refers to a gauge on both the primary and secondary side (hi and lo pressure), dual body I believes has 2 low pressure regulators with a gauge on the primary side and a gauge on each of the secondaries
3. ease, snow may eventually freeze the keg, be a hassle, do you have much snow in the summer
4. depends on your mechanical ability and comfort level, kits are easier, diy allows for greater flexibility

Sounds good, I'm lookin on craigslist and ebay now for a good deal on a 20lb tank.

I wouldn't discourage you at all from starting with a 5lb tank because while I agree that you will ultimately want the biggest tank you fit in your kegerator, you will want the spare 5lb tank anyway (as a backup when the big one runs out, to take places, to transfer beer under pressure, to purge kegs before filling).

Not a bad point. The only semi-timeline I have is by fall semester in 2010 so instead of having people pay 5 bucks for a cup from a keystone light keg they can have 1 of 5 of w/e I have on tap. The house I'm looking at has a wetbar too . So maybe getting the 5lb for now and getting the 20lb after summer would make sense.

I keg 1/2 and bottle 1/2. Bottles are nice and portable.

I looked at the prospect of bottling 2 zillion 12-oz bottles per batch, so I bought some 1L flip-top bottles. I can fill 13-16 really quickly and be done with it. Then I stash a couple in the fridge door for the weekends.

One issue I have with kegging is where to put the keezer/fridge? We have a large house, but there is nowhere to put the keezer that would keep SWMBO happy. Except the garage. Go to the garage every time to get a pint? And, no way would she let me spend $$$$$$$ and time on a nice wood trimmed bar/keezer.

jpb5151 said:

I looked at the prospect of bottling 2 zillion 12-oz bottles per batch, so I bought some 1L flip-top bottles. I can fill 13-16 really quickly and be done with it. Then I stash a couple in the fridge door for the weekends.

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I've used a few of the Ikea 1L(34oz) flip bottles and they worked well. My bottles are always in a sealed bin or cupboard, so I dont care about the clear glass.