kegging question

I made a brew and it tastes good to me. A keg and a co2 tank and a regulator will cost me about $360 in Canadian dollars they are cheaper. Is all of this equipment worth it, the biggest problem I find with home brew is that it doesn't carbonate well. Somebody share their story of switching to kegging with amazing results. I guess I'd only have to buy it once than I get regularly carbonated beer forever. Anyone out there was like the carbonation in bottles sucks and it takes forever and now I am kegging and things are great.

Kegging is far faster and more reliable than bottling. A few days wait for drinkable beer compared with a few weeks.

I think everyone who has switched to kegging would agree with your last sentence.

i agree kegging is great after hundreds of batches of bottling, but it sounds to me like the OP has somethign wrong with his bottling techniques if they dont carbonate well given time

If you can afford it, make the switch. That made homebrewing much more fun for me. Bottling is a pain. With kegs, you don't have to worry about stockpiling bottles, soaking them to get labels off, cleaning and sanitizing them, waiting for them to carb up, being undercarbed or overcarbed, bottle bombs, etc.

And if you eventually get a kegerator, it is hard to beat just walking up to it and getting a nice frosty pint of beer after a long day.

I too think if your beers aren't carbonating properly you need to take a look at your technique because there shouldn't be a difference in that regard between kegged and bottled beer.


Everything else about kegging is better though. No more sanitizing bottles, capping bottles, using a stupid bottling bucket or bottling wand, ugh I hate it and I can't wait to start kegging. But my bottled beers carb up just fine.

I have bottled many batches and know from experience that bottling may be a lot of work but it is less expensive. And as you have experienced, carbonation can be a little more spotty since you are trying to figure out how much priming sugar to add to the finished beer as well as how long and how warm to store it. Kegging eliminates those questions since you are applying a specific psi to the beer...want more carbonation? Turn the psi up for a few days. Less carbonation? Turn it down for a few days. You have direct control over how carbonated you want your beer.

After switching to kegs I haven't bottled but a few (from the keg) since most of my beer gets drawn from my taps. Brew a batch, siphon to the keg. Put some co2 to the freshly filled keg and in a few days its ready to serve. No bottles to wash, sanitize, remove labels, etc. and there are no bottle storage issues. Typically cuts packaging time from 3-4 hours down to about 30 minutes including cleanup.

That said, switching to kegs does cost some bucks but there are a ton of time and logistical issues that evaporate after you've made the switch. If the budget won't stretch then stick to bottling. If the budget permits switching to kegs, the investment makes life a whole lot easier for the home brewer.

Cheers!

Kegging is faster to get carbonated to drinking levels. Bottling is time consuming and the conditioning takes a long time. With kegging you can make some adjustments where with bottling leave you stuck with what you get. Kegging allows you to go to the tap and fill a glass. No bottles to mess with.

For me the only real difference is not having to fill all the bottles then wait.

The carbonation should give very similar beers. I agree with those that have said, if you are not getting good carbonation in bottles you are doing something wrong.

I am going to bottle my current batch. A Russian Imperial Stout at 13% ABV. I will only drink a bottle or two at a time so it will last forever. I will also bottle condition these for a couple of months before starting to drink them. I do not want to tie up a keg and faucet for many months.

The beauty of kegging is the control of a large batch. If it's not carbed enough then jack up the pressure. If it's too much then turn off the gas and vent a couple times a day.

The last part is not the ideal in kegging but you can reduce carbonation over time.

Of course you should skim the kegging/bottling forum for as much advice as you can get. Kegging has a little bit of a learning curve.

I'll echo the thoughts that your bottling procedure may be lacking somewhere. Do you use one of the online calculators to figure out the sugar amount? Are you dissolving the sugar in boiling water? There could be a number of things that could cause a problem.

If you're not getting bottle carbonation to work then you should think about asking why it doesn't. Kegging is less work as far as bottling goes but actually more complicated considering serving line length/width and pressure/temperature calculation.

I bought my kegerator at Costco Canada for $400 and it came with a 2.5 lb tank & regulator. I bought 4 - 3gal kegs from the us for $200 US incl shipping. I spent probably another $200-$300 on hoses & gadgets Yes it was kind of a steep startup but I am on batch number 6 and very happy!
Note: I just came back from vacation after spending 2 weeks in BC, AB & SK and after drinking all the craft brews they had to offer (or I could find) I was happy to come home to my own beer as it is better! (IMHO)

I use plastic bottles and just the bottles alone make me go yuck. I don't know how many times I'd have to wash them to get the last batch out. They smell, the seals fail if you over carbonate them, if the bottle explodes after you open it you can't use it after the seal is sort of compromised and they leak. It's a disaster. I can't wait 5 weeks either, in five weeks i don't know how many times I will get a craving to have one. I am an inexperienced brewer and I kind of bend the rules, I want to invest in kegs, I got the money just cheap and lacking confidence in the investment as I suck at brewing.

beerdrink said:

I use plastic bottles and just the bottles alone make me go yuck. ........I am an inexperienced brewer and I kind of bend the rules, I want to invest in kegs, I got the money just cheap and lacking confidence in the investment as I suck at brewing.

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Making beer isn't much different than woodworking or any other skill. It is very difficult to make a quality product with shoddy tools. And if you want to make a good product you cannot "bend the rules" until you've been doing it long enough to know where you can safely take short-cuts.

I'd suggest that if you are having trouble carbonating and you want to save money then invest in some good bottles, caps and a capper. You might be able to get someone to give you some good bottles or you can buy a few cases of a beer you like that comes in re-capable bottles. Then save and clean those when they're empty. (That's what a lot of us did when we were starting out.)

As almost everyone above has said, there are many good reasons to go to kegs. Getting excellent carbonation fairly quickly is just one of those reasons. But if your only concern is carbonation then it may not be worth the money to invest in a kegging setup.

Cheers!

Maybe try using a Festa kit, pour wort in pail, sprinkle yeast on top and seal and you are done. There are no corners to cut. 4 weeks later you have beer. You can probably bypass secondary and just siphon from primary to keg and hook up the gas and tap and in a week you will be pouring a frosty glass of heaven wondering why you didn't make the switch sooner.

I'm kind of on the fence.

I love my keg system. I built it for about $250US for everything. I took my time and procured equipment as cheap as possible off craigslist and built it all myself. I'm happy with the results, and love the time it takes.

I brew a lot of beer though. Big beers take time to age....I don't do any of those in a keg with the exception of an IPA I like to make. All the rest are in bombers or swing top 16ozers. I like nothing more after coming in from the field and hearing that satisfying "hissss" after popping the top on a 22ozer, and pouring the whole damned thing in a tall mason jar and sitting with my wife or son on the balcony and smiling at the sun.

Sure, bottling is more work.....but what the hell are we doing this for? I take pride in the fact that I can put a damned fine product into my cooler and bring it to the campsite, or in the backpack for a hike, or send a few to a friend on the other side of the country.

They both have their merits. Do what you have the time and money for. Get them both right, and they will both treat you fine at the end of a long day.