Better beer or easier beer?

[WhiskeySix]

I have brewed three extract batches since my sons bought me a basic brew kit for Christmas. I have bought quite a bit of stuff to go with the basic kit. I now am ready to move up a level. My dilemma is whether to spend money on a kegging system or go all grain and full boil. Bottling is a hassle but it gets easier each time and really isn't that bad. I want better tasting beer.

I think I will move to all grain. I have learned a lot here and figure I need a mash tun, bigger boil pot and probably a burner, etc.

What do you guys think? Easier, more convenient beer or better tasting beer?

 

[BigB]

You can make some fantastic beers with extract and steeping grains. Just because a beer might be all grain, doesn't necessarily make it better. After 3 extract batches, I would be tempted to try a Partial Mash- It will give you a feel for the mashing process and give you a little more flexibility... plus you can use your current equipment. Check out Death Brewer's Easy Partial Mash thread in the sticky section of this forum. Going kegging will cost quite a bit of money to get the kegerator (or build one) the co2, the big boil pot, and the burner. The mash tun is fairly straightforward to build.

 

[JJL]

I'd go with the kegs. It's a myth that all grain beer is better beer. Personally, I still bottle, and it is the biggest pain in the a$$ about brewing. If you are going to shell out the money, I'd say go for the keg system.

 

[SoonerDoc]

It's a myth that all grain beer is better beer.

Now you've done it.

 

[rico567]

Although it wasn't the intention of the OP, I could tell from the first post where this thread was headed. Hey, folks, can we contribute information the OP hasn't provided to help him make a decision, rather than just saying thus-and-so is a PITA, or XY&Z is a myth?

Personally:

1. I like to bottle; I don't want to keg. I gave a lot of thought to what I'd get out of it, and the added cost, maintenance, and complexity. There have been several individuals on HBT who find this really, really hard to believe. But there it is.

2. I started doing AG right at a year ago, after doing extract with steeping grains for two years. Whether the experience I gained doing extract gave me an advantage when I switche, I dunno, but my AG beer is better.....and, once again, there it is.


"Opinions are like ###holes, everybody's got one." - Dirty Harry Callahan, The Dead Pool

 

[jonbomb]

It also all depends on your situation. I live at home with the 'rents and our stove is an electric and I def do not want to spend the money for a burner. So I'm keeping it simple and prehistoric lol. I do five gallon batches and use bottles. In the future I would love to do full 5 gallon boils and maybe partial grain but right now I only have an electric stove and its hard enough to get 3 gallons of water bioling on that let alone 5.

So IMO I think in the end you should do what you feel works out best for you.

Also AG isn't always better then extract.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

It just depends on what you want your next step to be. You can make lots of great beers with extract, especially when you do partial mashes or steep grains, so don't feel like you HAVE to go all grain just to make a good beer or a particular type of beer.

If you're interested in more creativity in your recipe or getting more involved and complex in your brewing process, then you should definitely go in the direction of all grain. If you're happy with the beers you're making with extract but want the convenience of not having to bottle, wash bottles, etc. then you should definitely get the kegging system.

Personally, I would go all grain because I like the complexity and additional steps I get to enjoy. I feel like I have a greater understanding of the brew process and how small things impact the end result. However, you should consider your own preferences.

 

[kevmoron]

Go AG. You can certainly make good beer with extract, but AG gives you a lot more control and a lot more flexibility. It is definitely worth it. There's a reason I jumped straight into AG when I started brewing and did not build a keezer until two years later. Go all out and make your beer from scratch.

 

[JNye]

i went AG after three extract batches. I didn't upgrade any eqt. I still use my turkey fryer setup/6 gallon pot. I use a small 26 quart cooler i had for my tun. It cost me $18 for the stainless steel braid. Just do 4.5 gallon batches plus fermcap an its fine. I plan to get a bigger pot someday, but brewing every other weekend is doable for me, so I don't need to do huge batches, plus I like the variety.

 

[BendBrewer]

I went AG prior to getting my kegging system.

If I had to do it all over again, I would still start with Extract brewing but if I would have known, I would have never bottled a batch of beer.

I suggest get kegs and build up to AG brewing. Anyone who swears by bottles doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

[TotemWolf]

I went AG first so because I brew my own recipes. I don't ever use kits. By going AG I could control exactly what was in my wort. For me and the way I brew I did start making better beer. It went from real good to award winning.

I bottle because I normally have anywhere from 3 to 6 types of beer that I'm drinking at any one time and I give some away. It's easier for me to store bottles and just chill them as I want them, rather than try to have a keg system with that many kegs at one time. At least for now. Maybe some day I build my own bar setup and then I'll keg.

The point is, it depends on you and how you will brew. If you only brew every now and then and have the room for it, go with the keg. If you are more in to the brewing and tweak recipes, go with AG setup. You buy what you will use.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

Get a kegging system, and step up to partial mashes. It's not much harder than an extract brew and you can put together a cheap Rubbermaid cooler mash tun that you can hold onto for future AG adventures. Your beer will be ready faster in a keg, and it makes for some great parties. And if you want some bottles? Build yourself a BMBF and have at it. I pull bottles with that thing all the time and it's great!

 

[JJL]

Although it wasn't the intention of the OP, I could tell from the first post where this thread was headed. Hey, folks, can we contribute information the OP hasn't provided to help him make a decision, rather than just saying thus-and-so is a PITA, or XY&Z is a myth?

"Opinions are like ###holes, everybody's got one." - Dirty Harry Callahan, The Dead Pool

Ok....Ok.....all discussions of AG vs. extract aside, I still stand by my bottling is a PITA comment because it is. If I had it to do over, the first investment I would have made after my first brew kit would have been kegging equipment. I still intend to invest in it someday.

 

[billc68]

YES bottling is a PITA, so is Kegging when you don't know what you are doing, but once you figure it out, you are golden. I make 6 Gallon batches so I get to keg and Bottle at the same time. I love my keggerator but I just had 20lbs of CO2 poop out on me after one keg, I found about 5 leaks in my system which was all air tight when I started. I have no idea what happened.

Anyway, I am doing extract for now, I started with kits and it was hit and miss, I will be trying a Festa Brew kit which is actually premade wort, just add yeast and you're done... but just to try. I want to go AG this fall but I don't think Extracts will be out of the question after that.

 

[KYB]

Depends how much you plan on brewing in the near future. I brew a ton and would not want to bottle everything, much less try to find so many bottles. If you just brew here and there, so AG first.

 

[haplo]

I went all-grain, but it was cheap for me to make the transition. At least, I was able to do it in stages. I made a mash tun from a 10-gallon cooler I had(from the dollar store, $20-25 when I got it), and parts from lowes($15-20…used a stainless steel braided hose). I already had a 5 gallon pot, and I just made smaller batches until I could afford a bigger pot. I got a 15 gallon aluminum pot for $70 shipped(turned out to be $35 after a discount from getting a small dent in shipping) and adding a valve was $10-$15. I made a hopstopper(http://www.homebrewchatter.com/board/f18/diy-hop-stopper-kettle-screen-pickup-t2550/ ) for about $8 for inside the pot. I’ve been meaning to get a wort chiller, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I love the all-grain process, and my beer has turned out better since I started it.

I would love to get a keg, but I would still bottle if I had a keg. I give them to friends who help me brew or just because I’m proud of the beer I made. Can't do that with a keg.

Take a look at these threads. They might help with whatever decision you make.

DeathBrewer’s Stovetop All-Grain method. Great instructions that helped me do an all-grain batch before I had the mash tun. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

Revvy’s bottling tips. I hate bottling, especially when I have to do it without help, but this has made it as painless as possible. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

 

[BendBrewer]

I would love to get a keg, but I would still bottle if I had a keg. I give them to friends who help me brew or just because I’m proud of the beer I made. Can't do that with a keg.

No you wouldn't and sure you can.

Going AG was a great step and very cool.

But it just isn't as cool as a Keezer.

 

[SilverSwordAlliance]

I would go with a kegging setup, so much easier, makes you wanna brew more!

 

[munche]

I went AG before kegging, because well, kegging is pricey. I guess I could have spent out the ass and bought a mash tun premade and made it comparable, but I did mine for about $70 buying the cooler and the parts to add the hose braid and valve etc. I'm estimating around ~$500 for a 2 keg keezer. Big difference.

I guess the boilpot etc. makes it closer, I had the benefit of starting with a full boil

 

[haplo]

No you wouldn't and sure you can.

Yes I would and no I can't. My brothers and a couple of my best friends, all of whom have helped me brew at some point or another, live about 2 hours away from me. They can't pop over for a draft, and I can't send them a keg. If I'm going to give half or more of some batches away, I wouldn't keg it.

 

[BendBrewer]

Yes I would and no I can't. My brothers and a couple of my best friends, all of whom have helped me brew at some point or another, live about 2 hours away from me. They can't pop over for a draft, and I can't send them a keg. If I'm going to give half or more of some batches away, I wouldn't keg it.

It is pretty easy to fill bottles out of a Keg. How do you think I make it to my Softball games?

 

[haplo]

It is pretty easy to fill bottles out of a Keg. How do you think I make it to my Softball games?

Is that not called bottling if you do it out of a keg? Don't I still have to fill the bottles and cap them?

 

[goose1873]

If you can afford it and KNOW you love this hobby...do both. AG has been the best move i have ever made since i started....kegging was a close second...

good luck!

 

[BendBrewer]

Is that not called bottling if you do it out of a keg? Don't I still have to fill the bottles and cap them?

I guess it would still be bottling. I only bottle 2-3 at time though and I use swing top bottles when I do. It's a snap.

 

[haplo]

I guess it would still be bottling. I only bottle 2-3 at time though and I use swing top bottles when I do. It's a snap.

Well, I do have a case of Grolsch bottles and those make bottling much better. But that case is scattered among Cleveland, Pittsburgh & Erie. I guess the point was that if I'm giving a case or more away, I'm probably not going to put it into the keg and then bottle that much of it.

 

[BendBrewer]

Wow Halpo, you are generous. Giving away a case?!?!?!? Good for you and you pals!

Yeah, if you are doing that, then bottle conditioned is the way to go.

 

[Yooper]

That's a tough choice. I don't want to go into the debate about not being able to bottle from a keg- I do it all the time and have wonderful sediment-free bottled beer, and growlers, to give away. Even the contests I've entered (and won) have been with beer bottled from a keg.

Anyway, in my own experience, I bottled over 100 batches of beer before going to kegging. I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner! It's convenient, easy, and an added benefit is sediment-free beer for your non-homebrew friends.

However, if your beer is not the best it can be, I'd recommend going to full boils and partial mash, or all-grain, before spending the money for the kegging gear. If you become disappointed in the quality of your beer, and stop brewing, you won't need the kegging gear.

I'd probably get a burner and chiller, and go with full boils first. You'd still need that stuff for AG, but at least you can upgrade a bit. The next thing is temperature control. If you can't control the fermentation temperature, then even an AG batch won't be very good. Once you have those two things, then you can decide on the AG or the kegs. If your beer is great, I'd go with kegging. If not, I'd work on improving the quality of the beer, whatever road that may lead you down.

 

[Llysse]

We might be the only people in the world who started out kegging and then later went to bottling. Truth is, we just prefer bottling because it's easy to keep many many many different brews that way. We find it to be more convenient and portable, too. But we have nothing against kegging, either, and plan to keg some again for a party in November. We don't really find one to be significantly faster than another. It may take an extra half hour to bottle and cap, but seriously if you work on your bottling set up, it's easy.*

I don't know that you have to jump right to all grain, either. Honestly, the best improvements we made to our beer had to do with getting a pot large enough for a full boil, and a wort chiller. Wow! What a difference! Plus, that equipment is something you can use to go toward all grain brewing in the future (a step at a time). I've had EXCELLENT beer from extract (from award winning brewers who also kick a$$ brewing AG). And I've had some truly awful AG beers from beginning brewers. True spitters, ugh. Once you feel you've made some excellent extract brews, then going AG will give you more control. (You may be there already!)

My advice would be to try a big brewpot for full boils, and a nice chiller. Maybe that can be an intermediate step on your way to AG.

*Bottling can be fast and easy if you construct a simple rig like this one of Revvy's:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/​

P.S. - Dear Revvy, you don't know us, but we toast you every time we bottle.

 

[SumnerH]

No you wouldn't and sure you can.

Going AG was a great step and very cool.

But it just isn't as cool as a Keezer.

I have a 3-keg setup (well, 8 kegs but I can only have 3 on tap at a time), and I still bottle some. It depends on the brew. For most regular drinkers, the keg is the way to go--but when I do a barleywine or RIS or big Belgian dark strong, I'll bottle it.

Basically anything that I want to drink over the course of many years is getting bottled so I don't either have a mostly-unused keg in the keezer or wind up drinking it too quickly to free up the space--plus that stuff makes good gifts, so I'll cork-and-cage or wax them in nice bottles.

For the regular stuff, I'll just bottle a few off of the keg when needed--it took about 5 minutes to bottle up a 6 pack for a party this weekend.

 

[g-nome]

Kegging might be nice, I don't know, I never bothered with it.

I am a 20 year brewer, went to all grain 10 years ago. I think my beer is better, but I build it for me, and that is the benefit of having the control of AG. I like the physical nature of bottling....recycling bottles and naturally carbonating....and having over a hundred "gifts" to myself or for others.

After much reflection, brewing is like making soup. Extract is like opening a can of Progresso (I like Progresso). AG is like the soup grandma used to make. It might or might not actually be better, but you are making the beer you want to make and creating your own heritage....maybe someday your great grandson will find the recipe and start a company like Jim Koch did. There is much more to the art and science of brewing than opening a can or bag and adding water and hops.

If you are brewing to drink more good beer, stick with extract and keg. If you are brewing to create, go AG (and keg if you want). No offense to extract brewers, but I fell in love again when I went to AG. Kegging may be in my future yet, but I don't mind bottling and waiting.