To keg or not to keg??

Williams 728
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Keg or Bottles for first timer?

  • KEG. buy the kegging equipment cuz you'll eventually buy it anyway

  • Bottles. Its cheaper and better to start off with

  • Other. please explain

Results are only viewable after voting.
55x11 said:
kegging is for lazy people (just kidding. Or am I?)
No wonder they would click the vote but never bother to type up a response.

:)

Seriously though, I prefer beers on draft when I go to bars, but mostly because I know they will be fresh.
Setting costs/conditioning aside:
If you go through beer very fast and don't care about storing a pipeline of variety, i.e. you can drink two batches of the same beer in the time it takes you to brew two batches (for me about a month), then kegging may make some sense.

If you like to have variety (I have about ~15 beers I brewed so far this year, all available in bottles - cannot do this with kegs), then bottling is better.

Having said that, I suspect in a year or so I will have two kegs in my freezer. Mostly for convenience and out of boredom, than any real improvement in taste or anything else. But I suspect I will still bottle most of my beer, as it is much more versatile.
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Well if you bottle from the keg with a beer gun you have more control over the carbonation. no risk of bottle bombs by uneven distribution of priming sugar, and no sediment. Racking the beer into a keg and force carbing it isnt a big task. after you do that you can then just bottle the beer with a beer gun and have the same versatility as you would have with just bottling the traditional way.
 
As of right now the poll is showing a majority prefer buying kegging equipment right out of the shoot. I'd like to see how much of this is from experience and which is from hindsight.
Purchasing kettle, buckets, WC, MLT, burner and fermentation chamber should be prioritized over buying kegging equipment.
If you're just starting out, you have hours and hours of research ahead of you that should be spent focusing on the brewing aspect.
 
Bottles, for the many reasons that everyone else already mentioned, but also because part of the fun of homebrewing is planning the next big thing for your brewery. If you don't start with bottles, you'll never be able to drink a homebrew while designing/building your kegging setup.
 
You can also use the kegging equipment like a bottling bucket by adding the sugar, racking the beer on top, then hooking up to low pressure and filling bottles. Added benefit of being able to purge the bottling vessel (keg) with CO2 before transferring. Add a beer gun = bottling made easy. Then you can fill bottles or use the keg(s) as the serving vessel.
 
ericbw said:
Don't know if anyone said it, but if you're going in with a buddy, how will you split batches in a keg?
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some how i've thought of that few times and keep passing it over like it'll be cool haha.

Thank you for pointing that out.
 
The first thing I decided when I got into brewing was that I never wanted the headache of bottling and I couldn't be happier with my decision! Yes it is a pricey startup but I am real happy with the results. Everybody keeps talking about seeing if you like it before going to that step but I am sure you have already made the decision that you like beer enough that you want to make it... I am 8 batches in since June and I have 2 different beers on tap at all times, I have growlers to fill if I need to take beer with me or give to family.
Peeps talk about the hassle of cleaning kegs but it is truly quick and simple and I'm drinking beer 3 days after filling my kegs. I voted for kegging and I meant it. No regrets.

If you can't afford a kegerator, buy and old fridge (people even give them away to get rid of them) A couple hundred will get you the gas bottle, lines and taps and you can get 4 pressure tested empty kegs for less than $150. Once you have that all you need is some oxyclean and starsan and you are good to go.

Bottlers who have never kegged will always tell you to bottle, keggers will always say why in the hell would you want to bottle?
 
Also hit the keg button before reading the post. That said, bottling a couple of batches is not only cheaper, it's a good skill to have.
 
I keg because SWMBO got tired of the mess in the kitchen and encouraged me to get into kegging. If you can afford it -- keg!!!! If you bottle first, you can find other uses for the bottling items once you move into kegging. The only items that were not re-purposed when I made the switch were the capper and bottling wand.
 
When you start kegging build you own keg and carboy washer then reuse that pump to clean keg lines and recirculate chiller water from an ice chest of icy water. 1 pump and 3 attachments that fit in a bucket!
 
After about 10 batches, I'm about to do what I wish I had done to start. I'm buying a small <$200 chest freezer as a fermentation chamber. Hopefully before that is finished fermenting, I can afford the $175 for a keg, party tap, regulator and CO2 tank. But, even if I have to put that off, the chamber will make my beer better.

Eventually, I'll get tired of needing to empty the keg before fermenting the next batch. But, at least most of the equipment will be useful after a future upgrade.
 
I'm one of the few who checked "other" because none of the other choices were my reasons for choosing one over the other.

Aside from most of the obvious reasons for doing one over the other (ease, expense, time, kegerators are badass, etc), if a beginner could start with kegging, they might find it more forgiving for getting the carbonation levels right. Bear with me.

When a beginner starts making beer, there are several things they can do to mess up the carbonation levels of they bottle. They could bottle too soon, leaving unfermented sugars, over-carbonating then when they add sugar. They could add too much or too little sugar. They could lager and not take into account the dissolved CO2 accumulated over time at the cold temps and overcarbonate.
But if they keg first, then most of those problems go away. 24 hours at 40 psi, 24 hours at 25 psi, bleed, set to 10 psi and dispense (or some variation of the same concept) and most of those problems will manage themselves.

I bottle nearly everything I make (10-15 gallons a month), and only recently went back to kegging (after taking almost a decade off from kegging), and I still prefer bottling for the zen of doing it, for the small portable package, for never having to fill off a keg for competition. I love having kegged beer for the ease of drawing a glass of any size, not wasting a drop, grabbing one growler rather than 6 bottles when I'm heading out, and not having to teach non-homebrewers how to properly decant a bottled beer at my parties.
 
slym2none said:
...and expensive... and maintenance intensive...

:D



-slym
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When you add another tap to your kegerator it sets off a domino effect. When I only had 2 taps, owning 4 kegs was a luxury. Now with 3 taps, 4 kegs is quite limiting.
When I had 2 taps, I was comfortable with a pipeline of at least one beer in primary. Now I gotta have 2 primaries going to keep all taps flowing.

It's nice having 3 types of beer, but it's quite involved and expensive. You really have to love doing it. :tank: I would never go back to bottling. Each bottle is a time capsule of unknown outcome.
 
Keg.

I've had a few bottled beers that broke my heart because they were perfect except for their carbonation level. If I'd kegged them it could've been corrected.

You can naturally carb in a keg. Just toss the sugar in the keg and close the lid. If you're so inclined to age beer just build a poor mans beer gun for $4 and bottle off the keg.

It gives you an added level of control over your process.
 
beergolf said:
That is only partially true. That makes it sound so much easier,however, there are other things that are not mentioned. If you rinse your bottles as you drink them it is not difficult. Sure you have to just clean a keg, but sometimes that requies taking apart the keg to do a thorough cleaning. That can take as long as cleaning a bunch of bottles. You also have lines and faucets to clean. Which also takes time. If you do not you can have problems. You also have to make sure that you do not run out of CO2. Nothing worse than not realizing that your tank is almost empty and running out of CO2 during the weekend. How about running out of CO2 during a party? What about leaks? You just fill a tank and do not notice a slight leak. A few days later you go to pull a pint and there is no pressure because you just lost a full tank of CO2, and have no beer to drink. Then there are the mishaps. Someone opening up ther keggerator to find 5 gallons of beer in the bottom because of a leak.

Sure kegging can be convenient ( I do keg so I understand all that is involved), but it does have some drawbacks. I equate the people that say that kegging is always the answer and is so much easier, to gamblers that always tell you about the money they won, but of course they never talk about the money they lose. So you never get the full story.
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ALWAYS turn your CO2 off when the keg isn't in use for long periods (like overnight or while at work).
 
To all the people saying "You'll switch to kegging one day and appreciate it then!"

I will never keg my beers. I will always bottle them. Even if I get so rich I can afford to have someone brew & keg & serve my beers to me.

:)
 
I'd love to have a kegging setup, but it's not in my budget right now. My wife has given me the green light to build a kegerator/keezer and set up a cave in our basement, but she's not aware that it'd cost in the many hundreds of dollars just to get started.

Not only that, but kegging also seems a little daunting to me, what with the various parts, temp control, fears of leaks, maintenance, etc.!
 
I just got 3 corny kegs ball lock for $100. Now patiently waiting to acquire everything else. Kegging intimidates me but I figure I can get enough help here to figure it out when the time comes......
 
This is a simple question to resolve. Do you want beer on tap at home or not?
If you do, then keg. Even if you get out of the home brew hobby, you can easily switch the system over to commercial kegs.
If you don't care about having a tap at home, then bottle.
I did things kind of ass-backwards when I got into brewing. I started with a kegerator that I built and had commercial beer on tap with a Sanke connector. I soon got interested in homebrewing. I thought it would be neat to have my own beer on tap at my own bar. So I received a corny keg for my birthday a couple of years ago and started homebrewing. I have never looked back. When I need to bottle, I just bottle from the keg. It's rare for me to bottle though. If I am going to a friend's place I'll fill up a growler and away we go. My friends and family are more than happy to come over to my place and stand around the bar and fill up their glasses as required.
The other plus to kegging is if you only want to have a small glass of beer, it is easy to do so. No half full bottles in the fridge.
I have nothing against bottling though. My other home brew buddies make fantastic beer and some great aged ones (another advantage to bottling).
One other thing, maintenance is not an issue. Just have spare o-rings as a back up. I have replaced about 2 o-rings total on 2 kegs ..... in 2 years. Also, I can clean, sanitize and fill my keg in about 30 minutes total. Cleaning lines is no big deal either. I do it at the same time as I clean my kegs. Just fill 'em up with cleaner, charge them with CO2 and connect to the tap. Repeat with a good rinse of water and then hit it with Star San solution. Done.
I brew one to two times per month time permitting. I have to refill my CO2 maybe 2 times a year. Maybe.
I think I am going to try Krausening (sp) on an upcoming batch soon as well, so I will have proper keg-conditioned ale on tap.
No matter which way you go, make sure you take time to enjoy what you are doing and always say, "Boom!" when you add your hops to the boil. If you enjoy homebrewing, it won't matter what method you choose, you'll have home-made beer at hand and that is something to be proud of.
 
After 20 batches I still have trouble with carbonation consistency. Bottle infections, not mixing priming sugar, carbing temps... I rarely get 100% carb consistency throughout a batch.

Is it worth spending $500 to correct? That is the question...
 
I suggest you start with bottling for 2 reasons.

  1. Less investment upfront: you can ensure this is a hobby you will enjoy without breaking the bank.
  2. You will want to bottle condition anyway: You will want to bottle condition a brew eventually. I would not dream of kegging a big Belgian and I really prefer a bottle conditioned hefe.
 
For me, washing bottles is a chore, so kegging made the hobby more enjoyable. But I still bottle some because it makes it easy to share. Plus, I got hundreds of bottles for free, and I enjoy that every time I get one from the basement.
 
I find it interesting that people think washing bottles is difficult.

I simply rinse out each bottle after every pour and put it aside. On bottling day, I pour 1/4" of Star San into each bottle through a small funnel, then swirl and pour out the Star San as I prepare to fill the bottle (I do this about 10 bottles at a time).

I've developed my bottling system, and it's gotten easier Nd quicker each time. It's really no skin off my back...but I'd like to have beer on tap!
 
Brew_G said:
I find it interesting that people think washing bottles is difficult.

I simply rinse out each bottle after every pour and put it aside. On bottling day, I pour 1/4" of Star San into each bottle through a small funnel, then swirl and pour out the Star San as I prepare to fill the bottle (I do this about 10 bottles at a time).

I've developed my bottling system, and it's gotten easier Nd quicker each time. It's really no skin off my back...but I'd like to have beer on tap!
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I have had some yeasts that flocculate in the bottle and stick like glue to the bottom. Simple rinsing doesn't remove it. A soak in oxiclean and high pressure rinse cleans 99% of them. A couple will need the bottle brush to get sparkling clean. Usually it is English yeasts that I have this issue with but wyeast 2002 lager yeast from last winters private collection has been a son of a gun.
 
Been brewing for about 18 months and bottled for the first 7 or 8 months before kegging. Personally, i'd work on beer brewing techniques, fermenation temperture, etc, before moving to kegging. I've made great beer both ways and have dumpped some sub-par beer both ways, the common factor was the brewing process, not the bottling/kegging.

Bottling: Cheaper way to get brewing technique down. Can have many types bottled and ready for fridge.
Kegging: MUCH faster, safer (no bottle bombs), expensive, and limits to how many beers one has on hand.
 
Dixon9717 said:
I just got 3 corny kegs ball lock for $100. Now patiently waiting to acquire everything else. Kegging intimidates me but I figure I can get enough help here to figure it out when the time comes......
Click to expand...

I would love to know how you did that. I would like nothing more than to be more like you.
 
I started kegging immediately and after 19 batches I've yet to bottle my first beer. I had read about how tedious bottling was and decided to make the hobby more fun from the get-go.
 
Dixon9717 said:
I just got 3 corny kegs ball lock for $100. Now patiently waiting to acquire everything else. Kegging intimidates me but I figure I can get enough help here to figure it out when the time comes......
Click to expand...

Don't be intimidated. It's unbelievably easy. I keep 6 different beers on tap and can bottle a few whenever I need to. No way would I ever go back to bottling.
 
moreb33rplz said:
After 20 batches I still have trouble with carbonation consistency. Bottle infections, not mixing priming sugar, carbing temps... I rarely get 100% carb consistency throughout a batch.

Is it worth spending $500 to correct? That is the question...
Click to expand...

There's something off with your racking technique if you're having issues with regards to priming sugar not mixing. That said, I've been there too. Kegging is one way to fix it and there's nothing wrong with going that route. But if you don't want to spend the money then don't feel it's your only choice.
 
Kegging is NOT more convenient because you have to build a keggerator and will mess around a ton with the co2 and draft lines but it worth it because it will improve your beer quality - You can use great tasting yeasts that are bad flocculators as its easy to fine with gelatin in a keg, you can perfectly dial in the carbonation level and you will have CO2 on hand to purge all your transfers.
 
For me, starting with kegging was a very easy decision. I already had a kegerator that I used for commercial beer. So when I decided to start homebrewing, I simply bought a 1/6 barrel of a nice beer, drank that as my beer was brewing, then used that sanke to keg my beer.. I reused that sanke a few times until I decided I wanted to continue with the hobby then bought some cornys and converted my kegerator to ball lock couplers.
 
douglasbarbin said:
Don't be intimidated. It's unbelievably easy. I keep 6 different beers on tap and can bottle a few whenever I need to. No way would I ever go back to bottling.
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Thanks for the encouragement. From researching once I get setup it seems like no big deal. Can't wait to get going.
 
What always bugged me is that kegging is a double-edged sword. It's quicker & easier than bottling, but you still have to wait & give it time to condition. Then cleaning all those lines, taps, kegg parts, etc. Remembering to get Co2 filled, or have an extra to swap in when one cylinder empties, all that...why must I chase the cat? It ain't nothin' but the dog in me!:ban:
 

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