Curse You Bottling!!!

Give yourself a great long term solution by building you own custom Keezer well worth the investment over time! View attachment IMG_5299.jpg View attachment IMG_5298.jpg

 

I don't recall the model off the top of my head. I will look tonight when I get home and get back to you.

The guy I bought it from added an extension to the mini fridge, but it is not outfitted with taps...yet. Currently I just use picnic taps.

Edit: Found this in a previous post from the guy I bought the fridge from. Converted Sanyo 9212 5 cu ft minifridge.

 

Kegging is great until you have a CO2 leak that you can't find and you lose several full tanks! Bottling on the other hand has become just an extension of the labor of love for the hobby.

Cheers

 

Isn't chasing down leaks part of the fun?

 

It may not be worth it if you don't brew much, but the learning part can be incremental.

All you really need to start is a keg, a regulator, a CO2 tank, tubing to run from the regulator to the Quick Disconnect for the gas IN post on the keg, and a picnic tap to serve. Then a small fridge to hold that.

In fact, that's how I started. Eventually "graduated" to a keezer as a better way to keep and serve beer, but it's more than serviceable to put keg/tank/regulator in a fridge and simply open the door to serve.

The advantages of this approach are that it's much cheaper to start, you can use the fridge for both fermentation control and serving from the keg, and you can begin learning about this without being overwhelmed by the keezer questions.

If you do this and decide you *don't* want to continue, you should have little trouble selling any kegs for about what you have in them (used ones), and the tank and regulator as well.

But I suspect the idea of selling that stuff would eventually disappear from your mind.....

 

For those thinking about doing a keezer, here's a link to my Easy-Peasy No-Glue keezer build, with pics:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=632550

 

Agreed, and if it weren't a labor of love, I wouldn't have made it this far. After 29 batches @ roughly 45 bottles a batch that's, what, some 1300 bottles I've meticulously cleaned, sanitized, filled, capped, and patiently (mostly) conditioned. Good beer (again mostly) and worth the trouble!

Having said that, I feel I've been in labor for too long, and it's time for a C-section. I'll be bottling batch 30 this weekend, and I'm just not looking forward to it. Hopefully 2018 will be the year I cut the cord and get kegging.

 

I find it easier to keep track of my beer consumption with bottles and only use 22 oz bombers, easy to share with the wife, never have just one 12 oz bottle so why not bottle two at once?
With kegs it is difficult to tell how much is left and how many glasses I have had in a day. Might go back to kegs someday but bottles work fine for me. BTW I do 10 gallon batches about every 3 weeks.