Advantages to kegging?

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Advantage: you can still bottle after force carbing, as few as you'd like.

Disadvantage: cleaning kegs and draft lines.
 
Why not?


No really, you do a disservice to home brewing when you make it more complex
and expensive than it needs to be.

I think you misunderstood right from the start, kegging is LESS complex! See that? We do agree!

No really though, why ask for opinions on kegging if your mind was clearly already made up? I'm having trouble getting what you're trying to do. Are you trying to bring happy keggers back to bottling or are you just going loopy on us?:drunk:
 
I do both almost every batch. With a couple of gallons in bottles I can see how the high OG beers age and get the crazy carbonation levels that I like in my trippels.
 
I think you misunderstood right from the start, kegging is LESS complex! See that? We do agree!



No really though, why ask for opinions on kegging if your mind was clearly already made up? I'm having trouble getting what you're trying to do. Are you trying to bring happy keggers back to bottling or are you just going loopy on us?:drunk:


My vote's on loopy.

Definitely loopy.
 
yes, that is very possible, it was an old corny keg

if you google "kegging vs. bottling" you will be able to read all kinds of horror stories

I've read plenty of horror stories about "bottle bombs." Your arguments are clearly not informed by experience.

I'm pretty much exclusively kegging, and one thing I miss about bottling is keeping a cellar full of my brewing "history." It's the only redeeming quality I can think of for bottling, i.e. maintaining a library of historical brews. I keep a cellar full of wine, why not my brews? Well, it's just because it is really so much easier to keg. The solution to this is to purchase a beer gun, where I can bottle a fraction of my kegged beer and cellar it.

The arguments against kegging are the initial expense and fridge space required. However, keeping all of those bottles requires space (and housekeeping) as well. While kegging is expensive initially, the kegs are pretty much indestructible and easy to service. I started brewing years ago and quit due to the hassles with bottling. After buying a kegerator and discovering corny kegs, I am now back into it with fervor. I now have 10 kegs (8 of which were purchased new), and along with my 2 tap kegerator, also have a 14.7 cu ft chest freezer that serves fermentation and keezer duty. So, I've currently got 6 different beers on tap which is pretty cool (7 soon).

Buying all the gear was expensive, but not like other hobbies. I don't have a boat or an airplane, and I'm not into drag racing. So, the SWMBO is just fine with my hobby. Plus, I've made some excellent friends in this hobby, so all is good.

There are arguments to kegging and bottling, and each has merits and caveats. I find that kegging works for me, but I don't look down on those who bottle. To each his/her own. :rockin:
 
Yeah, obviously it is much worse, the owner has wasted a ton of cash and the participator has learned from their mistakes.

Its to late for us who keg. If I had any idea how much it cost to keg and all horror stories when I made my first beer maybe I would still be bottling. Like I said its to late for me and you could do so much for home brew please spread the word where it started for me.

http://community.mrbeer.com/
 
I've read plenty of horror stories about "bottle bombs." Your arguments are clearly not informed by experience.

I'm pretty much exclusively kegging, and one thing I miss about bottling is keeping a cellar full of my brewing "history." It's the only redeeming quality I can think of for bottling, i.e. maintaining a library of historical brews. I keep a cellar full of wine, why not my brews? Well, it's just because it is really so much easier to keg. The solution to this is to purchase a beer gun, where I can bottle a fraction of my kegged beer and cellar it.

There's a very simple way to bottle out of a keg without a beer gun. It works perfectly. It's one of the stickies called; we don't need a stinking beer gun, or something like that. You just need a picnic tap and a racking cane and a stopper. I have a dedicated line for that. It also will double as a serving line when I transport a 3 gallon keg to a getaway.
 
There are a whole lot of reasons to keg instead of bottle, but my favorite reason is just inviting people over and having draft beer for them. You tend to make a lot of friends that way.
 
I occasionally like to top off a wheat beer with a shot of my Citra IPA, or pour a shot of my chocolate stout into my robust porter. And there have been other times I just wanted to see how one beer might complement another.

Easily done if the beers are on tap...

Cheers!
 
Why not?

No really, you do a disservice to home brewing when you make it more complex
and expensive than it needs to be.

You seem to have a real strange vendetta. People voicing their OPINIONS about the benefits of kegging based on the simplicity vs the costs? HOW DARE THEY?

Yes I've bottled, I did 4-5 batches before switching to kegs. Kegged 40+ batches before I took a hiatus, tried bottling from keg getting back into it and even that sucked (beyond the fact that they were all infected). 4 hours for 3 batches.

Just my opinion, whoops - disservice to the the community.
 
I occasionally like to top off a wheat beer with a shot of my Citra IPA, or pour a shot of my chocolate stout into my robust porter. And there have been other times I just wanted to see how one beer might complement another.



Easily done if the beers are on tap...



Cheers!


Random mixings and short pours (or big pours for that matter) are my favorite parts of kegging.
 
That is an awesome idea.

The possibilities are extensive.

Right now I'm sipping a glass comprised of 2 ounces of a Mosaic-hopped wheat, 2 ounces of a big-time Citra IPA, and 10 ounces of a Centennial SMaSH.

Holy schnikes, that makes for one heck of a tasty pour!

Cheers! :mug:
 
Its to late for us who keg. If I had any idea how much it cost to keg and all horror stories when I made my first beer maybe I would still be bottling. Like I said its to late for me and you could do so much for home brew please spread the word where it started for me.

http://community.mrbeer.com/

Yeah, if the word gets out, everyone will be dumping their ball lock Corny kegs on the open market. This will totally drive the value of those Corny kegs down. Cool! I could use some more Corny kegs! :mug:
 
Just a few comments:

1) I don't own 450+ bottles to replace these 9 kegs of varying recipes. So yeah...call me lazy.

Chest_Bigger_2.jpg



2) Again, two beers on tap is a lot more fun for me and my family and freinds around the pool on July 4th than handing out 100 bottles of beer.

DripTray_New2.jpg



3) This IPA was from a 14 month old keg. Anyone who has spoiled beer in a chilled keg under CO2 pressure after just a month or so is probably just not a good brewer in the first place.

TitsUp_Plaque.jpg



4) Yeah, this is pretty cool. I'll take it.

Sample1.jpg
 
I occasionally like to top off a wheat beer with a shot of my Citra IPA, or pour a shot of my chocolate stout into my robust porter. And there have been other times I just wanted to see how one beer might complement another.



Easily done if the beers are on tap...



Cheers!


I was hoping I wasn't too weird in mixing beers. Thanks for that...
 
Advantages to kegging:

1) Drink beer the day after kegging.

2) No time spent (1 hr.+ sanitizing and bottling).

I can list way more advantages to kegging. But I don't want to think too hard right now because it'll ruin my buzz.
 
I was hoping I wasn't too weird in mixing beers. Thanks for that...

Me too! I've only recently started doing this. I brewed a Bell's Two Hearted clone that came out very underwhelming - not very bitter at all, and not nearly as hoppy as I'd hoped. As it happened, I also had a Pliny the Elder clone I kegged shortly afterwards. I drank pretty much the entire keg of the Two Hearted clone by pouring about 3/4 of a glass of Two Hearted, and topping it off with a 1/4 glass of the Pliny the Elder clone. Suddenly a mediocre beer became magic in a glass!
 
I've mixed beers plenty of times.

Currently I have a Scottish Wee Heavy that's been in the bottles 6-7 months and still isn't very carbonated. I can just pour 50/50 with something out of the keg.
 
:off:
Speaking of mixing beers, what about mixing them in the keg itself? I'm brewing 23 liters of beer by my kegs are 19 L so I'm planning on putting the 4ish liters of extra beer into a half-consumed keg. Anything wierd about that?

I know the densities of the beers are different (after all, thats what final gravity is, isn't it?) so would the beers even mix? Or would it be a wierd layering thing happening in the keg?
 
:off:
Speaking of mixing beers, what about mixing them in the keg itself? I'm brewing 23 liters of beer by my kegs are 19 L so I'm planning on putting the 4ish liters of extra beer into a half-consumed keg. Anything wierd about that?

I know the densities of the beers are different (after all, thats what final gravity is, isn't it?) so would the beers even mix? Or would it be a wierd layering thing happening in the keg?

They'll mix. They're all water based.
 
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