Bottling or Keg System - When Do You Realize It's Time For An Upgrade?

[iamleescott]

Starting out...I'm committed to brewing my first brews and bottling them. But I'm curious...at what stage does everyone get tired of bottling, and make the investment into a keg system?

 

[Tpost704]

I'm about to start my 5th batch and am already thinking about a keg system. Started seriously considering it around batch 3. I think both kegs and bottles have certain advantages though.

 

[PADave]

I didn't start kegging till about batch 35ish. Resisted kegging for as long as I could. Kinda glad I did, because I could concentrate on brewing. Took plenty of time to plan out my keezer build.

 

[imasickboy]

Take your time. Make sure you enjoy brewing, and plan on sticking with it before making the additional investment. But in the end, keg. Definitely keg.

 

[Tpost704]

I didn't start kegging till about batch 35ish. Resisted kegging for as long as I could. Kinda glad I did, because I could concentrate on brewing. Took plenty of time to plan out my keezer build.

I can appreciate this statement. I feel there is a lot more you can invest in to improve the quality and consistency of your brew before you jump to a kegging/keezer system. I'm still bottling, but can see the advantages of not having to sanitize, fill, and cap 40-50 bottles every batch.

 

[jcav]

It was a long time ago, but I think it was right around batch number 5 when I decided that I knew I was going to stick to the hobby and keep brewing. I didn't like bottling so I bought two five gallon kegs to start with and put them in a chest freezer with a picnic tap. After that I was hooked on kegging and slowly started to acquire many more kegs. I then started making 11 gallon batches (kegging 10 gallons) and I upgraded later to a two tap kegerator and Perlick faucets. Kegging is the best!

John

 

[r4dyce]

I just recently moved to kegging maybe after 15 batches or so. I will say kegging is great but but I also think the advantages of kegging are a bit overblown. It's still a lot of cleaning. Still waiting for carbonation, although it's much less time than bottling conditioning. You've got additional equipment you have to buy and look after. Additional resource to manage in co2. I don't feel like it saves me a lot of time. I've also found (and this is just me) that my bottled beers taste better than the kegged versions. I don't know why. I don't mean to be overly negative. I definitely like kegging. I still bottle along with kegging and I just don't think it's that big of a difference.

 

[OpenSights]

I haven’t read the entire thread, but best price for used I’ve found is here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/5-gal-true-ball-lock-corny-kegs.637549/#post-8224254

Great guy! Ordered a 3 gallon corny from him today! Other than co2 tank, regulator, what you keep it in, everything is pretty cheap until you get to external taps.

I’m new too, but I both keg and bottle. I like to share and trade, bottles are easier than kegs imho. I started with kegs before bottles.

 

[Brewsit]

I did the opposite. Started with kegs and when I needed to find ways to empty those kegs without drinking everything, I started to bottle with a counter pressure filler. Still only bottle if I have to for a competition.

 

[bsayers01]

Just go for the keg. It’s worth it for sure. Keep bottles to bottle from the kegs, but it’s amazing to have your brew on tap.

 

[Jtk78]

I didn't start kegging till about batch 35ish. Resisted kegging for as long as I could. Kinda glad I did, because I could concentrate on brewing. Took plenty of time to plan out my keezer build.

While my number of batches is less, about 18 when I got underway building my kegging system, I do agree with this.
After 1 batch I enjoyed bottling. "I'll never keg!"
After 5 batches, bottling was part of the process. "I like the portability of bottles and giving beer away to family and friends."
After about 15 batches, bottling sucked. And so did having boxes of beer in my office so it could carb. And the storage of the empty bottles. "There's got to be an easier way!!"

And the planning had begun. But it is not cheap. I'm sure it can be a lot cheaper than carrying out my plan, but still costly.

I am glad I waited awhile to start the planning though. I'm not sure I would have known what I wanted out of the gate. Plus, it let me get my feet wet, progress to all grain, delve into water chemistry, and refine my setup before getting to the kegging point.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I bought a brew kit in mid January. The next Friday I brewed my first batch. On Saturday I picked up an 8 tap keezer from Craigslist. No bottling for me.

 

[Roland_deschain]

I lucked into a kegerator with kegs, 20lb co2 tank, and some other goodies for 200 on CL when I first started brewing. I’ve bottled one batch I made with/for a friend but that’s it. No regrets here.

 

[Kharnynb]

62 batches in, still bottling and no regrets, I like having many beers in the cellar gradually aging and changing flavour.
I would need to take space from our rather modest living space instead of cellarspace for a kegging system and have fewer beers available at a time.

not to mention, I would rather spend money on upgrading the brewing side some more before even thinking about sinking that much money in kegging.

 

[Passito]

When you can't use your kitchen sink or countertops anymore because there's no space left its all full of beer bottles.

When your bottle tree is bigger than your Christmas tree and the cat starts climbing it.

 

[JPBrewLI]

not to mention, I would rather spend money on upgrading the brewing side some more before even thinking about sinking that much money in kegging.

I'm starting to keg after only a few batches, for $30-40 each i've got a 5 gallon closed transfer fermenter, long term storage vessel, and serving device. I think its very cost effective multi-tasker and can use them to also bottle a few from each batch as needed.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

None...I've never bottled a single beer and never want to....power to the pint
Start strong...why work your way up when its so to keg

 

[ancientmariner52]

I've never understood the hatred that some brewers have for bottling. I know it is real, but to me, bottling is just part of what I do to get beer, no worse than cleaning a mash tun or sanitizing a fermenter.

Based solely on what I read on HBT, and discounting the panicky new guys whose beer doesn't carb overnight, I see way more problems with kegging and dispensing than I do with bottling.

I am jealous of the great looking keezer builds, and I may build one some day, but I would probably just store bottles in it.

 

[kh54s10]

None of the above!! You need to do both, unless you like having a keg tied up with a Russian Imperial Stout for a couple of years. Or have a ton of kegs and a huge kegerator.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I've never understood the hatred that some brewers have for bottling. .

For me it was the hatred of cleaning, washing and storing bottles...plus the time and wondering if you added the right amount of priming sugar. I would not want bottle bombs in the fridge. You can rack 5 gallons into a keg in one minute and be drinking it two days later that's awfully nice. Lets face it waiting to taste your homebrew is the hardest part of brewing. Plus the fun factor of pulling a pint in your house far outweighs opening a bottle that can be done anywhere...this is of course is just my logic as to kegging

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

I've brewed countless batches and still bottle... Not because I prefer it... I'd actually prefer kegging as I can never quite nail bottle carbonation quite right (except with wheats). I've never had bottle bombs or nasty capping disasters and swing top bottles are just convenient. It's the move to needing more equipment. I've never had the income to to buy and make a keezer, along with all the kegging equipment. I actually have 2 kegs in my garage waiting for the day I pull that trigger though.

I don't think there's a set time frame to make the move... I'd say when it's convenient for the brewer.

 

[brewgar]

I make 4 gallon batches and keep 10-12 different beer styles in my cellar pipeline at all times. It's not feasible to keg that many styles, but bottling works a charm, with no kegs needed or desired. I always ferment for 30 days, bottle condition at room temp for 30 days, then to large cellar, and then available for mixed rotation to a dedicated upstairs 40F serving refrigerator. A daily choice of any of my perfected homebrew recipes, from Pilsners to Stouts, is a luxury.

 

[PADave]

I've never understood the hatred that some brewers have for bottling. I know it is real, but to me, bottling is just part of what I do to get beer, no worse than cleaning a mash tun or sanitizing a fermenter.

Based solely on what I read on HBT, and discounting the panicky new guys whose beer doesn't carb overnight, I see way more problems with kegging and dispensing than I do with bottling.

I am jealous of the great looking keezer builds, and I may build one some day, but I would probably just store bottles in it.

I agree. Kegging isn't the end all/solve all problems that some make it out to be. In fact, it's a whole separate can of worms to deal with. Something that I'm glad I didn't get into as a beginning brewer and concentrated on the brewing. The keezer build alone, if you want something nice takes quite a bit of effort, let alone the cost. I'm $1k+ into mine and it's still got a couple little things to finish. Then there's dealing with clogs, leaks, and cleaning lines. All that said, I'm glad that I did my keezer build, and I doubt that I'll ever bottle much anymore. But don't let anyone fool you, kegging takes effort also.

 

[mattdee1]

I've been in the hobby for 3 years, went straight to all-grain in summer 2015, have done around 30 batches, some 5gal and some 10gal. I've bottled the whole time, right up until about 2 weeks ago when I completed my kegerator setup. In fact, I'm so new to kegging that the 5 beers I have on tap are just sitting there carbonating, not quite ready to drink yet (although, I've been skimming a few samples off the top, in the name of science of course).

Only 2 of the 5 taps are all-grain brews that I really put the full effort into making; the others are quickie extract batches I threw together on 3 straight evenings, just to get some quick-and-dirty variety going in anticipation of the kegerator coming online (by the way, the extract batches are tasting pretty good, and it's so darn easy; I will be doing more of these for sure, especially in the winter!)

I agree that the bottling-hate is a bit over the top sometimes. I didn't mind doing it for the most part; it was just part of the process to me. Then my daughter was born and it just didn't seem reasonable anymore to have this additional multi-hour task after the initial brew day, where I'm once again hauling a bunch of gear out, setting up, cleaning, lugging cases of bottles around, tearing down, cleaning again, etc. That can be several hours of work for a 10gal batch. I am able to keg that same 10gal in a fraction of the time, with fewer things to clean, less gear to haul out, less gear to put away afterward, etc. I kegged those 3 extract batches in much less time than it would take me to bottle a single 5gal batch. It's awesome... and my wife was like "wow, you're done already?"

I'm glad that the depressing sight of hundreds of empty brown bottles in dilapidated cardboard boxes in my basement will be no more, after I give them away (aside from my swing-top collection that I plan to keep). And I will NOT miss rinsing yeast sediment from the bottom of bottles every time I pour a beer, and having to carry boxes full of empties down the stairs at regular intervals. This type of thing especially sucks when you have your thirsty family over. Honestly, last Christmas, I think 75% of my evening was spent opening beers, pouring beers for guests, and rinsing bottles, trying to stay out in front of it. The draft system will take care of that issue nicely.

 

[Renegade Brewer]

Personally we moved to kegging in about 6 months of brewing. We went from 5-10 gallon batches 15 years ago, and got tired of bottling all that. Plus pouring your own beer from your own kegerator is just sweet.

We went to kegging before moving to all grain. Then in about 2006 we made the jump to 15 gallon all grain batches and just continued to grow from there.

With that being said though, I will tell you the same thing I tell my new customers who are interested in kegging. First upgrade everything else first. You should be doing full wort boils, have a wort chiller, O2 system, and a temp controlled fermentation chamber before moving to kegging. Make sure you’re making great beer before you begin kegging mediocre beer

 

[BucksIPA]

as soon as you have the money for it. Cleaning bottles suck, except for aging, beers taste better in the keg, and it opens up more techniques.

 

[El Nino]

I've been on the fence about it and went back and forth, bottling and kegging batches in half. Ended up going all bottling (I guess I'm the rare case). Here's my experience.

1. Kegging is expensive as hell where I live. Getting a CO2 refill / swap will cost about $40 for a 5# tank. $180 if you want a filled tank but don't have one to swap, and they give you a shitty used tank. Then I'd still have to buy kegs. Startup costs would easily be over $300.
2. On the bright side, where I live, room temp is 72-80 degrees, so bottle conditioning isn't an exercise in patience. I've had fully carbed beers in 5 days, and 2 days in the fridge.
3. Bottling does take longer, I won't argue that. However, since I brew half batches at a time (2.5 gal), bottling about a case of beer isn't all that time consuming. And once you get the process down, it's easy. I personally find it a bit relaxing, though I could imagine doing 50+ beers being a pain.
4. I tend to not get hangovers anymore from overindulging. Having the convenience of pulling a tap and getting extra pours led to me drinking way too much lol. Those extra 'small pours' over time usually = 1.5-2 more beers. Whereas grabbing another bottle I tend to ask myself "do I really want / need another drink?"
5. Dealing with a leaking keg is a pain in the butt. Bottles don't leak! Of course there's always the possibility of bottle bombs, but that risk can be minimized by making sure FG is stable.
6. Even transporting a mini keg isn't nearly as convenient as throwing 6 or 12 bottles in a soft cooler. If you want to share / give samples to friends / family, it's easier to hand them a bottle.

So for someone like me, the biggest pro of kegging is time. But being a small batch brewer, the cost really doesn't make it worthwhile for saving say, 30 minutes of time. Sticking with my bottles With that said, if I started doing 10 gallon batches or something, I would definitely keg.

 

[pokeacow]

Im glad I have a kegerator for 2 reasons:

1- Home brewing is much easier task when you dont have to dick around with bottles. You can back sweeten things AND have them carbonated. You can carbonate things instantly with the high pressure and shake the keg method

2- The kegerator is just plain dope. Its an awesome little addition to our home bar setup. People think its dope they can have draft beer at home, even if I only have commercial kegs in it and not actual home brew. Its a dad-level man cave item for sure

 

[VirginiaHops1]

One of the main reasons I waited so long to start brewing was because I have kids and very little free time, so I know I'm going the kegging route soon. I'm getting ready to bottle my 2nd batch this weekend. I found a decent price on a picnic tap/keg setup on kegconnection.com and seriously almost pulled the trigger this month but kids summer camps are killing my budget!

 

[CodeSection]

I guess it depends upon what you are doing with the final product. Since I give away most of my brew to family, friends and clients, I bottle. I went to Spike's 20 gallon kettles for 10+ gallon batches and their CF10 Fermenter in hopes of at least having some brew left over for me.

Once I ramp up on brewing every 2-3 weeks, I plan on kegging as well as bottling. If that doesn't work out, Plan B will be buying another CF10 fermenter .....

 

[Schlenkerla]

Kegging will have you brewing more since its not as time consuming as bottling.

How many of you bottlers put off pulling the batch off the fermenter because you don't have clean bottles?

Cleaning and sanitizing a keg takes the time it takes to rinse and sanitize three bottles. Then you drain the fermenter to a keg. That takes 15 minutes. So about 18 minutes to fill a keg.

Kegging is the way to go. I wouldn't doubt some people quit brewing because of the drudgery of cleaning bottles.

When I didn't have kegs, I used a poly pin and a rocket hand pump. Filled and primed five 1 gallon pins and stacked them in my beer fridge. When drinking I set one of them on reusable ice pack in this wood cabinet during the night of drinking Afterwards, back into the fridge, it went. The inside is insulated.

Right now engine cabinet holds a bottle of fireball, 150 year old Madera, and rocks glasses.

The second picture shows the sanitizer pin still attached.

 

[00Seven]

I've been on the fence about it and went back and forth, bottling and kegging batches in half. Ended up going all bottling (I guess I'm the rare case). Here's my experience.

1. Kegging is expensive as hell where I live. Getting a CO2 refill / swap will cost about $40 for a 5# tank. $180 if you want a filled tank but don't have one to swap, and they give you a poopyty used tank. Then I'd still have to buy kegs. Startup costs would easily be over $300.
2. On the bright side, where I live, room temp is 72-80 degrees, so bottle conditioning isn't an exercise in patience. I've had fully carbed beers in 5 days, and 2 days in the fridge.
3. Bottling does take longer, I won't argue that. However, since I brew half batches at a time (2.5 gal), bottling about a case of beer isn't all that time consuming. And once you get the process down, it's easy. I personally find it a bit relaxing, though I could imagine doing 50+ beers being a pain.
4. I tend to not get hangovers anymore from overindulging. Having the convenience of pulling a tap and getting extra pours led to me drinking way too much lol. Those extra 'small pours' over time usually = 1.5-2 more beers. Whereas grabbing another bottle I tend to ask myself "do I really want / need another drink?"
5. Dealing with a leaking keg is a pain in the butt. Bottles don't leak! Of course there's always the possibility of bottle bombs, but that risk can be minimized by making sure FG is stable.
6. Even transporting a mini keg isn't nearly as convenient as throwing 6 or 12 bottles in a soft cooler. If you want to share / give samples to friends / family, it's easier to hand them a bottle.

So for someone like me, the biggest pro of kegging is time. But being a small batch brewer, the cost really doesn't make it worthwhile for saving say, 30 minutes of time. Sticking with my bottles With that said, if I started doing 10 gallon batches or something, I would definitely keg.

Where do you get your tanks filled? Takes $15 for 5# of food grade CO2 swap for me at the welding store down the street. Take it there instead of your LHBS

 

[Jtk78]

Where do you get your tanks filled? Takes $15 for 5# of food grade CO2 swap for me at the welding store down the street. Take it there instead of your LHBS

If I remember correctly he's in Hawaii somewhere. Paradise isn't cheap.

Aside from welders, you can also check fire extinguisher shops

 

[Transamguy77]

I've been kegging for 5 of the 8 years I've been brewing and I didn't really mind the bottling until I started making 10 gallon batches. Cleaning and sanitizing over 100 bottles was a pain and bottling was time consuming (Even with my kids helping) actually that was enjoyable doing something with them.

But kegging is not for everyone and quite honestly if my wife hadn't bought me a kegging kit I would have kept bottling for a bit longer. I didn't realize how much bottling bothered me until I stopped and didn't have to worry about all the bottles anymore.

And kegging 10 gallons is definitely a time saver over bottling 10 gallons.

 

[El Nino]

If I remember correctly he's in Hawaii somewhere. Paradise isn't cheap.

Aside from welders, you can also check fire extinguisher shops

Yup, paradise got a price tag. Everything needs to be shipped here which = $$

Sugar is a lot cheaper, and bottles can be reused for free, haha.

 

[shoengine]

I do both. I'd need a lot of kegs or drink a helluva a lot more to use just kegging.

 

[Griffin495]

I voted for the first choice as it's the only option for bottling. 5 years in, 53 batches and still bottling. I very rarely do 5 gallon batches anymore. Usually 2.5 g batches, some one gallon, some in between. I don't mind the bottling, but I would like to keg someday. Just not sure the wife would appreciate another fridge in the house (I have a dorm sized fridge for fermenting in the formal dining room that we never use). Maybe when the kid gets out of daycare and we're not spending money on that. But then we'll probably have to spend money on summer camps. It would be nice to be able to pour a whole pint glass instead of just getting the 12 ounces from a bottle.

 

[ramjam]

just kegged my second batch on wednesday, bottled for about a year before buying my first kegs, i am in the group that hates bottling, i find kegging much easier and faster, but i know different strokes for different folks.

 

[El Nino]

How many of you bottlers put off pulling the batch off the fermenter because you don't have clean bottles?

Cleaning and sanitizing a keg takes the time it takes to rinse and sanitize three bottles. Then you drain the fermenter to a keg. That takes 15 minutes. So about 18 minutes to fill a keg.

Kegging is the way to go. I wouldn't doubt some people quit brewing because of the drudgery of cleaning bottles.

I always have clean bottles. Granted, I initially HATED bottling day because of the time it took to clean all the bottles. However, I have been a man on a mission to make the process as easy as possible.

After pouring a bottle, I always do a triple rinse in hot tap water to get everything out, so there's never any hardened sediment to scrub out (never used a bottle brush, never had to). I set the bottles aside, and when I get about 12, I soak them in PBW for a bit, then give them a rinse and stick em on a bottle tree.

When bottling day comes, all I have to do is give the bottles a dunk in star san, and I can get straight to bottling. Makes the whole process go a lot faster. Since the cost of co2 here is ridiculously expensive, and room temp in bottles where I live = fast carbing bottles, I made an effort to dial in a process that made bottling as hassle free as possible, and hey, I think it works for me

But as I said before, a part of why I don't find bottling all that much of a hassle is because I brew half batches. Anything over 5 and I'd keg. Hard to find room for 100 bottles in the fridge

 

[shoengine]

I do similiar prep method, but I use a starsan rinse, and run them through a heated sanitize job on the dishwasher on bottling day.

I think I'm going to switch to kegging my hoppy beers and bottling my other styles. Except the Oktoberfest. That has to be kegged for reasons.