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

[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.

 

[VTX1300]

I started with bottles but moved to kegs quickly when a friend gave me an old soda keg and gas bottle set from his carnival food trailer days. 20# gas bottle was full. I still do both. I usually brew 6 gallon batches, bottle 12 for friends and keg what is left. I much prefer the kegging but don't mind bottling because i don't do that many. I worked on soda systems at my job so setting up a keg system was easy for me. The best thing I did for bottling was invest in a good bench capper. Makes that job much easier.

 

[Bubbles2]

When I got an extra dime to blow on the hobby and some real estate to store it. Remodeling the Kitchen and a storage room off the kitchen to do so...

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I just rinse my bottles thoroughly after drinking, then rinse again(and check inside for dirties) when I put them in the dishwasher the night before and run on sanitize. I'm getting ready to do that tonight to bottle tomorrow morning.

Do you guys who do both ever split batches between keg and bottles. I'm assuming if you do that you use the tablets for carbonating the individual beers instead of mixing up the sugar?

 

[Jtk78]

I'm assuming if you do that you use the tablets for carbonating the individual beers instead of mixing up the sugar?

I will occasionally bottle some prior to kegging. I use the Domino sugar cubes, 1 for 12oz bottles, 2 for 22oz bottles. They work well

 

[Schlenkerla]

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.

It won't take long till you keg everything. [emoji16]

If I was to bottle anything, which I don't typically, it'd be big beer that benefits from aging.

The only thing I've bottled is beer that I share with brew club. It's not aged for more than 90 minutes. Lol

 

[shoengine]

I only have two kegs, so either I bottle, or I only brew a few times a year.

 

[SEndorf]

The poll misses a few key points.
There's nothing wrong with bottling. But when the entire neighborhood comes by for happy hour, kegs are the way to go.... Many kegs/ taps.... Keeps them happy.

 

[JohnSand]

Christmas. All of my upgrades come at Christmas.