Downside to draft beer at home

[yesjenks]

Who am I kidding? There is no downside . . . But, man, I'm drinking SO much more beer! A Monday night has become followed by

Hope work is slow today. . .

 

[philber]

we'll try to post quietly today...

 

[TheHappyHopper]

Maybe a downside is that you go through your pipeline faster, thus needing to brew more. That's not really much of a downside though...

I haven't gotten to kegging yet, so anytime I feel like having more than a beer or two a night, I just remind myself that each one I drink is one more bottle I have to clean, sanitize, fill, and wait to condition...definitely my least favorite part of brewing.

 

[RmikeVT]

Who am I kidding? There is no downside . . . But, man, I'm drinking SO much more beer! A Monday night has become followed by

Hope work is slow today. . .

One thing I enjoy about home draft beer is you can pour as little or as much as you'd like. I have some 12 ounce nonic pint glasses, that really only hold about 10 ounces of beer with the top 2 ounces being occupied by the head of the beer. I find those to be good Sunday - Thursday glasses. Depending on the beer, I can have two or three and be in good shape to go to work the next morning. I tend to drink slower when I have a smaller glass as well, because I want to savor the flavor.

 

[Remmy]

Maybe a downside is that you go through your pipeline faster, thus needing to brew more. That's not really much of a downside though...

That's the only "downside." It really is.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

The downside, for me, is 5 gallons is a lot of beer. And 6 of those is even worse.

I have yet to find the middle ground between having variety and keeping beer moving.

 

[Terek]

i prefer bottles. For one, a keg is not very mobile. I ted to go out a lot, fishing on the boat, disc golf, hunting, more fishing, camping. Pretty much every weekend we are not at home. Bottles fit in a cooler nicely. Also, I dont have to put all 5 gal in the fridge. I can pop a couple stouts in the fridge for the next day, and let the other 40 bottles continue to age in the cellar. The only thing i would keg is something i dont care about it aging, and want to drink really fast. Which with my taste in beer, would be nothing.

 

[Psylocide]

I kill kegs in a week to 2.5 weeks, max.

It's gotten pretty bad. I had to get a 20 gal kettle so I can actually start building up a pipeline.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

i prefer bottles. For one, a keg is not very mobile. I ted to go out a lot, fishing on the boat, disc golf, hunting, more fishing, camping. Pretty much every weekend we are not at home. Bottles fit in a cooler nicely. Also, I dont have to put all 5 gal in the fridge. I can pop a couple stouts in the fridge for the next day, and let the other 40 bottles continue to age in the cellar. The only thing i would keg is something i dont care about it aging, and want to drink really fast. Which with my taste in beer, would be nothing.

I'd rather fill a hundred bottles from a keg than wait for natural carbonation. And growler fills are great for the short hauls. But I've grown towards the opposite. I'd rather brew and keg the beers that move and just buy the occasional odd ones. Nothing worse, IMO, than having a keg and a tap tied up for a couple years while you search for the bottom of the keg with a big beer in it.

 

[Natdavis777]

I will admit, its so easy, especially in the summer, to walk up and pull a pint at will. Especially since I am off every Tue and Wed...I get a weekend in the middle of the week, along with the weekend! I have been able to refrain though to indulging on the weekend only. I someone still kill the kegs in a decent amount of time

On a side note, I am going to pick up a free 5# co2 tank and 1/6 bbl keg my distributor friend has had sitting in her garage forever. Homebrew Score!

 

[yesjenks]

I too love that I can decide how much I want to pour. It got me into trouble last night though, as I kept pouring half a glass thinking it wasn't a "full" beer.

At this pace, I will definitely be brewing more often. Thinking I'm going to buy another kettle so I can put 2 brews up at the same time.

 

[slym2none]

I (and I am sure others) do not have the space for a keg & all the related equipment, nor do I have the money. I do have time, however. Let's face it - $250 just to pour a beer? That's money that, at the very least, could go towards more beer ingredients!

I am glad to have time & nature carb my beer, one bottle at a time. No maintenance required.

Something I find mildly humorous is that people keep saying "I can pour a half-glass if I want" and then say how they drink more because of the keg.

To be honest - I am brewing 2-1/2 gallon batches anyway. Take my words with the appropriate number of grains of salt.

 

[azazel1024]

One thing I enjoy about home draft beer is you can pour as little or as much as you'd like. I have some 12 ounce nonic pint glasses, that really only hold about 10 ounces of beer with the top 2 ounces being occupied by the head of the beer. I find those to be good Sunday - Thursday glasses. Depending on the beer, I can have two or three and be in good shape to go to work the next morning. I tend to drink slower when I have a smaller glass as well, because I want to savor the flavor.

That is a big upside to me. Half the reason I want to get in to kegging. I'll admit it isn't often, but there are times I don't really want a full glass of beer. Maybe I just want a little 4-6oz with dinner and nothing later. Or maybe I want just a little with dinner and a glass or two later. I don't really want to open a bottle, pour half with dinner, recap and stick it back in the fridge for later.

Or I get near the end of a night and I really just want half a glass of something.

That and easier to serve to friends than cracking a bunch of bottles. Less space taken up by empties that I have to haul downstairs too.

However, I absolutely don't have space for a lot of taps. If I am lucky, I might have room for a 4 tap converted fridge/freezer. At some point. That might be enough, but I really like having 5-6 different beers available for drinking at any time, 7-8 is best. Granted, I can bottle and keg, so once a keg kicks, I can have a couple of 6-packs of the beer laying around to mix it up sometime. In fact, that is probably exactly what I will do. Bottle the batches that deserve it and kegs the ones that are better for a keg. Or keg and bottle a batch (especially if I end up with any really big batches).

This is especially because I want to get in to doing soda for myself and my kids (and my wife), so one of those 4 taps is probably going to be soda. Only having 3 beer choices would be unthinkable for me.

 

[slym2none]

*pokepokepoke*

(Just joking, azazel!)

 

[Psylocide]

I (and I am sure others) do not have the space for a keg & all the related equipment, nor do I have the money. I do have time, however. Let's face it - $250 just to pour a beer? That's money that, at the very least, could go towards more beer ingredients!

I am glad to have time & nature carb my beer, one bottle at a time. No maintenance required.

Something I find mildly humorous is that people keep saying "I can pour a half-glass if I want" and then say how they drink more because of the keg.

To be honest - I am brewing 2-1/2 gallon batches anyway. Take my words with the appropriate number of grains of salt.

Got my kegging setup for free, but if I had to buy it, I would have. Your quote of $250 dollars has easily paid for itself by saving the man hours it would take to do 2-3 bottling sessions. So, yeah... totally worth it.

And being able to just pour a half glass only exacerbates the problem of kegs kicking quickly, because, if you bottled and didn't want/have time for a full beer... you wouldn't open one.

 

[Owly055]

I propose a literal "beer pipeline". Wort goes in one end, finished beer comes out the other. Wort is added in whatever quantity the pipeline is designed to process. The pipeline would include "trub drop outs" as well as final filtration for clarification, and operate under pressure so the beer would be carbonated at the end, and exit with suitable serving pressure. The beginning of the pipeline would be in my brew room, the end would be a tap in the fridge. It would have only one yeast culture which might be one or more yeasts, but due to the small diameter, the various brews would be more or less separate with a little bit of blending only where one meets the other. Or a "water plug" or something similar between products like they use in fuel pipelines to separate gasoline from diesel, etc.

This would be the ultimate beer machine, and you could even have a tube feeding you a slow and steady stream of beer. You could sit in your easy chair watching instant replays, auto racing, soap operas, etc, getting up only long enough to pee, and periodically to make wort if you can't get your SWMO (she who must obey) to do it for you. All your nutritional needs would be incorporated into the beer, and you would live a vegetative hydroponic existence simply putting on weight until at some point your whale like carcass had to be moved out of the house with a forklift to the cemetery where you would have thoughtfully bought 20 plots to accommodate your massive bulk.

..........Ah.... a dream existence ;-)


H.W.




A tough old cowboy from Montana counseled his granddaughter that if she wanted to live a long life, the secret was to sprinkle a pinch of gun powder on her oatmeal every morning.

The granddaughter did this religiously until the age of 103, when she died.

She left behind 14 children, 30 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren, 25 great-great-grandchildren, and a 40-foot hole where the crematorium used to be.

 

[Turkeyshot]

When I make a 5 gallon batch I put 3 of it in a 3 gallon corny keg and bottle the rest. The keg fits easily in my garage refrigerator, and less bottles to fill and clean later.

It also makes it very convenient. I always have some to load up and take with me if needed, or go to the keg and fill up a glass or two or five or whatever. Yeah so I don't see much of a downside if you have the space to keep it all.

 

[beersk]

The downside, for me, is 5 gallons is a lot of beer. And 6 of those is even worse.

I have yet to find the middle ground between having variety and keeping beer moving.

Smaller batches seems to be a good middle ground.

Downside to draft beer at home... How easy it is to go back and pull half pint after half pint, and before you know it, you're a bit drizunk. I did that for several years. I try to keep it in check now.

Also, another one would be the potential for a leaky keg and having a full keg of beer drain out into the bottom of your kegerator. Never had that happen, but it sounds like a painful experience.

 

[azazel1024]

*pokepokepoke*

(Just joking, azazel!)

But it would be!!!



But what if all you have on tap is a Belgian Single, a Stout and a German Pilsner and you are in the mood for an IPA?

People could die!!!

Think of the children!

Don't let the terrorists win!

 

[azazel1024]

Got my kegging setup for free, but if I had to buy it, I would have. Your quote of $250 dollars has easily paid for itself by saving the man hours it would take to do 2-3 bottling sessions. So, yeah... totally worth it.

And being able to just pour a half glass only exacerbates the problem of kegs kicking quickly, because, if you bottled and didn't want/have time for a full beer... you wouldn't open one.

I dislike the time spent bottling...but how long does it take you (or did take you)? I have no concept of how long it takes to clean a keg or lines...but I'd wager I probably spend 30 minutes prepping a batch of bottles, then they go in the oven for an hour, which I don't count as time spent, and an hour or two to cool, also not time I am wasting. Then it takes me maybe 20-30 minutes to sanitize all of my bottling equipment, take the bottles out of the oven, dump the bit of water out and siphon the beer in to the bottling bucket. A 3 gallon batch maybe takes 30 minutes to bottle and another 15 minutes to clean up. A 5 gallon batch is maybe 45 minutes. If I can talk my sig other in to helping, halve those bottling times.

All told I might spend 2.5hrs on the bottling stage of a 3 gallon batch and 3hrs on a 5 gallon batch. As little as 2hrs if my wife helps me with the bottling and a bit of the prep/clean up.

I make a fair amount of money, but even if my "get beer in to a container" time went to zero with kegging, that would take more than 2-3 bottling sessions skipped to save $250. From the little I have heard and observed, there is still at least an easy hour spent cleaning kegs, lines and filling them. So I am maybe saving an hour. Which, I'd love to save, but it doesn't sound to me like it is some earth shattering difference.

 

[iijakii]

Maybe I was doing it wrong, but I spent more time cleaning kegs and taplines than I ever did bottling. Sanitize in the dishwasher, have the wife fill while I cap. It's so easy.

Kegging definitely has merits, but is time one of them? I think if you're honest with yourself you'll realize dicking around with orings and cleaning out poppets etc is more time consuming than bottling.

 

[Gameface]

I dislike the time spent bottling...but how long does it take you (or did take you)? I have no concept of how long it takes to clean a keg or lines...but I'd wager I probably spend 30 minutes prepping a batch of bottles, then they go in the oven for an hour, which I don't count as time spent, and an hour or two to cool, also not time I am wasting. Then it takes me maybe 20-30 minutes to sanitize all of my bottling equipment, take the bottles out of the oven, dump the bit of water out and siphon the beer in to the bottling bucket. A 3 gallon batch maybe takes 30 minutes to bottle and another 15 minutes to clean up. A 5 gallon batch is maybe 45 minutes. If I can talk my sig other in to helping, halve those bottling times.

All told I might spend 2.5hrs on the bottling stage of a 3 gallon batch and 3hrs on a 5 gallon batch. As little as 2hrs if my wife helps me with the bottling and a bit of the prep/clean up.

I make a fair amount of money, but even if my "get beer in to a container" time went to zero with kegging, that would take more than 2-3 bottling sessions skipped to save $250. From the little I have heard and observed, there is still at least an easy hour spent cleaning kegs, lines and filling them. So I am maybe saving an hour. Which, I'd love to save, but it doesn't sound to me like it is some earth shattering difference.

I hated bottling. I switched to keggin pretty early (before fermentation temp control) and I'm pretty sure if I hadn't gone to kegging I would have eventually stopped brewing because I hated it so much.

I love when people guesstimate how fast they can do things. Bottling consumed an afternoon for me. It wasn't something I did between getting home from work and making dinner. It was time consuming, messy and completely unenjoyable. Just before I switched to kegging I had let a couple batches sit in the fermentor several extra weeks because I was dreading bottling them.

 

[Gameface]

Maybe I was doing it wrong, but I spent more time cleaning kegs and taplines than I ever did bottling. Sanitize in the dishwasher, have the wife fill while I cap. It's so easy.

Kegging definitely has merits, but is time one of them? I think if you're honest with yourself you'll realize dicking around with orings and cleaning out poppets etc is more time consuming than bottling.

I'm not like many who claim you can keg a batch in 5min, but it does take less time (maybe 2/3 the amount of time on a bad day) and for me it is less tedious. If you told me I could spend 1hr prepping/cleaning kegs or 1hr prepping/cleaning bottles I'll pick kegs every time.

 

[j1n]

I'm not like many who claim you can keg a batch in 5min, but it does take less time (maybe 2/3 the amount of time on a bad day) and for me it is less tedious. If you told me I could spend 1hr prepping/cleaning kegs or 1hr prepping/cleaning bottles I'll pick kegs every time.

Takes me about 15 min but i have kegs cleaned and ready to go. i just sanitize them with some starsan then purge with co2 then rack. i dont count time cleaning the fermentor cause i just rinse it then fill with pbw and hot water and let it soak over night.

 

[SnakeRidge]

Lest this turn into another (deer lord, another) bottling vs. kegging argument; some people hate bottling. Some do not.

I am greatly looking forward to kegging when money and space allow, but I have bottled every drop I've brewed since 1997. It is the only way I would have had to serve my beer I have had due to the above limitations. I'm looking forward to kegging, not because I hate bottling, but because I want to learn about something new and build new stuff.

I imagine that it would be simple to keep pulling that tap and over serve yourself, but I do a good job drinking too much with bottles.

 

[Gameface]

Takes me about 15 min but i have kegs cleaned and ready to go. i just sanitize them with some starsan then purge with co2 then rack. i dont count time cleaning the fermentor cause i just rinse it then fill with pbw and hot water and let it soak over night.

I guess if I put my running shoes on I could get kegs ready and rack in 15 min, but the fact is that it takes a good ten minutes just to gravity drain my 10g batch, so I'd have to clean a dirty keg in 5min. I don't want to drink out of a keg that I only spent 5min cleaning, ymmv.

I don't understand why people always want to boast about how they can do a 40min job in 15min.

 

[kombat]

I'd have to clean a dirty keg in 5min. I don't want to drink out of a keg that I only spent 5min cleaning

Why not? It wasn't holding horse feces, it was just holding other beer. Beer that 5 minutes ago, you would've gladly poured yourself a glass of and drank, if only the keg hadn't kicked. If there wasn't any contaminants in the beer that you're washing out, and the beer you're racking in is equally clean, how much cleaning does the keg itself really need?

My process for cleaning kegs is to leave the empty keg in the keezer until I have another batch ready to be kegged. Then I take the keg out of the keezer and rinse it out with some hot water. Then I pour in a couple gallons of hot PBW, put the lid back on, and give it a good shake for 30 seconds or so. Then rinse it with hot, plain water, twice. Then pour in some StarSan, shake it up, add a little pressure, connect up a picnic tap and drain some StarSan (to get it up inside the pickup tube).

Then I open the lid, dump out the StarSan, and fill the keg with the new beer. Pop the lid back on, purge it, pressurize it, run some of the new beer through the picnic tap (to get the StarSan out of the pickup tube and beverage line/tap) and take a final gravity sample to calculate ABV. Then the keg goes back in the keezer.

All told, the job takes maybe 20 minutes, and most of that is waiting for the beer to siphon (I really need to get a 1/2" autosiphon to speed that part up).

 

[kombat]

From the little I have heard and observed, there is still at least an easy hour spent cleaning kegs, lines and filling them.

I think you've been misinformed. As I said, it takes me 20 minutes to keg a batch of beer, and that's if I start with a dirty keg. If I grab one of the already-cleaned-and-sanitized kegs, it only takes as long as it takes to sanitize my autosiphon (1 minute?), rack the beer from the carboy to the keg (5-10 minutes, but could be faster if I had a bigger autosiphon), swipe a little keg lube on the o-ring (30 seconds?), seal it up, purge, and put it in the keezer (another minute?).

Your process takes at least 3 hours. As you said, it's not all time you have to be involved doing stuff (such as while the bottles are baking in the oven or cooling), but it is all time you have to commit to the task in a single session. If I get home from work and only have half an hour to eat supper and keg a beer before I have to go back out for a squash match/poker game/whatever, I can do it. You cannot.

 

[j1n]

I guess if I put my running shoes on I could get kegs ready and rack in 15 min, but the fact is that it takes a good ten minutes just to gravity drain my 10g batch, so I'd have to clean a dirty keg in 5min. I don't want to drink out of a keg that I only spent 5min cleaning, ymmv.

I don't understand why people always want to boast about how they can do a 40min job in 15min.

Its called having multiple kegs and having them clean and ready to use to cut down on your times. i dont clean a keg only when i need it. i clean the keg as soon as it kicks. i have a bunch of clean kegs just sitting waiting to be used.

i like to do things one at a time and not all at once when i need to do it. if im going to bottle ill clean the bottles a different day than the day im going to bottle. If im going to clean kegs then thats all im going to do. even when i brew i prep everything the day before so i can hit the ground running in the morning.

 

[Gameface]

I'd like to see video footage of going from dirty keg to filled and carbing keg in 20min or less. That's all I'm saying.