Help me spend $$$

[cjprice]

So, I got a Midwest gift certificate for Christmas and I need some help deciding how to spend it. I am pretty sure that I am tired of bottling and I need to invest in a kegging setup. Looking around at the website, I found a couple of options and I am not sure what would be the best fit. I brew once (maybe twice) a month, and I am looking to have 2-3 beers on tap. I am still looking around for a fridge/freezer, but I will probably use the picnic taps for a while, just to spread the cost out.

Option 1 would give me a couple of extra kegs, so that I can have a couple of beers conditioning/aging while drinking the rest.

Option 2 is a bit cheaper, and comes with the dual regulator, but only two kegs.

Option 3 would be to just spend the gift certificate on ingredients and get the kegging setup elsewhere....these prices seem a bit high.

Any thoughts?? Or is there another setup at Midwest that would be better than 1 or 2?

 

[Jewrican]

how big is the certificate? I think that makes a difference

 

[cjprice]

It is for $200, but the extra $80 that I would have to spend out of pocket on Option 1 is not a big deal

 

[jamesrm]

The guy that owns/runs this site is a GREAT guy and easy to work with. KegConnection.com Home Page I have several of his packages, all pro and great looking, work flawlessly.

 

[cjprice]

Yeah, those look good...but they don't seem any cheaper than the packages from Midwest so I might as well buy from Midwest and use the gift certificate.

Any other ideas?

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

I was going to say option 2 and some ingredients- You will eventually buy more cornies (Adventures in Home Brewing 17.99 or check out threads for ones like this), but I don't see that as necessary up front.

Then I looked at option one again- $80 difference. Two more kegs (say $40), 4 way manifold ($40-$50), wait there's more... picinic taps, sounds like a second CO2 tank (?) etc...

If you're going to have just two taps, I would go option 2 and ingredients. If you're thinking of doing more, or doing a keezer, save yourself money on upgrades later and go with option 1... Give them a call and see if they'd replace the picnic taps for actual taps (little more money) but they normally will. I say go with Perlicks, or stick with picnic taps for now.

 

[Yooper]

When I bought my kegging set up, I bought the two dispensing system, and one extra keg. I have two beers on tap, with an extra keg for conditioning, dryhopping, etc. When I had more money, I bought 4 more kegs. With the set up you're thinking of, you can add more kegs later if you want to.