Kegging Worth It If Only Consuming 2 Beers Per Day?

[stewart194]

I've been brewing for a little over a year now, and planned on making the move to kegging soon. However, I was recently diagnosed with a medical condition that I will have for the rest of my life, and the doctors are adamant about me limiting my alcohol intake to no more than 2 beers per day.

Now, I don't drink every night, and when I do I usually only have 2 beers, but when friends are over or I'm outside grilling, etc...those 2 beers easily turned into 4. Now I'm stuck with 2 beers at the most, and I'm fine with that. I feel fortunate that I can still drink beer and that they aren't making me give it up entirely.

Is kegging worth it if I only drink 2 beers per day? Will the lines get sticky if I don't consume it fast enough? Any other issues that I'm unaware of?

Thanks!

 

[ong]

Beer kept cold in kegs and dispensed with CO2 will last for months. It does help to use forward sealing faucets (perlicks) if you're not opening them very often, to avoid gunk building up on the valves. I only have 1 or 2 a day, and keep 3 kegs going, and I've never had any problems with beer going bad.

 

[Homercidal]

I love kegging for the reason that I can pour only a half glass of beer if I want to. It makes it as easy to pour less as it does to pour more.

And I normally only drink 1-2 beers per day, and usually 8-10 ounces each.

 

[nutty_gnome]

Kegging is always worth it if you are going to pursue this hobby on a regular basis.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Absolutely worth it. Even more so for the reason's Homercidal cites. At 24oz per day you'll go through a keg in about 6 weeks. I have a couple kegs that have been on tap for over a year and are still improving. (Belgian Dark, English Old, Barleywines, RIS...) definitely recommend Perlicks. YES the standard faucets WILL stick if you're not using them regularly enough, the Perlicks rarely, if ever stick.

 

[JDGator]

in the summer i drink a keg in 2-3 weeks, so it allows me to brew a ton and be able to drink it from grain to glass in 3 weeks or less.

love kegging!!

 

[stewart194]

Thanks everyone! Bottling is the only thing in this hobby that I don't enjoy doing. I did at first, but it got old pretty quickly. Now I'm doing 10 gallon batches, and looking at 100 bottles to clean, fill, & cap...I find myself dreading it and putting it off as long as possible.

Thanks again!

 

[NathPowe]

Definitely go for it. You'll love it man. Kegs are the perfect vessel for storing beer over longer periods of time, especially when kept at serving temp - so no worries about not drinking them right away (i.e. if you're only drinking 1 or 2 here and there). Also, as mentioned above by some other folks, one of the nicest things about kegging is being able to pour however much you want. I read about this phenomenon a bunch before I started kegging, but never thought much of it. Now that I have taps a large percentage of the beers I pour are 4-8oz. It's awesome.

Cheers and glad to hear you can still enjoy this hobby while keeping healthy.

 

[aeviaanah]

You can buy smaller kegs too if you are worried about beer spoiling.

 

[day_trippr]

I typically drink three 12 ounce beers a day during the week, five or so on a weekend day, and I love having six brews on tap. With a solid dispensing system and rigorous sanitation, kegs can live for many months and still taste delicious. If I only drank two beers a day I'd have still done the exact same thing.

Bottling was a pita, bottom line.
Kegging is ridiculously easy by comparison...

Cheers!

 

[stewart194]

Thanks again everyone. I'm definitely doing it. This will hopefully be my last bottling session tomorrow. My take on this before making this post, was that maybe I should continue bottling given my situation. Drinking only 2 beers per day, 10 gallons of beer should last at least 3 months. So while bottling is a pain, I thought maybe I should continue doing that because I wouldn't have to do it very often. When I first got the news, I thought about giving up brewing honestly. Only drinking two beers max per day, and not drinking every day, the cost of buying and drinking commercial beer no longer seemed as expensive as it used to be. But then reality set in, and that is I enjoy brewing beer! So I think I'll continue this journey and buy 6 kegs, and always have 3 tapped at once, with 3 more of the same 3 styles ready to tap once those run out. I brew 12 styles, so I'll just rotate them out. I'll always have an IPA on tap, but the other styles I'll just brew according to the season we're in at that time.

One last question. I currently only have room in my refrigerator for 3 kegs. I have a spare bedroom that is mysteriously about 10 degrees cooler than every other room in the house where I store my unopened beer. I think it's probably about 60 degrees in there usually. If I start kegging, how long can I store beer in there? Probably the same time as bottled beer I assume? Or does kegging with pressurized CO2 in a sealed keg help keep beer from deteriorating as quickly as bottles?

 

[day_trippr]

Think of a keg of beer as a big bottle, as pretty much any environmental conditions that would affect one will affect the other, eventually (temperature shifts will take longer with the keg, obviously). If you've traditionally kept beer in your mystery room and it's kept well, a keg should, too. As long as your keg is tight, it'll sit there and do its thing just like a bottle...

Cheers!

 

[CRoth36]

Kegging is always worth it. If you feel 2 beers a day isn't worth it then try 3-4 beers a day.

 

[day_trippr]

LOL!

But this is why reading at least the original post is generally a good idea...

Cheers!

 

[VegasJ]

I have 3 beers kegged... and pour one or two maybe, MAYBE every other day... or a few in a weekend with nothing during the week.

Sucks to have a medical condition with a 2/beer limit though.

Can you skip some days (mon-Wed) and have 8 on thursday ?

 

[Doctor_M]

I agree with everyone else but will add that it might be a good idea to look into a blichmann beer gun or other bottling device. If you want to bottle some up for friends or need to free up a keg you can do so relatively easily by transferring to bottles. Best of both worlds!

 

[jbaysurfer]

Thanks again everyone. I'm definitely doing it. This will hopefully be my last bottling session tomorrow. My take on this before making this post, was that maybe I should continue bottling given my situation. Drinking only 2 beers per day, 10 gallons of beer should last at least 3 months. So while bottling is a pain, I thought maybe I should continue doing that because I wouldn't have to do it very often. When I first got the news, I thought about giving up brewing honestly. Only drinking two beers max per day, and not drinking every day, the cost of buying and drinking commercial beer no longer seemed as expensive as it used to be. But then reality set in, and that is I enjoy brewing beer! So I think I'll continue this journey and buy 6 kegs, and always have 3 tapped at once, with 3 more of the same 3 styles ready to tap once those run out. I brew 12 styles, so I'll just rotate them out. I'll always have an IPA on tap, but the other styles I'll just brew according to the season we're in at that time.

One last question. I currently only have room in my refrigerator for 3 kegs. I have a spare bedroom that is mysteriously about 10 degrees cooler than every other room in the house where I store my unopened beer. I think it's probably about 60 degrees in there usually. If I start kegging, how long can I store beer in there? Probably the same time as bottled beer I assume? Or does kegging with pressurized CO2 in a sealed keg help keep beer from deteriorating as quickly as bottles?

They'll keep fine, so long as they're not lagers (obvious!). I would caution you though, no matter how thoroughly I clean and rebuild some kegs, they just don't hold pressure indefinitely. Especially at lower PSIs. Keep an eye on the stored kegs to make sure you at least have positive pressure inside the keg.

 

[Oceantendency]

I have a couple 5 gallon kegs and a 3 gallon keg, the rest I bottle, so I try to keg part of the batch and then bottle the rest. I like comparing some bottles like Saisons and Biere de Gardes or Stouts on Bottle versus keg. Then again some beers just taste better on bottle and you need to fill a keg for the short turnaround WHILE the bottles age to perfection. I only like Ales, so other than my Abbey beers, most don't have to age for too long on the bottle. Plus for road trips or going to a friend's house or when we cookout over at my Mother-In-Law's house I'll fill from the keg a couple of growlers ! Big hit with everybody when you walk into a friend's house with a Growler and you don't have to worry about glass bottles being left behind.