Seriously looking at kegging now.

[Yooper]

Here is my last idea, to get started kegging and such.

The Nastalgia that was mentioned earlier seems to work well for those reviewers on Amazon. Free Shipping makes it 350 for a brand new, 1 tap kegerator. This is perfectly fine to start me off I feel. All things considered, it is perfectly fine to go back and forth between 2 kegs, correct? Say I start my Saturday enjoying my recent Red Ale but want to drink an IPA in the afternoon. Does it really do any negative to swap back and forth so long as it's not a continuous back and forth occurance?

No, but it's sort of a pain swapping out the keg connections and then hooking them up again. If there is any chance at all that you want more than one beer on tap at a time, I'd skip the kegerator above and get a two tap (or build your own out of a small cute chest freezer). You could get a small chest freezer, build a collar for it, and still have it be under $350 and have more than one beer on tap at a time.

Also, each time you move the keg, you resuspend any sediment that may have settled out so it's not ideal if you have to move the kegs around to swap the lines.

 

[tektonjp]

I keg and bottle. I keg my "A" movers and bottle my special brews. I hate tying up a keg with say, a stout. I found the best way to prime my beer for bottles is to add primer solution gradually to my bottling bucket as I transfer. I brew five gallon batches so for every gallon that gets transferred I slowly add 4 oz of primer. The way I have my transfer hose setup creates a whirlpool so I don't even stir. The only thing I have bottled from the keg are my growlers I bring to functions for sampling, so can't comment on efficient system to bottle from keg. Seems futile if you brew 5gal or smaller.

Surely you aren't adding 20oz of sugar?

 

[GrantH]

No, but it's sort of a pain swapping out the keg connections and then hooking them up again. If there is any chance at all that you want more than one beer on tap at a time, I'd skip the kegerator above and get a two tap (or build your own out of a small cute chest freezer). You could get a small chest freezer, build a collar for it, and still have it be under $350 and have more than one beer on tap at a time.

Also, each time you move the keg, you resuspend any sediment that may have settled out so it's not ideal if you have to move the kegs around to swap the lines.

I need to measure my closet, but a "keezer" was pretty much ruled out for size problems. With a freezer being (new) 160, keg setup for about 325 (from midwest for the 2 tap with faucets), and a johnson controller, i'm looking around 600 regardless. I guess it's more of a do you want a fridge or a freezer? Fridge needs the tower, freezer just costs a touch more.

 

[nanofreak]

I'm slowly beginning to realize I can't afford it. I hate getting hit or miss carbing in bottles though. Nothing worse.

I dump my sugar water in (once cool) and let it sit for ~30 minutes until the airlock starts to move slowly but I always get hit or miss carbing.

I put my sugar into the bucket first then rack into the bucket with the sugar already there. Never in 3 years have I had a carb issue. I don't even wait after the bottle bucket is full.

 

[HeavyKettleBrewing]

Surely you aren't adding 20oz of sugar?

3/4 cup of corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of water.

 

[tektonjp]

3/4 cup of corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of water.

Ah, 4 oz of that at a time. I'm slow.