To keg or not to keg??

[Ariza-Poet]

I for one jumped the gun and voted for kegging before I realized the OP hadn't even brewed their first batch yet or purchased any equipment. As far as I could tell I couldn't change my vote...

yeah i Should have put that in the title.

All voting aside the comments have helped a lot.

 

[oujens]

Sounds like good advice to hold off to see how much I enjoy this.

I know I love beer and have been an avid beer geek for quite a few years and finally getting into brewing
But not sure how much I'll be into the brewing aspect of it

Good idea. Kegging is definitely a time saver but is a big investment. Once you find you enjoy the beer you are producing, then keg it up!

Edit: Save the money you were going to use on kegs for equipment that might help you on brewday, such as pots, burner, refractometer, etc. I found after two extracts I wanted all-grain equipment. The addiction can happen quickly!

 

[beergolf]

There is really no comparison when it comes to convenience. On one hand, you can clean, sanitize, and fill one keg. On the other hand, you can clean (possibly including peeling/scrubbing labels), sanitize, fill, and cap 50-something bottles

That is only partially true. That makes it sound so much easier,however, there are other things that are not mentioned. If you rinse your bottles as you drink them it is not difficult. Sure you have to just clean a keg, but sometimes that requies taking apart the keg to do a thorough cleaning. That can take as long as cleaning a bunch of bottles. You also have lines and faucets to clean. Which also takes time. If you do not you can have problems. You also have to make sure that you do not run out of CO2. Nothing worse than not realizing that your tank is almost empty and running out of CO2 during the weekend. How about running out of CO2 during a party? What about leaks? You just fill a tank and do not notice a slight leak. A few days later you go to pull a pint and there is no pressure because you just lost a full tank of CO2, and have no beer to drink. Then there are the mishaps. Someone opening up ther keggerator to find 5 gallons of beer in the bottom because of a leak.

Sure kegging can be convenient ( I do keg so I understand all that is involved), but it does have some drawbacks. I equate the people that say that kegging is always the answer and is so much easier, to gamblers that always tell you about the money they won, but of course they never talk about the money they lose. So you never get the full story.

 

[iijakii]

+1. Kegging is great for a multitude of reasons, but I don't see how it's any easier. Cleaning kegs, disassembling posts and poppets, relubing everything, leak tests, cleaning beer line etc is all more time consuming than tossing 50 bottles in the dishwasher on sanitize cycle for me.

 

[j1n]

i started off kegging. bottling looks annoying. i still bottle but its from the keg and with a beer gun. bottle from keg is more home brew friendly, no telling people how to pour a beer cause of the sediment. they can drink straight from bottle like they do with beer they buy.

 

[55x11]

I wonder if thats what happened with a lot of people. The votes don't necessarily reflect the comments.

But thank you for your comment.

kegging is for lazy people (just kidding. Or am I?)
No wonder they would click the vote but never bother to type up a response.



Seriously though, I prefer beers on draft when I go to bars, but mostly because I know they will be fresh.
Setting costs/conditioning aside:
If you go through beer very fast and don't care about storing a pipeline of variety, i.e. you can drink two batches of the same beer in the time it takes you to brew two batches (for me about a month), then kegging may make some sense.

If you like to have variety (I have about ~15 beers I brewed so far this year, all available in bottles - cannot do this with kegs), then bottling is better.

Having said that, I suspect in a year or so I will have two kegs in my freezer. Mostly for convenience and out of boredom, than any real improvement in taste or anything else. But I suspect I will still bottle most of my beer, as it is much more versatile.

 

[J-Drew]

Or does the convenience of a keg justify the cost despite being a first timer?

Does the improvement in the quality of your beer justify the cost of focusing on fermentation temperature control now and worrying about kegging vs. bottling your beer later? Yes.

To more directly answer the OP's question, assuming resources are limited but you have enough to invest in a kegging setup, I would bottle now and make better use (IMHO) of the rest of your money to control fermentation temperature.

 

[ChelisHubby]

My self I am poor boy and I started kegging I loved it, till I got a infection and did not know why, I lost 3 batches then I started bottling. If you have the extra money Kegging is great. I am back l
kegging again. While starting out I would recommend bottling which does come in handy when making some brews for friends. But It is about time and Money.

 

[rekoob]

reading some posts and doing some research it appears kegging is superior to bottling.
However, as a first time brewer is it a safer bet to just bottle?

Or does the convenience of a keg justify the cost despite being a first timer?

*Disclaimer*
I have no equipment yet. A friend and I will probably be buying a few extract kits in the next couple weeks and whatever equipment needed for some basic 5gallon batches.

but we do have a full size fridge that we'll get a temp control for for fermentation.

First time brewer, no equipment... bottle.

You don't even know if this hobby is for you yet. You might do a batch or two and then not do it anymore.

Use what you have, buy minimal equipment that you need and start brewing. Use bottles, they are pretty much free if you have been keeping them and/or ask your family/friends to keep bottles for you.

Na Zdrowie!

 

[ericbw]

Don't know if anyone said it, but if you're going in with a buddy, how will you split batches in a keg?

 

[j1n]

kegging is for lazy people (just kidding. Or am I?)
No wonder they would click the vote but never bother to type up a response.



Seriously though, I prefer beers on draft when I go to bars, but mostly because I know they will be fresh.
Setting costs/conditioning aside:
If you go through beer very fast and don't care about storing a pipeline of variety, i.e. you can drink two batches of the same beer in the time it takes you to brew two batches (for me about a month), then kegging may make some sense.

If you like to have variety (I have about ~15 beers I brewed so far this year, all available in bottles - cannot do this with kegs), then bottling is better.

Having said that, I suspect in a year or so I will have two kegs in my freezer. Mostly for convenience and out of boredom, than any real improvement in taste or anything else. But I suspect I will still bottle most of my beer, as it is much more versatile.

Well if you bottle from the keg with a beer gun you have more control over the carbonation. no risk of bottle bombs by uneven distribution of priming sugar, and no sediment. Racking the beer into a keg and force carbing it isnt a big task. after you do that you can then just bottle the beer with a beer gun and have the same versatility as you would have with just bottling the traditional way.

 

[brennanj11]

As of right now the poll is showing a majority prefer buying kegging equipment right out of the shoot. I'd like to see how much of this is from experience and which is from hindsight.
Purchasing kettle, buckets, WC, MLT, burner and fermentation chamber should be prioritized over buying kegging equipment.
If you're just starting out, you have hours and hours of research ahead of you that should be spent focusing on the brewing aspect.

 

[BlueHouseBrew]

Bottles, for the many reasons that everyone else already mentioned, but also because part of the fun of homebrewing is planning the next big thing for your brewery. If you don't start with bottles, you'll never be able to drink a homebrew while designing/building your kegging setup.

 

[wardens355]

You can also use the kegging equipment like a bottling bucket by adding the sugar, racking the beer on top, then hooking up to low pressure and filling bottles. Added benefit of being able to purge the bottling vessel (keg) with CO2 before transferring. Add a beer gun = bottling made easy. Then you can fill bottles or use the keg(s) as the serving vessel.

 

[Ariza-Poet]

Don't know if anyone said it, but if you're going in with a buddy, how will you split batches in a keg?

some how i've thought of that few times and keep passing it over like it'll be cool haha.

Thank you for pointing that out.

 

[MattyIce]

Don't know if anyone said it, but if you're going in with a buddy, how will you split batches in a keg?

Bottle from the tap. Easy peasy, no sediment and less time.

 

[douglasbarbin]

Bottle from the tap. Easy peasy, no sediment and less time.

Or fill growlers

 

[King_Coaster]

The first thing I decided when I got into brewing was that I never wanted the headache of bottling and I couldn't be happier with my decision! Yes it is a pricey startup but I am real happy with the results. Everybody keeps talking about seeing if you like it before going to that step but I am sure you have already made the decision that you like beer enough that you want to make it... I am 8 batches in since June and I have 2 different beers on tap at all times, I have growlers to fill if I need to take beer with me or give to family.
Peeps talk about the hassle of cleaning kegs but it is truly quick and simple and I'm drinking beer 3 days after filling my kegs. I voted for kegging and I meant it. No regrets.

If you can't afford a kegerator, buy and old fridge (people even give them away to get rid of them) A couple hundred will get you the gas bottle, lines and taps and you can get 4 pressure tested empty kegs for less than $150. Once you have that all you need is some oxyclean and starsan and you are good to go.

Bottlers who have never kegged will always tell you to bottle, keggers will always say why in the hell would you want to bottle?

 

[logdrum]

Also hit the keg button before reading the post. That said, bottling a couple of batches is not only cheaper, it's a good skill to have.

 

[robert843]

I keg because SWMBO got tired of the mess in the kitchen and encouraged me to get into kegging. If you can afford it -- keg!!!! If you bottle first, you can find other uses for the bottling items once you move into kegging. The only items that were not re-purposed when I made the switch were the capper and bottling wand.

 

[Murphys_Law]

They're not mutually exclusive! Do both! I keg mostly and find it way better but also bottle. I may make a little extra to bottle a sixer or so for give away. I am going to bottle a 5g batch today to split with my son in law.

 

[ericbw]

Bottle from the tap. Easy peasy, no sediment and less time.

Except when it foams over. It's better and easIER, but not easy peasy.

 

[slym2none]

KED KEG KEG....So much easier..and cooler:rockin: .

...and expensive... and maintenance intensive...





-slym

 

[douglasbarbin]

...and expensive... and maintenance intensive...





-slym

Definitely expensive. The maintenance isn't too bad when you get a good system going, though.

 

[beergolf]

Definitely expensive. The maintenance isn't too bad when you get a good system going, though.

Same with bottling.. Get a good system and it is very easy.

 

[fuzzy2133]

When you start kegging build you own keg and carboy washer then reuse that pump to clean keg lines and recirculate chiller water from an ice chest of icy water. 1 pump and 3 attachments that fit in a bucket!

 

[QuadConPana]

After about 10 batches, I'm about to do what I wish I had done to start. I'm buying a small <$200 chest freezer as a fermentation chamber. Hopefully before that is finished fermenting, I can afford the $175 for a keg, party tap, regulator and CO2 tank. But, even if I have to put that off, the chamber will make my beer better.

Eventually, I'll get tired of needing to empty the keg before fermenting the next batch. But, at least most of the equipment will be useful after a future upgrade.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I'm one of the few who checked "other" because none of the other choices were my reasons for choosing one over the other.

Aside from most of the obvious reasons for doing one over the other (ease, expense, time, kegerators are badass, etc), if a beginner could start with kegging, they might find it more forgiving for getting the carbonation levels right. Bear with me.

When a beginner starts making beer, there are several things they can do to mess up the carbonation levels of they bottle. They could bottle too soon, leaving unfermented sugars, over-carbonating then when they add sugar. They could add too much or too little sugar. They could lager and not take into account the dissolved CO2 accumulated over time at the cold temps and overcarbonate.
But if they keg first, then most of those problems go away. 24 hours at 40 psi, 24 hours at 25 psi, bleed, set to 10 psi and dispense (or some variation of the same concept) and most of those problems will manage themselves.

I bottle nearly everything I make (10-15 gallons a month), and only recently went back to kegging (after taking almost a decade off from kegging), and I still prefer bottling for the zen of doing it, for the small portable package, for never having to fill off a keg for competition. I love having kegged beer for the ease of drawing a glass of any size, not wasting a drop, grabbing one growler rather than 6 bottles when I'm heading out, and not having to teach non-homebrewers how to properly decant a bottled beer at my parties.

 

[Cider123]

...and expensive... and maintenance intensive...





-slym

When you add another tap to your kegerator it sets off a domino effect. When I only had 2 taps, owning 4 kegs was a luxury. Now with 3 taps, 4 kegs is quite limiting.
When I had 2 taps, I was comfortable with a pipeline of at least one beer in primary. Now I gotta have 2 primaries going to keep all taps flowing.

It's nice having 3 types of beer, but it's quite involved and expensive. You really have to love doing it. I would never go back to bottling. Each bottle is a time capsule of unknown outcome.

 

[JDFlow]

Keg.

I've had a few bottled beers that broke my heart because they were perfect except for their carbonation level. If I'd kegged them it could've been corrected.

You can naturally carb in a keg. Just toss the sugar in the keg and close the lid. If you're so inclined to age beer just build a poor mans beer gun for $4 and bottle off the keg.

It gives you an added level of control over your process.