Took the leap to kegging

[Huskysibe]

Bottled up my first 2 batches ever, 2 weeks ago. Everything was going good until today I checked my brew and one bottle had burst. Was weird, pulled the bottle out of the box and it blew out the bottom. I immediatley found a deal on CL and purchased a kegging setup, it was a pin lock but better than nothing.Wife was not happy with the mess on the carpet! Not sure why it blew out as I was super careful with every step of the process since it was my first 2 batches.

Billy

 

[benbradford]

Could have been a cracked bottle. You got a single keg pin lock corny, and a single tap tower with co2 and regulator?

No matter what, you will be stoked, and the only think you will be doing from now on, is looking for more kegs, and adding another tap to your tower(btw, a second or third tap is pretty easy and cheap, and the parts are on amazon for nothing).

 

[brew2enjoy]

Don't stress about pin locks, I use them and think they work just fine. And you will love kegging, it makes the hobby much more enjoyable.

 

[heferly]

Just a suggestion, but i would invest in some mfl connectors for the keg...they have threads instead of barbs...and some swivel connectors for your bev line (buy new bev line if you got it from CL). If you end up getting any ball locks in the future, you can swap out the connectors easily!

Happy kegging!

 

[BrewThruYou]

Bottled up my first 2 batches ever, 2 weeks ago. Everything was going good until today I checked my brew and one bottle had burst. Was weird, pulled the bottle out of the box and it blew out the bottom. I immediatley found a deal on CL and purchased a kegging setup, it was a pin lock but better than nothing.Wife was not happy with the mess on the carpet! Not sure why it blew out as I was super careful with every step of the process since it was my first 2 batches.

Billy

Same thing happened to me. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottle-bombs-help-bottom-popping-out-270992/

I'm attributing it to weak bottles. I think I've done 40 bottled batches, so around 2k bottles and I've only had 3 burst. That seems like an acceptable failure rate, but it still sucks when your carpet smells like beer.

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

Same thing happened to me. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottle-bombs-help-bottom-popping-out-270992/

I'm attributing it to weak bottles. I think I've done 40 bottled batches, so around 2k bottles and I've only had 3 burst. That seems like an acceptable failure rate, but it still sucks when your carpet smells like beer.

That's amazing! That's all of .15% of your total stock that has blown out and not even a quarter of 1%!

I'm taking the leap to start kegging as well just because bottling was a PITA and beer from a tap always seems to taste better! Good luck.

 

[runningweird]

kegging is the best thing I did after starting to make beer. I now have a 6 tap tower in my living room https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/long-draw-salt-water-chilled-beer-tower-271578/

I started by finding 7 kegs on craigslist with a tank and regulator, then found 6 more a month or two later, I am still looking for more all the time. Pick them up if you can afford to do so as they are getting rare in some areas and I don't see them going down in value.

try using searchtempest.com to search multiple craigslists at one time

 

[ThatOneGuy]

I always put my freshly bottled beer into a big rubermaid storage container. I can fit a whole batch in there just in case one blows.

 

[ozzy1038]

You can always convert those pinners to ball lock. The advantage is they are shorter. The disadvantage is they are bigger around which can suck as that can mean the difference between a 3 keg keezer and a 4 keg. I am SOOO glad I started kegging. Not that I hate bottling, but I love having draft beer. If I want to pour a 4oz glass I can! Plus you can bottle from the keg and not worry about yeast sediment getting in your beer if the bottles are on their side.

 

[subliminalurge]

The disadvantage is they are bigger around which can suck as that can mean the difference between a 3 keg keezer and a 4 keg.

Yep, this is why I'm paying the little bit extra for "real" ball-locks. The spare fridge that I'm stuck with for the time being is a side-by-side, and just like you said, the difference in keg styles is the difference between 3 kegs or 4. (With a platform built so that the co2 tank can sit underneath the kegs...)