What's wrong with bottling?

[joebagodonuts]

I don't get it. I keep seeing people post about how hard it is to bottle.
Many say that they keg because bottling is so hard.
Is it really? I've never had any problems and I find bottling real easy - plus it takes no time at all to bottle.
I've never kegged so I don't know. From an outsider (who's never kegged), it seems like kegging is more complicated and I would need a lot more equipment - which means more monies.
What am I missing here? Why is kegging easier than bottling?
Is it just concerns with oxygen and priming?

 

[misterVT]

I stopped homebrewing 8 years ago because I couldn't stand the hassle of bottling. It wasn't until I had the money to invest in a nice keg system that I started again and I've never looked back.

After 2 years of kegging, I decided I'd bottle five gallons so I could give some beer to friends. Sure, I was out of practice but the hassle of cleaning and sterilizing, plus the mess of overfilling I was done with it before I even finished filling my last bottle.

More power to you if you enjoy bottling. I know I don't like my friends that much that they need my beer bottled.

 

[Pinck]

I'm a big advocate of bottling, and I have a kegging system. Once your system is set up, kegging is very quick and easy, like transferring to secondary. That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with bottle conditioning, and it's in fact preferable for some styles. I still often bottle batches even though I have the option to keg since it offers better portability and ages nicer.

 

[buzzkill]

its not that it is hard to bottle,just that you can fill 1 keg,or 2 cases of bottles. Plus I do 10 gal. at a time. you can come on over and try your hand at bottling 4 cases. I still bottle some.

 

[bdupree]

plus, it's kinda badass to have beer on tap at home.

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

I keg nearly all of my beer. But when I do bottle, I find if I plan the time it really isn't all that much of a chore. I also rinse my bottles soon after pouring though so that helps on cleaning.

Sure I could fill a keg in the amount of time it takes me to fill my bottling bucket, but it isn't all that bad to bottle.

 

[isurf]

the keg is the path of least resistance

 

[dzlater]

bottling isn't hard
but kegging is easier

 

[jpoder]

fully agree! I've never found bottling to be a big hassle. I usually only do one case of 12 oz bottles and the rest in 22's, grolsch bottles, or 750's so it is not so many containers (6 gallon batch typically). I've borrowed a friends kegging setup and have kegged a few batches, but have been hesitant to jump in for a few reasons, namely:

a) cost. kegging is expensive! sure, after the initial investment it is not so bad, but bottle caps are far, far cheaper than CO2.

b) variety. I brew lots of belgian beers...tripels, quads, etc. and am starting to get into sours. I really prefer to sample these as they age over a year or more's time. I wouldn't want to tie up a keg for that long. now if I had a dozen kegs and a LARGE keggerator... but again, refer to point a)

c) portability. It is hard to take a keg and setup with you...but easy to take a few bottles to a friends house (like I plan to do on Monday for a BBQ). yes, I know I could fill a growler, but having bottles ready is really a convenience thing. I know you can fill a few bottles from your keg, but see points a) and e) ...yet another piece of gear, and more issues.

d) give-aways. this is somewhat related to point c) I tend to give away a lot of beer...friends, family, fellow beer enthusiasts. It is extremely rare to actually get bottles back from these folks (empties would be fine...full would be even better! ) so having cheap, plentiful 12 oz bottles is a must.

e) complexity. this forum is FULL of kegging issues. leaking CO2, beer in the lines, balancing carbonation, keg assembly issues, beer leaking out, etc. bottling issues are usually confined to, "it has been A WHOLE WEEK since I bottled...why aren't my bottles carbonated?!?"

I do a good rinse on bottles when I empty them, and put them into a closed case. when I'm ready to bottle I fill a big tub with starsan and let a few soak at a time, pull them out and stand them up on a large tray. I've been meaning to buy one of those handy rinsers that you push the inverted bottle down on and it sprays the inside with starsan, but my method works well enough, so usually find excuses to buy other things. I then fill the bottles right in the large tray so that any overflow just fills the tray. I place an uncrimped cap on each bottle until all are full. I then have a smaller tray that I use to crimp on...(I use a hand crimper, so need the space to pull down the handles). i then give the bottle a dip in the starsan (to remove any beer on the sides/ bottom of the bottle) and set on the ground to dry a bit before placing in the cardboard case. total bottling time for from start to end of cleanup is usually a little more than an hour.

 

[hexmonkey]

For me, the PITA was in the bottling bucket system.

I like bottling a lot more now that I have a kegging setup. For the few beer styles that I make that I want to bottle condition, I skip the bottling bucket and instead use the keg as a bottling bucket:

1. Rack beer to keg after fermentation is complete
2. Dose with appropriate amount of priming sugar and add'l yeast, if necessary
3. Close keg, purge with CO2
4. Roll keg around on the floor to evenly mix priming solution and yeast
5. Fill bottles with BMBF using CO2 at very low pressure

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

bottling isn't hard
but kegging is easier

+1

Also I don't want to spend the time cleaning and sanitizing 50 bottles, when I can clean and sanitize one keg in a fraction of the time. Plus I like the ability to adjust the CO2 and carbonation in the beer and draft beer just tastes better IMO.

 

[oceanselv]

If you look through this forum you can find an inexpensive way to make a beer gun. By sing this beer gun you can have the convenience of kegging and also have the ability of bottling straight from the keg. In doing so you now have the portability of bottles and the convenience of kegging.

 

[Pappers_]

Sharing the bottling luv

 

[j1laskey]

The bonus for kegging is that the whole batch is cold at the same time...you never have to chill down bottles...if you need a drink, you don't have to wait!

 

[Mermaid]

*big shrug* bottling isn't any big deal to me.

5 gallon kegs are out of the question for me right now, not enough space in the house and/or I really don't need to be tempted by 5 gallons of high ABV / strong beer sitting around just begging to be consumed. 1 bottle at a time is fine with me, and it's easier to lug around to friends and random strangers to sample.

I still will probably invest in a tap-a-draft at some point, but I would never T-A-D an entire batch. Especially since the beer I really love needs extra conditioning time.

 

[Gfei]

I can do either but I tend to bottle more than keg. I enjoy bottling and I like having bottles of beer on hand. I mostly keg when I brew a batch to bring camping and serve through the jockey box.

The trick to bottling is to figure out a setup and flow that works well for you. Once you do that it no longer becomes a chore to do. There's a good thread by Revvy here that I found helpful.

 

[akthor]

Me exactly I quit because of bottling and am back now cuz I am gonna keg. I mean a 5 gallon batch is what 60 bottles? If you enjoy cleaning, sterilizing, filling, capping 60 bottles of beer you are a better man than me. I found it tedious as hell.

I stopped homebrewing 8 years ago because I couldn't stand the hassle of bottling. It wasn't until I had the money to invest in a nice keg system that I started again and I've never looked back.

After 2 years of kegging, I decided I'd bottle five gallons so I could give some beer to friends. Sure, I was out of practice but the hassle of cleaning and sterilizing, plus the mess of overfilling I was done with it before I even finished filling my last bottle.

More power to you if you enjoy bottling. I know I don't like my friends that much that they need my beer bottled.

 

[TomRep]

I just hit 52 batches since August of last year. Some of those were 10-12 gallons, most were 5-6 gal. ALL were bottled. Thats roughly 2,880 12 oz bottles in a year and thats being conservative. I was ready to keg after the first 1,000.
tom

 

[Pilgarlic]

I'm probably at 25 batches or so. I suppose I'll go with kegging sometime. For now, I'm content. I brew great beer and I bottle it.

 

[Nurmey]

I can do either but I tend to bottle more than keg. I enjoy bottling and I like having bottles of beer on hand. I mostly keg when I brew a batch to bring camping and serve through the jockey box.

The trick to bottling is to figure out a setup and flow that works well for you. Once you do that it no longer becomes a chore to do. There's a good thread by Revvy here that I found helpful.

This is us too. We bottle as much as we keg and don't find it difficult at all. Organization, equipment, and planning are the key. We usually bottle several batches at one time and it only takes an hour and a half at most.

 

[Dynachrome]

I have local friends who keg and they are seing that even though it is more work to bottling, it has benefits like portability and being able to share/impress your friends.

Competitions are generally bassed around bottled beer too.

 

[MistyMountainHops]

It's all the reasons stated above. Yea, it costs a little more money to jump into kegging but it doesn't mean it can't be done on the cheap. The benefits far outweigh the costs IMO. If you were to keg, I think the reason's it is so much "easier" would be apparent. I recommend researching it and trying it - the worst case scenario is you still like bottling more and now you ALSO have beer on tap at your house.

 

[ArcaneXor]

What I really hated about bottling was always having the empties sitting around, needing to be cleaned and taking up space.
Kegging also gives me more control over carbonation, and the kegs function as an instant secondary/bulk lagering/storage vessel. It cuts the time between brewday and finished beer down to a matter of less than two weeks for a well-brewed session ale compared to a month or more for bottle conditioning.

 

[akthor]

You can make a DIY beer gun and bottle off your kegs when you want to give some to friends or use growlers for portability as well.

I am fairly sure when I show up with a rolling trashcan kegerator with 3 kegs of beer in it I am impressing my friends more than if I show up with a case of bottles

 

[NuclearRich]

I just hit 52 batches since August of last year. Some of those were 10-12 gallons, most were 5-6 gal. ALL were bottled. Thats roughly 2,880 12 oz bottles in a year and thats being conservative. I was ready to keg after the first 1,000.
tom

Say what??? Do you live in a lawless place? I mean, forget wondering how the hell you find the time to brew so much, don't you have a legal limit? Where I live its 100gals a year... You've almost tripled that! Not fair! lol

 

[andysim]

I make 6 to 6.5 gallons batches. I keg 5 gallons and bottle about two six packs.

 

[joebagodonuts]

After reading these responses, I just watched some videos on kegging and it looks a lot simpler than I thought it would be.

 

[ArcaneXor]

After reading these responses, I just watched some videos on kegging and it looks a lot simpler than I thought it would be.

The only annoying thing about kegging, in my opinion, is making sure you don't have any slow leaks in your system.

 

[demonrichie]

i dont have room to keg, money to get into kegging and bottles are cheap if you know how to get them(it sounds bad but ill raid ppls recycling bins lmfao)

 

[MetallHed]

quitting because of bottling? honestly?

do you quit jobs, too, because they make you do stuff?

I'm sure it's much easier and faster to keg, but I dont mind bottling at all and I can't give out or send tappers to friends and family, so I imagine I'll always bottle some even after going to kegs.

Bottling takes me an hour per batch. If you find that bottling is so hard that you quit brewing all-together because of it, you either are really lazy, or have a horrible way of going about it.

What's the big deal? RDWHAHBABTS (And Bottle That S#!t)!

 

[MetallHed]

More power to you if you enjoy bottling. I know I don't like my friends that much that they need my beer bottled.

I dont like my friends that much to have them over at my house all the time for tappers..

"Here's a bottle. Now go away."

Or better yet... USPS!

 

[mlyday]

I think it depends on how much you are brewing, I do a 5Gal batch every month to month and a half, bottling in not a problem, but If Iwas brewing once a week, I might be really sick of it. I will be moving to kegs, just because of the ease, and coolness factor, but I will still bottle some for the giveaway/portability factor.

 

[carl_g]

I bottled my first batch and then bought a kegging system. IMO it is way easier to keg and you have a lot more control over your carbonation levels. I still bottle directly from my keg if I want to give beer away.

 

[akthor]

You don't have to have a keezer or kegerator to keg. Kegs and the CO2 bottle take up less space than storing all those bottles IMHO.

i dont have room to keg, money to get into kegging and bottles are cheap if you know how to get them(it sounds bad but ill raid ppls recycling bins lmfao)

 

[IrregularPulse]

The biggest thing (IMO) is with kegging you're cleaning, sanitizing and filling 1 vessel. With bottling, you're doing all that with 50. Plus, All I do is use a single piece of vinyl tubing to transfer from primary to keg. No bottling bucket or priming sugar solution to cook up, no bottling wand, no capping, ect.

It is more equipment as far as needing a dedicated fridge and a co2 bottle. It's definitely cheaper to bottle, but kegging was money very well spent for me.

 

[lmerg]

I'm now four batches into bottling. The process isn't as arduous as I'd thought, although we often have three people working the "bottling line." I think the most depressing aspect is cracking open the bottle a week later and adding to the "to be washed" pile.

 

[NuclearRich]

I've done somewhere close to ten batches and I do find bottling to be a little bit of a chore. But nothing good comes easily. When it is time to bottle, I already have the bottles pre rinsed and in storage. I simply bunker down and commit some time to it, just as I do when I find the time to brew. It is all work, its just whether or not you enjoy it.

 

[I_B_Mongo]

I don't think that bottling is a big deal, but admit that I usually keg my beers as well. I've been luck in my kegging adventures, as I was given my first keg/CO2 bottle/regulator from a co-worker who was no longer in the hobby...then was given a couple kegs from my cousin's husband who works at a brew pub...found a 20# CO2 tank laying out in an empty lot...was given another 20# tank from my dad's friend who owns an HVAC company (along with a Nitro tank and regulator), was given a pallet! of 16 kegs! from a coke distributor, so I don't have much money invested in kegging. I still bottle at least a 6 pack of each batch, and bottle all of my big beers (barleywines, RIS, etc in bombers) and whatever else is better in bottles (hefes, belgians, etc).

With all of that said, when it comes to bottling, just rinse your bottles after pouring, and sanitize all your bottles in a big rubbermade container on bottling day. Also, be sure to check out revy's thread on bottling. Lots of great ideas/shortcuts/time savers!

 

[Naked_Eskimo]

The constant recycling of bottles is annoying. However, with kegging you're limited with keg space and keg turnover how much you can brew.

 

[lmerg]

With the caveat that I've only bottled four 5-gallon batches, I have to say that I get a childlike thrill every time I walk into our bottle-filled ferm room.