Who prefers bottling over kegging?

[thisisbeer]

I have a few kegs for beers I need to turn around fast for parties or house beers all my friends expect me to have when they come over (I mean you BM Centennial Blonde) and have a few drinks. I can see how people want a lot of bottles of different styles, but usually I have a few things I have on tap a lot. I also like to keg my IPA's so they are ready to drink faster.

Is there a rule that says you can't do both? I keep kegs for a few beers and the other beers I bottle. These can be small batch experiments, beers I age, or recently a beer that was bottle conditioned with Brett. Plus if the kegs are full I bottle whatever is ready instead of waiting for a keg to open.

 

[Photopilot]

You don't have to choose. I have over a dozen kegs and still bottle some. I really like kegging as it is easier and I have 8 taps, so there is not a shortage of choices. When I want to share I can fill a growler and take with.

I do bottle as well. Sometimes I will split a batch 5 to keg and the rest to bottle. I like to bottle big beers for aging but usually have enough kegs to let it age a bit in keg as well. I am tempted to bottle a 12 gallon batch or two just to have a lot of beer to take with. Another reason to bottle is to experiment. I can split off small batches and try different hops, oak, bourbon.

Kegs just make everything easier: transfer, carbonate and pour. Kegs can be portable also, when I joined my local HB club I brought a few beers to share and get critiqued. The next guy that showed up had a corney in each hand, every other member brought a corney. The club has two jockey boxes with 5 taps each for 10 on tap at each get together.

 

[smccarter]

I prefer bottle conditioned beer, but I absolutely hate bottling.

Cleaned up my kegs recently and discovered why I started kegging in the first place.

I'll bottle again some day, but I needed a break from it. It really started feeling like work to me. Kegging is so much faster.

I do miss bottled beer... especially when I go on vacation - can't take it with me. Not enough to start bottling again, but still...

 

[T29]

Depends on the beer. I like bottling my beer the only downside is cleaning and filling them lol leggings is nice and simple

 

[Doctor_M]

I've never had anyone wanting just a 1 ounce taste. That would really leave me betwixt an insult and questioning brewing competence.

Way to avoid the question... so instead of an answer you turn it around and suggest it's cause I brew bad beer. My question still stands. To each their own I suppose, although I feel l've proven my point. I can do anything a bottler can do and more. Like I said before space and cost are really the only negatives to kegging and I understand that, but aside from that would you care to enlighten me as to how I am wrong?

And I get the whole "bottling is my Zen" .. I get that same Zen feeling while bottling..... from my keg with a blichmann beer gun.

Edited to add OP I'll step out of this thread now... sorry for the banter.

 

[skitter]

For me it's money and space. I would love to be able to keg, but it's not as cheaply portable. My LHBS has a huge stack of donated craft bottles from people that I grab a case regularly for free. I have had no bottle costs up to this point and that is perfect for my budget

I live with the in-laws. I have a brother-in-law that doesn't respect the law of not touching another mans beer, even in large quantities. If I kegged now, I would have no beer in the keg a day from opening it. As it is right now I bottle, and simply do not tell him where I am hiding this batch of maturing beer, he has raided my stash before and the stories of him needing to use the restroom all day was quite amusing, especially as he works for DOT and had to spend time not in the restroom in a truck on the road.

 

[Zuljin]

All I've done is bottle. I know some keggers. They're all a bunch of weirdos.

 

[E-Bot]

I prefer bottle conditioned beer, but I absolutely hate bottling.

Cleaned up my kegs recently and discovered why I started kegging in the first place.

I'll bottle again some day, but I needed a break from it. It really started feeling like work to me. Kegging is so much faster.

I do miss bottled beer... especially when I go on vacation - can't take it with me. Not enough to start bottling again, but still...

THIS

I'll bottle a wit or hefe. Otherwise if I want to give away or take somewhere I'll bottle from the keg.

 

[ArcLight]

I only bottle.
Neither my wife and I are big drinkers. I have a few hundred swing top bottles, and brew 4 batches of beer around the same time so i have lots to choose from.
While it would be fun to have a 2 tap kegerator, it would take 2 months to empty it.

Plus I give away 10 bottles from each of my brews, plus a few 750 ML bottles.

I'd keg if someone gave me a kegerator and a fleet of kegs. And it would still get little use.

The only thing I'm envious of is I do have more yeast per bottle than those who keg. Now a dedicated BIG beer refrigerator would be nice to have.

 

[IanJ]

I don't have kegging space thanks to my small apartment, but I hate bottling and am looking forward to the day I can keg... and then use a beer gun to fill a few quick bottles to bring with me (or age). Really envy those of you with options!

 

[Sir-Brews-Alot]

There sure are a lot of people who won't keg, because they like to bottle for portability and varietal factors. What they apparently don't realize is they can have the best of both worlds with kegging!

Sometimes I simply keg and drink the beer from the keg...

sometimes I keg the beer, carbonate it, then bottle the carbonated beer with a beergun...

sometimes I siphon my beer straight from my primary (or secondary) into the keg, purge the oxygen, then add just enough pressure to push it into bottles with my beergun, add a couple grams of honey or sugar to each bottle, and you got bottle conditioned beer. Essentially my keg and beergun act as the bottling bucket/filling wand with the added bonus of bottling under the protection of c02...

If I only have a keg of something, but no bottles, and I want to bring it to a party or what not, I fill a growler or two and purge with c02. That'll stay fresh for a couple days if not opened. I even bought one of these nice growlers which keeps my beer cold for like 24 hours: http://www.hydroflask.com/products/hydro-flask-insulated-water-bottle-and-beer-growler-64oz

Now if money or space is an issue, that I can completely understand as a previous college student/apartment renter. Or if you just simply enjoy bottling (glutton for punishment, lol) than by all means have at it!

 

[Flipadelphia]

Started brewing September 2011, flipped to kegging in April 2012, haven't bottled a batch since. Probably never will. All that cleaning, scrubbing, soaking, rinsing, shudder.

 

[RM-MN]

There sure are a lot of people who won't keg, because they like to bottle for portability and varietal factors. What they apparently don't realize is they can have the best of both worlds with kegging!

Sometimes I simply keg and drink the beer from the keg...

sometimes I keg the beer, carbonate it, then bottle the carbonated beer with a beergun...

sometimes I siphon my beer straight from my primary (or secondary) into the keg, purge the oxygen, then add just enough pressure to push it into bottles with my beergun, add a couple grams of honey or sugar to each bottle, and you got bottle conditioned beer. Essentially my keg and beergun act as the bottling bucket/filling wand with the added bonus of bottling under the protection of c02...

If I only have a keg of something, but no bottles, and I want to bring it to a party or what not, I fill a growler or two and purge with c02. That'll stay fresh for a couple days if not opened. I even bought one of these nice growlers which keeps my beer cold for like 24 hours: http://www.hydroflask.com/products/hydro-flask-insulated-water-bottle-and-beer-growler-64oz

Now if money or space is an issue, that I can completely understand as a previous college student/apartment renter. Or if you just simply enjoy bottling (glutton for punishment, lol) than by all means have at it!

Remember that post I made about 20 varieties of beer? Having kegs for each of those varieties would get pretty expensive and takes a lot of room too. What do you do when you make half size batches, half fill kegs? As soon as I have 25 bottles empty I can bottle another half batch of a new variety and now I have 21 varieties.

 

[rico567]

If I interpret the OP correctly, it's asking if I think either method of storage produces better beer. My answer would be no. I am well able to afford kegging, and when Madame Rico and I go out, we invariably drink draft. But I bottle only, and for a reason not yet covered: it's strictly K.I.S.S. brewing. No brutus, RIMS, HERMS, keezer, kegs, none of that. I mill with a Corona mill, mash in a "big orange" cooler, boil in a cheap pot over a turkey fryer, chill with an inexpensive copper coil, ferment in a 7 gal. plastic bucket, and bottle in 12 oz. longnecks. And this system makes beer I like, and others have confirmed its quality. I therefore see no reason to change.

 

[masskrug]

It's too easy to just pull a handle and get another beer.

I can't imagine the repercussions of having a tap within arms reach of my computer. At least with a bottle I have to get my ass up, walk to the fridge and pry off the cap.

 

[Sir-Brews-Alot]

Remember that post I made about 20 varieties of beer? Having kegs for each of those varieties would get pretty expensive and takes a lot of room too. What do you do when you make half size batches, half fill kegs? As soon as I have 25 bottles empty I can bottle another half batch of a new variety and now I have 21 varieties.

Like I said, I bottle from my keg if I want bottle conditioned beer (Belgians etc.), and that works regardless of batch size. There is nothing saying you can't bottle just because you have a keg. Rather than use a bottling bucket and bottling wand, I rack my finished beer to the keg, purge oxygen, add just enough pressure to push the beer into the bottles with my beergun. I use a carbonation calculator to figure how many grams of sugar I need to carbonate whatever size batch I'm bottling and divide that by how many bottles I have, then add the appropriate amount of sugar (I actually prefer to use honey for this, it's so easy to weigh out) into each individual bottle. Works just fine. Plus I eliminate all the oxygen exposure you get bottling the old fashioned way, so really it is a superior method.

And yes...sometimes I brew 2.5g batches, and I have no problem kegging half batches, it really doesn't matter how much beer you have in the keg, it'll carbonate just the same as a full 5g batch. Although admittedly kegging, say a 1 gallon batch, would probably just be a waste of c02. I have 6 kegs and have never been hard pressed for additional keg space, but maybe I don't brew as often as others. But if I did happen to be out of kegs, there's nothing saying I couldn't still bottle a batch or ten.

 

[Doctor_M]

Remember that post I made about 20 varieties of beer? Having kegs for each of those varieties would get pretty expensive and takes a lot of room too. What do you do when you make half size batches, half fill kegs? As soon as I have 25 bottles empty I can bottle another half batch of a new variety and now I have 21 varieties.

Sure I'll fill my keg half full, if your worried about oxygen I can purge my keg with co2 before I start to fill it and then when I'm done filling I can purge any oxygen that did find its way in too.... I can also have that beer carbonated within 48 hours can you do that with bottling? And after its carbonated in that 48 hours guess what!? I can bottle that beer from my keg and repeat.

Space and cost are the only negatives I can see...

 

[jmcm_brew]

I've never had anyone wanting just a 1 ounce taste. That would really leave me betwixt an insult and questioning brewing competence.

I've done one ounce tastings to test carb and to let people that aren't big into beer try what I have on tap to see what they'd like rather than waste a whole bottle on them... I probably pour a small tasting flight for friends once or twice a week.. I still bottle big beers but once I started kegging there was no looking back.

 

[beersk]

I like the simplicity of bottling and the fact that bottles are basically free if you reuse the ones you buy and get bottles from other people. But they do break, you have to choose your bottle of choice wisely. New Belgium bottles are a no-no. I've got the scars to prove it.
Anyway, bottling is cool, but I notice after only a couple months in the bottle, the beer starts to show signs of oxidation. These are beers I've had from other people and even mine. Maybe we're all doing something wrong, but that's just my experience with it. Bigger beers are a different story.
But I keg and I like it. I've had issues with contaminated gas lines, but I've gotten over that. That's something you have to watch out for - don't let the beer backup into your co2 lines!!!!
Anyway, it's cool that those of you who prefer bottling stick with it. I've debated over the years whether to go back to bottling or not. But then I remember that I like to pour small samples or huge mugs full. Or take a growler of sediment free beer to a social gathering.

It's all preference. Kegging definitely isn't cheap.

 

[mtnagel]

This thread has got me starting thinking about kegging again. I think it would make sense to start small with a 2 tap mini fridge kegerator and then I could move to a keezer if I want to after.

The simplicity of buying an already built one is appealing due to it's plug and play nature. But the tinkerer in me wants to build my own, but in researching a couple hours today, my head is spinning.

I already have 2 corny kegs, but that's it. I see you can buy kits that come with mostly what you need except the fridge like this, but I'm assuming they don't put the most quality of parts in there, which makes me think I should piece it out myself and it seems wise to start with the tower and taps. I see people mention the Perlick faucets, so would this one be a good one to start with?

And anyone know the best fridge currently available to convert?

The regulator seems important, so do I need to get one that you can set 2 different pressures for each keg or is it okay to just get one that can only do 1 pressure with a splitter?

Any other advice?

 

[passedpawn]

The regulator seems important, so do I need to get one that you can set 2 different pressures for each keg or is it okay to just get one that can only do 1 pressure with a splitter?

You only need a dual regulator if you want to keep soda at the same time. Otherwise, it's not really necessary. (I know english beers typically have lower carbonation, but I've never cared much about that)

 

[mtnagel]

Makes sense. Thanks!

 

[BrewerinBR]

I just recently brewed batch 94 on my 3rd anniversary of being a home-brewer. I have bottled every batch. I have explored kegging and the cost and building a keezer. For me it is not space or money, it is fear. Plain, simple fear. Fresh cold brew at the pull of a tap. I would never stop drinking it. I would sober up enough to brew a batch and ferment it. Then rack to the keg and force carbonate it and then commence drinking again. A never ending cycle of drunken depravity. No work, no house, no yard or garden, just brewing and drinking .... um what am waiting for???

 

[Wynne-R]

People keep saying the only kegging downside is space and cost. Those are a couple big ones, but what about the extra work? How long does it take to clean a keg and the lines? What about mysterious CO2 leaks? Foaming?

I clean my bottles as I go. When it’s time to bottle, it takes me about an hour to bottle and cap two cases, from the time the priming sugar is dissolved to carboy soaking.

I think people that hate bottling must be doing it wrong. I know I was very happy when I threw my wing capper as far as I could. Also don’t bottle out of that stupid gurgling dripping bottle bucket spigot. Bottling over the dishwasher means no more sticky floors.

It seems to me I have a choice between staying with simple and reliable versus expensive and fussy.

 

[gometz]

Have a kegerator and 3 kegs. Have not used them since i got serious about being again last year. The kegerator is now a second brew fridge though. It seemed like i could never get the kegs 100% right, but my main motivator is that i don't have people over as often as I did in college and split time between now and my fiancee's places.
However, i do plan on kegging 10 gallons for my father's birthday in May, and I will either have to bring my fridge, or build me a portable chiller to serve out of (yay another project!)

Sent from my SGH-I747 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I can't imagine the repercussions of having a tap within arms reach of my computer. At least with a bottle I have to get my ass up, walk to the fridge and pry off the cap.

I'd like to run lines up from the basement so I can have on tap in the dining room, bit that's a lot of work & I'm too lazy to figure out pressure required and to actually do it. that and the first pint of the night would be just room temp... I better just keep it all in the basement. hahaha!!



as for the rest of you nerds arguing over which is far superior to the other, they both are for their own reasons. both have downsides too. you bunch of nerds.

 

[brick]

I'd like to run lines up from the basement so I can have on tap in the dining room

I did that once in col...uhhh, I mean I tried that once. It didn't work well because of the extra pressure it took to drive beer up 12ft against gravity. I'm open to the possibiliity that we didn't know what we were doing and our system just needed to be dialed in, but it poured very foamy beer no matter what we did.

On topic, bottling doesn't seem that bad to me. I like that I usually have 7-9 varieties available at any given time, which would be relatively complicated if I kegged. Now that I know to soak my bottles in oxyfree instead of scrubbing them endlessly with a brush it isn't that painful to package a batch. 2 hours including cleanup.

 

[ChuBru]

"Who prefers bottling over kegging"???

uhhh thats like asking....what do you like better getting kicked in the balls 1900 times or letting tera patrick take care of your junk?

KEGGING WINS FLAWLESS VICTORY FATALITY

 

[baddad]

Personally I keg everything , when I need an empty , I use the beer gun to bottle the rest of the keg

 

[Yooper]

you're all a bunch of nerds.

Yep- this place is so full of geeks and nerds that I feel at home.

Remember that post I made about 20 varieties of beer? Having kegs for each of those varieties would get pretty expensive and takes a lot of room too. What do you do when you make half size batches, half fill kegs? As soon as I have 25 bottles empty I can bottle another half batch of a new variety and now I have 21 varieties.

Yeah, but I have lots of 2.5 gallon kegs, and 5 gallon kegs, and I HATE bottling.

I can take beer to a friend's in a growler, or a soda bottle, or bottle from the keg. No sediment, no one variety, and no sediment in any bottles. I will never bottle if I don't have to.

If you guys stop over, you can pour a beer or five, and have one ounce or 50 ounces- it doesn't matter. There won't be bottles to rinse or clean, or any issues at all with how much you want.

The great thing about kegging is that the beers will last a very long time in a dark, oxygen -free, temperature controlled environment.

This is no down-side at all to kegging. You can look for one, but will not find one.

The obstruction might be costs- kegging systems can be much more costly than simply bottling.