Kegged for the first time

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Diggs

Well-Known Member
Joined
20/11/11
Messages
353
Reaction score
24
I know I have seen you guys on here sprouting on and on about how good kegging and how you will never bottle again.

How good is kegging? I will never bottle again! : D

Unfortunately I only have a party charger and a brumby tap to start with, but i have a fridge and will be setting up a dual tap scenario very shortly.
 
Oh, you're on a slippery slope now!! Kegs breed once you've got them and sooner or later you're mortgaging your house just to buy the latest and greatest (insert brand/tap number here) to add to your 6 or more keg system to get that same variety you had in bottled beer.
Nothing wrong with 6 kegs though :D and I don't miss bottling at all except that I brew 25L batches so I've got a few takeaways/testers out of every batch.
 
And that's what growlers are for... The only reason I've kept my capper is for comp beers.

Congrats man, your gunna love it
 
Need to fix my efficiency before I see more than 19lt out of a batch, but quality, tasty beer is my priority currently.
 
Yob said:
And that's what growlers are for... The only reason I've kept my capper is for comp beers.

Congrats man, your gunna love it
I don't know about you, but I struggle driving home after a growler of a Belgian Dubbel!!
Grolsch bottles all the way here for the keg overflow. Mini Growler if you may??
 
My dad recently started kegging after scoring some cheap kegs and buying a CO2 bottle and reg. I phoned him up and asked him how he went and he said, "Yeh not too bad but I only ended up with 15 litres in the keg" when I questioned why he tells me that he filled his bottles first then the keg...

Umm dad..your doing it wrong.
He's sorted now and loves it.
 
When I first started kegging, I only bottled the 3 -4 litres that wouldn't fit into the keg, but now I'm actually bottling nearly as much as I'm kegging.

The reason being, that I when I'm going to a mates place or camping, I want to take my beer with me and taking kegs isn't practical.
 
Truman said:
My dad recently started kegging after scoring some cheap kegs and buying a CO2 bottle and reg. I phoned him up and asked him how he went and he said, "Yeh not too bad but I only ended up with 15 litres in the keg" when I questioned why he tells me that he filled his bottles first then the keg...

Umm dad..your doing it wrong.
He's sorted now and loves it.
No...he's doing it right....
You bottle 6 bottles for comps/club/take-out/aging
You keg the rest....
simple...
****...i must be pissed...responded to like 4 posts just now....instead of just doing a bum ....
F
 
fergthebrewer said:
No...he's doing it right....
You bottle 6 bottles for comps/club/take-out/aging
You keg the rest....
simple...
****...i must be pissed...responded to like 4 posts just now....instead of just doing a bum ....
F
Yes but he didn't leave 19 litres for the keg. He bottled all the bottles he had sanitised and only had 15 litres left for the keg. I think he bottled over a dozen bottles.
 
How good is kegging? I will never bottle again! : D :super:


When I was first starting to keg about 10 years ago I said to myself, I'm always going to keep bottling a few to store away. It never happened.
 
The other advantage of kegging is going grain to brain within a week. Can't do that with bottles.
 
Liam_snorkel said:
The other advantage of kegging is going grain to brain within a week. Can't do that with bottles.
How do you go from grain to brain in one week. :) Still takes me 2 weeks to ferment then 1 to 2 weeks to carb in keg.

Ive been home brewing now for about 2 years and about a yr ago decided that I was going to give kegging a go. I setup a fridge to house 3 kegs and 3 taps and I was even able to keep the top shelf in the fridge to keep bottles. Well, in my fermenter is beer ready to keg but I dont have any room so I have been toying with the idea to bottle it. I came up with a great idea today. As most fridges have the compressor thing mounted in the bottom rear of fridge it takes up room. So I removed the top shelf, made a new shelf that sits in the bottom over the compressor thing and hey presto, I can now put two kegs right up the back of fridge and two more in the front now. So now Im looking for 2 kegs cuz i think i might be able to squeeze two more in there and end up with 5. Its either that or Im going to have to source a deep freeze to fit 6 kegs and sell my fridge :)
Macca
 
Macca - easy. Ferment with a quick yeast like bry-97, notto, WB-06, and primary can be done in 4-5 days (temp depending) give it 1 more day to be sure, crash chill, (filter if you don't like yeast) force carbonate, and drink.
 
macca05 said:
How do you go from grain to brain in one week. :) Still takes me 2 weeks to ferment then 1 to 2 weeks to carb in keg.
Macca
Why do you carb it up in the keg? Isnt that the whole benefit to kegging (apart from no bottles), that the co2 does it all for you?
 
Diggs said:
Why do you carb it up in the keg? Isnt that the whole benefit to kegging (apart from no bottles), that the co2 does it all for you?

You still have to carb it up, where ever or not you naturally (sugar) or slow or force carb (CO2 bottle) it, it is still carb'ing the keg.
 
So you can bulk prime as usual and then potentially not need the co2? Or just top up with co2 if required?
 
Bulk prime in the keg. Store at room temp for 2 weeks then chill. Saves on gas if you have the time. Just one big bottle. Bulk prime at about half the rate of bottles.
 
Liam_snorkel said:
Macca - easy. Ferment with a quick yeast like bry-97, notto, WB-06, and primary can be done in 4-5 days (temp depending) give it 1 more day to be sure, crash chill, (filter if you don't like yeast) force carbonate, and drink.
Oh ok. Geez that is quick then. I think im still a sucker for ageing. I dont like the taste when force carbing. To me its like its still in the fermenter. But thats just me. I know now it can be done if i ever need some quick smart.

Diggs said:
Why do you carb it up in the keg? Isnt that the whole benefit to kegging (apart from no bottles), that the co2 does it all for you?
As explained already the co2 is not an instant process. It still needs to "soak" into the beer to carbonate. As written above by Liam you can force carb your kegs, but i tend to leave my co2 on low and let it carb over a week or two.
 
Back
Top