Kegging, Is It The Way To Go?

[probablynathan]

I just started kegging last month. I started with a setup for one keg with a beer gun, It was quick and easy to setup one afternoon after work and I just keep the whole thing in the fridge. I am so glad I made the decision to go to kegs that I have started work on a 4 tap kegerator.

You wont regret it.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

TB, you must be kidding?
Do you seriously take apart your kegs every time you fill up?
I have had my keg system for near on 6 years and have done a full dismantle and clean/sanitise once- when I first bought each keg.
Good sanitation is the key :icon_cheers: Flame suit is on, but I have both 1. stored kegs at ambient temps for weeks and 2. gone straight from ferment to chill and carb, and no in keg infections (as I can detect).
Cheers, John.

Not every time (as I actually said in the post) - but certainly every two or three times. And the amount of goo I find in the crevices tells me its the right thing to do. So I recant - if you don't clean your kegs properly very often, then for sure kegging is easier than bottling. Not cleaning is always easier than cleaning.

However if you are fussy about that sort of thing - then kegging might be a bit easier than bottling, but not by a hell of a lot.

I still think people should keg - its heaps cooler and will make your beer better - I just think that if they are expecting it to change their life from an effort expended point of view, they might be somewhat disappointed.

 

[jyo]

Not every time

Sorry TB, I retardedly missed this part of your post...

I may have to dismantle and check it out. But fingers crossed, no dramas yet
Cheers, John.

 

[O'Henry]

I do the lines at work every week. The shit that comes out of there is pretty feral sometimes, esp after a bit of time to soak. Found a keg coupler (a 50l quick 'disconnect') the other day that was so feral I had to change all the seals and removable parts. Gave all the stainless a 30 min soak in PPE-worthy caustic. I would def recommend a thorough clean every season on home gear. Easy way to remember it too. Change of brewing styles, get on the clean.

 

[Bribie G]

I rest my case

 

[bum]

I still think people should keg - its heaps cooler and will make your beer better

Can I ask a question of everyone? The quote gives context to a thought I had in the back of my mind most the time I read this thread - I thought the consensus was that for a great many styles of beer a well conditioned bottle will pip a kegged beer. Have I misinterpreted lots of people's opinions - or what?

Please don't get me wrong - I am not down on kegging in the slightest. A keg system is definitely on my wishlist and I will not miss bottling in the slightest when that glorious day arrives (fwiw, I'm about as anal about my bottle cleanliness as you suggest you are about your kegs, TB, and cleaning and bottling (largely longies) a 23l batch takes me a minimum of 2 hours - every time) but it does seem odd to me that no one at all has anything positive to say about bottled beer. Not that I think OP should avoid kegs - in grain to brain, effort and sheer awesomeness terms it is very difficult to argue against.

[EDIT: Uh...I switched to bourbon a while back...please filter out the drunken waffle but I'm sure I'll still mean the central point in the morning.]

 

[murrayr]

on the subject you just raised bum;
i just did vince costanzo's advanced brewing course in which we did a brew big enough to end up with two kegs (one filtered, one unfiltered) and two batches bottled (one with some preservative, the other without) and it was the consensus of the whole group at tasting time that the bottled examples were indeed superior.
that's just my one little example but it is food for thought. having said that i did just get my own kegging set up and am loving it. still bottle batches too, depends on the style of beer.
cheers, murray

 

[Thirsty Boy]

blind triangle tastings?

Bum, you haven't misinterpreted many (and probably most) people's opinion, its just that I think they are wrong. I also think that a great many of the brewers on this site who keg, aren't the sort of people who would do something just to save time or because it was cool - if they thought it was going to result in beer that wasn't as good as it could be.

I personally think that kegged beer almost always tastes superior to bottled beer. (A) because the most common problem I see in homebrewed beer is incorrect carbonation, (B) because yeasty autolysis flavours aren't my thing in beer and © because having the beer in a keg means you are far more likely to keep the beer in the fridge for its whole life, which means it will taste fresher longer. Plus the filtering thing which I find makes a significant improvement in most beers. Yeast tastes bad.

All you have to do is look at the frequency of bad bottles from micro breweries. I've lost count of the number of micro brews I've had that were pretty dam average when I tried them in bottles, but have been great brews tasted on tap. I wont even mentally classify a beer a "one I do not like" if the only version I have tasted is a bottled version. They are bad that often. And if micros cant bottle their product consistently and well... I don't think I can either.

So I keg every single beer - haven't bottle conditioned anything but the occasional "spare" in at least two years and I dont plan to any time soon.

 

[Ross]

blind triangle tastings?

Bum, you haven't misinterpreted many (and probably most) people's opinion, its just that I think they are wrong. I also think that a great many of the brewers on this site who keg, aren't the sort of people who would do something just to save time or because it was cool - if they thought it was going to result in beer that wasn't as good as it could be.

I personally think that kegged beer almost always tastes superior to bottled beer. (A) because the most common problem I see in homebrewed beer is incorrect carbonation, (B) because yeasty autolysis flavours aren't my thing in beer and because having the beer in a keg means you are far more likely to keep the beer in the fridge for its whole life, which means it will taste fresher longer. Plus the filtering thing which I find makes a significant improvement in most beers. Yeast tastes bad.

All you have to do is look at the frequency of bad bottles from micro breweries. I've lost count of the number of micro brews I've had that were pretty dam average when I tried them in bottles, but have been great brews tasted on tap. I wont even mentally classify a beer a "one I do not like" if the only version I have tasted is a bottled version. They are bad that often. And if micros cant bottle their product consistently and well... I don't think I can either.

So I keg every single beer - haven't bottle conditioned anything but the occasional "spare" in at least two years and I dont plan to any time soon.

I don't like giving 1+, but couldn't have said it better.

cheers Ross

 

[brettprevans]

on the subject you just raised bum;
i just did vince costanzo's advanced brewing course in which we did a brew big enough to end up with two kegs (one filtered, one unfiltered) and two batches bottled (one with some preservative, the other without) and it was the consensus of the whole group at tasting time that the bottled examples were indeed superior.
that's just my one little example but it is food for thought. having said that i did just get my own kegging set up and am loving it. still bottle batches too, depends on the style of beer.
cheers, murray

Murray

from what you've described you haven't testedike against like. You've changed variables in keg and bottle that don't match si you can't really compare and say one is better than the other.
Ie
if you filter the keg beer then u needed to filter bottle beer etc. Otherwise it's not a true comparison.
And preservitives. Yuk. U can keep them (yes I get it was a 'commercial' brewing course but plenty of microbreweries don't use preservitives).

If u do end up making an exact comparison test let us know. Personally I recon all my beers I taste from bottle or keg are the same. But then again I've also never done a side by side test either, always a time lapse between them

 

[Bribie G]

Can I ask a question of everyone? The quote gives context to a thought I had in the back of my mind most the time I read this thread - I thought the consensus was that for a great many styles of beer a well conditioned bottle will pip a kegged beer. Have I misinterpreted lots of people's opinions - or what?

Please don't get me wrong - I am not down on kegging in the slightest. A keg system is definitely on my wishlist and I will not miss bottling in the slightest when that glorious day arrives (fwiw, I'm about as anal about my bottle cleanliness as you suggest you are about your kegs, TB, and cleaning and bottling (largely longies) a 23l batch takes me a minimum of 2 hours - every time) but it does seem odd to me that no one at all has anything positive to say about bottled beer. Not that I think OP should avoid kegs - in grain to brain, effort and sheer awesomeness terms it is very difficult to argue against.

[EDIT: Uh...I switched to bourbon a while back...please filter out the drunken waffle but I'm sure I'll still mean the central point in the morning.]

The only cases I can think of where bottled beer is - to my palate - superior in flavour and mouthfeel to kegged beer are:

Coopers Sparkling clones.
Lagers that need a sharp carbonic bite.

I'm thinking here of my latest NZ Hallertau Lager where I bottled the whole batch and can get that certain mouthfeel by gently pouring the very cold highly carbonated lager into a chilled glass so there's just a slight head, then on quaffing it just about explodes in the mouth and freezes the backs of the eyeballs like a true Australasian lager should. I just can't get that with my Kegmate and Fonts. Maybe there are some exxie taps that give you that effect, dunno but I have to work with what I have. However having said that I wouldn't take a bottle to the rellies or hand a couple out to my fan club at work because they are bottle conditioned and you have to go through the process of "now remember to leave it undisturbed in the fridge for a week and, on opening, carefully tilt.....bla bla bla."

 

[MarkBastard]

To add to what Thirsty Boy said, I think the act of pouring a beer through a beer tap gives a better flavour than pouring from a bottle. For one you can fill the glass up to exactly the right amount, which isn't always possible with a bottle (and a lot of home brewers will be brewing in bottles bigger than the glass, which means decanting or having a second glass that's got some stirred up yeast).

When you pour through a keg I think it stays better carbonated in the glass during drinking, and I find I get a better head (not better as in bigger, but a denser head that lasts longer).

These are all just my personal opinion and not based on anything scientific.

 

[michaelcocks]

Hi, I have been thinking about making the leap and kegging my beer for a while.
The main reasons for wanting to change is that I am finding bottling beer to be very tedious and kegging seems like the way to go.
Kegging seems to be a very new world to me, and I would just like to get your opinions on things...

I would very much appreciate some advice on:

What home-brewed beers tend to be a delight on tap? IPA's? Pilsener's? Ambers? (I have the ingredients for a Fly Blown Belgian, a leffe blonde clone, would this go well on tap? I have had leffe on tap quite a few times and it has always been great.)

Is it as simple as; what is good on tap in your local pub will be great home-brewed on tap?

Also where are the best places to get food grade CO2 or CO2/Nitrogen mix for stouts?

Just do it - You won't go back ...

I bought kit from Pat at Absolute Homebrew - Get my CO2 in 20 fl oz (paintball canister (~$40) - refills are 5$ - lasts about 3-5 kegs - (gas and serve)

 

[juzz1981]

Does anyone know of a good place to buy a good quality (john guest fittings ect) complete keg system?
I have checked numerous sites on the net and still confused as hell on where to purchase from :unsure:

 

[Maple]

Does anyone know of a good place to buy a good quality (john guest fittings ect) complete keg system?
I have checked numerous sites on the net and still confused as hell on where to purchase from :unsure:

The site sponsers are a good start. I had Ross (craftbrewer)walk me through what I needed, shipped and delivered in no time at all.

 

[Fourstar]

So I keg every single beer - haven't bottle conditioned anything but the occasional "spare" in at least two years and I dont plan to any time soon.

One thing that i might add to this. If kegged beer is not stored in the fridge, ambient temperature fluctuations will not effect a 18-19L keg as much as a 330ml bottle as the rate of temperature change is signifigantly slower due to the thermal mass of the bulk keg.

 

[cdbrown]

Kegging is great. The time saved between cleaning and filling bottles compared to a keg is enormous. But don't get rid of the bottles. 23L brews will mean a full keg and 6-12 stubbies. Also if there is a beer that's an aquired taste or just something to sample every now and again, put it in bottles. Better off keeping the keg realestate for regular drinking beers (unless you've got lots of kegs) as you might end up with some kegs sitting there for ages hardly being touched which I'm finding with the Tripel and a cider. The cider has been there for a long time ony due to the people who were drinking it deciding to curb the drinking drastically to almost nothing.

 

[Dazza_devil]

For one you can fill the glass up to exactly the right amount, which isn't always possible with a bottle (and a lot of home brewers will be brewing in bottles bigger than the glass, which means decanting or having a second glass that's got some stirred up yeast).

Just decant into a jug from a 750ml bottle unless you are using stubbies which I have found decant into glasses perfectly. I often get a wonderful thick creamy head from my bottles depending on the brew.
As much as I love my bottles I detest cleaning them but would never part with any of them. They have many bonuses as does kegging.
That said, I do aspire to being a kegger one day with a few bottles in each batch as well.

 

[bum]

Bum, you haven't misinterpreted many (and probably most) people's opinion, its just that I think they are wrong. I also think that a great many of the brewers on this site who keg, aren't the sort of people who would do something just to save time or because it was cool - if they thought it was going to result in beer that wasn't as good as it could be.

I personally think that kegged beer almost always tastes superior to bottled beer. (A) because the most common problem I see in homebrewed beer is incorrect carbonation, ( B) because yeasty autolysis flavours aren't my thing in beer and because having the beer in a keg means you are far more likely to keep the beer in the fridge for its whole life, which means it will taste fresher longer. Plus the filtering thing which I find makes a significant improvement in most beers. Yeast tastes bad.

All you have to do is look at the frequency of bad bottles from micro breweries. I've lost count of the number of micro brews I've had that were pretty dam average when I tried them in bottles, but have been great brews tasted on tap. I wont even mentally classify a beer a "one I do not like" if the only version I have tasted is a bottled version. They are bad that often. And if micros cant bottle their product consistently and well... I don't think I can either.

So I keg every single beer - haven't bottle conditioned anything but the occasional "spare" in at least two years and I dont plan to any time soon.

All seems fair and reasonable to me - especially the handling of commercial bottle conditioned beer part - it is getting to the point where I'm almost afraid to grab a beer I've been wanting to try for a while. I'm not good with disappointment.

I wasn't trying to mount a huge defence for bottles or presenting them as a conclusively better option. I just generally find it a little odd that you never hear anyone say "I'm happy with my bottled beers so there's no reason to rush into kegging if you're not sure you're ready for it yet," or similar.

Apologies if it came across like I was implying the kegs are just bar bling. Absolutely not my intention at all.

 

[murrayr]

Citymorgue,
I know it wasn't a perfect comparison i just thought you might find it interesting. And of the unfiltered keg and the bottled beer without preservatives (i agree on the anti-preservatives front); that is the two beers that were the same, one bottle, one kegged; the bottled beer was indeed the better of the two.
hope that clarifies.
murray