Kits N Kegs

[manticle]

I see what you're saying but how much do you learn about brewing good beer by spending time washing 30 bottles? Week after week?

I learn about the importance of attention to detail, sanitation and cleanliness, patience and the rewards of hard work.

Actually neither kegging nor bottling teaches anything about brewing really and neither needs to get in the way of learning. I brew week after week and I read week after week. That teaches me about brewing. Bottling doesn't prevent any of that any more than kegging would accelerate it.

I was shit stirring while simultaneously standing up for bottling as I find the suggested associated difficulties a bit overblown. Kegging probably is much easier once you've outlaid, set up and worked out balancing your lines etc but bottling beer really isn't like writing a masters thesis, mining or living on a submarine for 6 months of every year. It's just putting 20 - 40 L of liquid inside some clean bottles and capping them. Some smaller micros still do it one-two bottles at a time and that's on a commercial scale.

I'm not after a kegging vs bottling debate as vs debates always annoy me. I bottle now, will keg in future but will probably still bottle some beer, especially special to be aged types. It just isn't the giant prehistoric rhinocerous that everyone makes it out to be though. Toughen up brewers.

Just re-read your question Flewy - I didn't mean to imply that bottling teaches me anything, just that in the order of priorities, I'm glad I researched extract, partial and all grain brewing before fussing about dispensing systems (actually still not fussed about dispensing systems).

 

[Yob]

Jesus, all the bottling hatred.

...and still cracking the grain with a hand cranked mill.

:lol:

 

[manticle]

You've seen 'em.

Bloody 'uge I am.

 

[mattyra]

It just isn't the giant prehistoric rhinocerous that everyone makes it out to be though. Toughen up brewers.

I agree. If it wasn't for bottling my brews I wouldn't have my little daughter being the brewing assistant (she sticks her hands out so I can spray them with starsan). I still use the coopers carbonation drops for ease of use really. It still makes great beer, gives the partner a break from my daughter and allows me to have a bit of fun time with her.

Good story with here once was that I was bottling one of my brews, when I found a handful of buscuits in the barrel. I didn't know what to think, but nothing too bad come from it.

 

[stux]

I love kegging but that doesn't mean I am going to give the bottles away. Plus my normal batch makes 23L and my kegs hold 19L. I'm not wasting any beer.

I gave away all my bottles

Now I *only* collect brown swingtops. Mainly because I don't have to bother with getting out a bench capper and sanitizing bottle lids just to bottle a few beers for archival purposes.


I do actually save the occasion craft style longneck purely for entering beer into comps because I'm not going to get the bottle back

 

[Wolfman]

I keg and bottle. I mainly keg my beers that need med to high carbonation and bottle the low carbonation also beer I want to age. Works well for me.

 

[benno1973]

<snip>Actually neither kegging nor bottling teaches anything about brewing really and neither needs to get in the way of learning. </snip>

Actually, for me, kegging frees up time that I put into learning about brewing. I am a more passionate brewer because I have made the parts that I find boring much shorter. I still have a requirement to pay attention to cleanliness and sanitation, I just spend less time doing it.

 

[manticle]

As I said - kegging is presumably much easier than bottling. All I'm saying is that bottling isn't that hard. If you find it's hard, you're doing it wrong. I find washing dishes more of a chore than washing bottles.

 

[benno1973]

As I said - kegging is presumably much easier than bottling. All I'm saying is that bottling isn't that hard. If you find it's hard, you're doing it wrong. I find washing dishes more of a chore than washing bottles.

Pfft... dishes? We've moved to paper plates.

 

[jimmythehuman]

Couple more questions.

1. Beer on tap+no willpower= enormous beerguts. How trues is this for most of you with kegs? I struggle to control it with store bought beer

2. If you bottle, why not buy the wife a new diskwasher with the sanitise feature...makes her and you happy

 

[benno1973]

1. Beer on tap+no willpower= enormous beerguts. How trues is this for most of you with kegs? I struggle to control it with store bought beer

Not true for me. While pouring a beer on tap is tempting and easy, it also means that don't have to have a multiple of 750ml (or whatever your bottle size is) in a sitting. I'll sometimes have half a schooner to taste how a beer's going, but I don't have to drink a whole bottle.

 

[mxd]

As I said - kegging is presumably much easier than bottling. All I'm saying is that bottling isn't that hard. If you find it's hard, you're doing it wrong. I find washing dishes more of a chore than washing bottles.

it's not, it's really quite hard.

I have to walk out to the man cave in pitch black, decide what to drink, pour one then wonder what the hell it is. Drink it then go and get another beer, and try to remember what the last one was.

If it was like last night 2 kegs blew, so then I have to replace them with full one from the front bar, all of this whilst I've been drinking, so not only it's hard it can be dangerous

 

[mxd]

Not true for me. While pouring a beer on tap is tempting and easy, it also means that don't have to have a multiple of 750ml (or whatever your bottle size is) in a sitting. I'll sometimes have half a schooner to taste how a beer's going, but I don't have to drink a whole bottle.

bloody quitter :lol:

 

[bignath]

Not true for me. While pouring a beer on tap is tempting and easy, it also means that don't have to have a multiple of 750ml (or whatever your bottle size is) in a sitting. I'll sometimes have half a schooner to taste how a beer's going, but I don't have to drink a whole bottle.

I agree.

There certainly was a honeymoon period when i started kegging many years ago, but the novelty wears off pretty quick and i found i soon settled back down into my usual drinking habits from when i bottled.

Went absolutely nuts initially, but not so much anymore. Still have the big sessions now and then, and thats when kegs really shine. Nothing worse than having a big night of poker, pies, and pales, and then waking up the next morning to boxes of empties you have to clean.

 

[benno1973]

bloody quitter :lol:

I meant half a schooner of the barley wine before 5 pints of IPA

 

[manticle]

Not true for me. While pouring a beer on tap is tempting and easy, it also means that don't have to have a multiple of 750ml (or whatever your bottle size is) in a sitting. I'll sometimes have half a schooner to taste how a beer's going, but I don't have to drink a whole bottle.

Interestingly enough this seems to me to be one of the advantages of kegging. I only ever bottle in 750 mL unless doing a 12+ month old sour or similar.

If I just want a little taste of something but it's quite late at night it's either - open 750 and force myself to drink the lot, open 750 and pour what I want and leave the rest to go flat, go without (not an option) or drink something else like wine or whisky.

Having beer on tap means pouring exactly the portion you want which might only be 150 mL.

 

[black_labb]

Those mushroom plug things work pretty well for resealing a bottle if your just going to finish it the next day. The carbonation may be down after venting and increasing the headspace while pouring but it works fine if your going to finish it the next day.

I tend to bottle similar numbers of 330's and 750's so I can decide if I want 1 750, a 330 or 2 different 330's. I'd love to bottle most things in pint bottles though.

 

[Deebo]

Man up Manticle. Bottle 60 x 375ml bottles rather than slacking it with the 750's and your problem is solved.

 

[DU99]

swing type bottles i still have,no capper required,i brew 23 litres,keg 19 bottle the rest,but last batch i made only 19 litres..

 

[glenwal]

Nothing worse than <snip> waking up the next morning to boxes of empties you have to clean.

Thats exactly how I got swmbo to approve the keg system. She was getting pretty annoyed having bottles constantly left all over the kitchen - moving to kegs fixed her problem.