Kits N Kegs

[BobtheBrewer]

Jesus, all the bottling hatred.

I reckon you guys are just lazy. AG for close to 3 years now, bottling every step of the wa,y brewing on average once a week and still cracking the grain with a hand cranked mill.

I have one keg that has not yet been put to use but I'd much rather learn about the ins and outs of actually brewing good beer than making beer brewing easy.

Not to say you can't use kegs with kits - as CMII said, it's too different things but I'd hate to see any of you if you had to hand churn butter you milked yourself from a cow. Might have to have a lie down.

Where's the DIY spirit gone?

Aside from the fact that kegging is easier/less labour intensive than bottling, I am convinced that beer out of a keg is tastier than beer out of a bottle. I'm referring to homebrew, not megaswill.

 

[manticle]

pppffffft

 

[BobtheBrewer]

pppffffft

I'll admit that you don't hear that sound when you pour a beer from a keg.

 

[Yob]

 

[manticle]

I'll admit that you don't hear that sound when you pour a beer from a keg.

Give me a shout next time you're pouring Westvleteren or Rochefort from a keg and I'll be over.

 

[manticle]

View attachment 54424

Didn't Allison Angel use that in her last video before she retired?

NTGAWIFOCOWWDU*


*'Not to google at work, in front of children, or wives who don't understand' warning

 

[stux]

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.

I bought a dish washer for that

Same reasoning really.

 

[stux]

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.

Yep, I keep a whole stack of midi glasses these days. Never did that with bottles...

 

[stux]

pppffffft

I'll admit that you don't hear that sound when you pour a beer from a keg.

Hehehe... no... you hear it when the keg blows

 

[pk.sax]

.

 

[bignath]

Hehehe... no... you hear it when the keg blows

Nah Stux, dont you know about those silent, never ending kegs that dont run dry???.

Gotta get on that bandwagon fella!

In all honesty, my kegs seem to be making that dreaded sound more often lately. Its a real ******* of a sound innit?

 

[pk.sax]

I saw the beer line empty before I heard it and still tried the tap hoping for another!

 

[BobtheBrewer]

Give me a shout next time you're pouring Westvleteren or Rochefort from a keg and I'll be over.

Mate, I said what I think, you did too, we don't agree, end of story.

 

[michael_aussie]

interesting discussion ........

great to read manticle defending bottling.

i guess at the end of the day .. it's what floats your boat.

Personally, bottling .. cleaning, storing, rinsing, sediment, etc etc gave me the *****. Yes I'm a lazy brewer .... yes managing the bottles .. rinsing the bottles after pouring a beer, storing the rinsed dirty bottles, cleaning the bottles, and then filling the bottles .... was getting me down.

I slowly gravitated to soft drink bottles ... larger volume .. therefore less work. ... but then I was caught by the ... "once you open it you have more to drink" issue.

I got into kegs thanks to Cocko upgrading when he purchased a huge set up that an ex AHBer sold.

Man .. what a relief.

It was so easy.

I have never looked back.

I couldn't face bottles again.


AS PREVIOUSLY POINTED OUT ... this question has nothing to do with K&K vs All Grain.

 

[manticle]

Mate, I said what I think, you did too, we don't agree, end of story.

Chill sweetpea.

 

[freezkat]

View attachment 54424

Don't those pull carbonation out?

 

[pcmfisher]

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)

You spray your kids hands with starsan?

Is that safe?

Hope she doesn't stick them in her mouth or rub her eyes.

 

[BobtheBrewer]

Chill sweetpea.

Chilled! Slightly OT but can I ask how you prime your bottles and what with? I get a few bottles out of each brew and over the years have used castor sugar, dextrose and carbonation drops. I based my OP on the fact that I could always taste and smell a sweetness in the bottles which I attributed to the priming medium. Since I started kegging, when I do drink a bottle it is usually 12 months plus old. After having a good think about your response I tried a bottle of a good drop that is about 7 weeks old. Although I thought I could smell the usual sweetness on opening the bottle, it is not present in the taste. I was under the impression that home brew did not go off, but after this I have to ask the question - could that sweetness be a result of the priming medium over time?

 

[manticle]

Chilled! Slightly OT but can I ask how you prime your bottles and what with? I get a few bottles out of each brew and over the years have used castor sugar, dextrose and carbonation drops. I based my OP on the fact that I could always taste and smell a sweetness in the bottles which I attributed to the priming medium. Since I started kegging, when I do drink a bottle it is usually 12 months plus old. After having a good think about your response I tried a bottle of a good drop that is about 7 weeks old. Although I thought I could smell the usual sweetness on opening the bottle, it is not present in the taste. I was under the impression that home brew did not go off, but after this I have to ask the question - could that sweetness be a result of the priming medium over time?

Beer can definitely go 'off' in terms of the fact that it can stale. This is due to chemical reactions that occur through the life of the beer that start with how it is made and continue through to fermentation and packaging. Things like heat can accelerate these reactions. Light, especially UV is bad for hops and even brown bottles can be affected.

Flavours like cardboard and wet paper will often describe oxidised/stale beer but you can also get pleasant flavours that suit some beers like sherry or port (great in high alc dark beers).

As for my priming - I bulk prime my beers with raw sugar that is dissolved in solution, boiled and added to my bottling fermenter. If I were only bottling a few, I reckon I would still dissolve the appropriate amount in boiling water and dose each bottle with a syringe.

You can prime kegs with sugar (I think the correct dose is roughly half the amount used to prime the same batch of beer being bottled but please don't take my word - check). Maybe try sugar priming a keg and seeing if you get the same 'sweet' smell and taste once fully carbonated? Would be interesting to find out is thsi creates the difference you've noticed.

I would be surprised if it made much of a difference though - the amount is so low and should, theoretically be completely fermented out.

Personally, in regards to the good HB kegged beer I've had, I would attribute most of the difference to mouthfeel. Some kegged beer has a wonderful mouthfeel when not overcarbed which does alter perception of flavour.

 

[dkaos]

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.

Same here wasn't a hard sell.