Keg or bottles

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Abner84, Feb 14, 2013.

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  1. utahbeerdude

    utahbeerdude Maven (1,374) May 2, 2006 Utah

    Here's one! Even after 115 batches!

    To the OP: I know I'm in the minority, but I don't find bottling objectionable. As some posts above have discussed, there are things one can do to minimize effort and time when one bottles. I actually own a (filled) CO2 tank, and several kegs, but so far I've yet to feel motivated enough to go through the process of getting it all set up and learning to keep it going in an efficient manner. I'm sure that eventually I'll go for it.

    An upside to bottling is that you can easily cool a few bottles. Cooling a keg is more of a deal. Another upside to bottling is that you easily have more varieties of homebrew available at one time, if that appeals to you. In my last inventory I had 26 different homebrews in bottles (including a number of aged Belgians and ciders).

    That said, I need to go pull 120 bottles out of Chlorox solution and run them through the dishwasher!
     
  2. rocdoc1

    rocdoc1 Savant (1,191) Jan 13, 2006 New Mexico

    When I did more big beers I kegged them as any other beer but I put the keg in the closet and just ignored it for up to 2 years. The keg had the same live yeast as the bottles would have and a keg takes a lot less room than 50 bottles.
     
  3. wspscott

    wspscott Pooh-Bah (1,934) May 25, 2006 Kentucky
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Why do you soak in bleach if you are going to run through the dishwasher? Does your dishwasher not have a sanitize cycle? Why bother with the dishwasher at all?
     
  4. utahbeerdude

    utahbeerdude Maven (1,374) May 2, 2006 Utah

    Here's my overall procedure: Immediately after each pour I rinse out each bottle. This is perhaps the most important step in the process. You really do not want to leave any beer/yeast/trub behind in the bottle for bugs to attack. I then soak batches of bottles in Chlorox to clean up any potential residue that might be left. (Some aged Belgian beers leave residue on the sides.) Granted, the bottles are santized at this point, but I figure it doesn't hurt to rinse off any Chlorox solution that might be left on them, so I run them through the dishwasher to do this and to make sure that they are sanitized. Having them in the dishwasher is also nice when it comes to bottling. I pull each bottle individually from the dishwasher and fill (the bottling bucket is on the counter beside the dishwasher) while my wife caps.
     
  5. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,176) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Which is more effort than recycling bottles.
     
  6. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,176) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I bottled my first 100 or so batches of beer. I won't lie and say it doesn't take time. If I did the whole thing for a 5 gallon batch, start to finish, it would probably be three hours or so. It's a good time to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, radio, etc. When I used to work as a lab tech 18 years ago, some of the best days were those where my tasks were mindless - like washing labware - because I listened to good radio programming.

    Here's my procedure: I have no dishwasher in my house, so there is no automatic stage. I rinse all my bottles when I empty them, and then forget about them until the next time I bottle. At that time, I soak all my bottles, about 12 at a time, in basin full of oxyclean. I scrub each one with a brush. I triple rinse each with hot water. Then I soak them 12 at a time in star san. From there, to a bottling tree. Then I sanitize the bottling bucket, rack, add priming sugar, and start the bottling and capping operation.

    I also have a kegging setup that is about 1.5 years old. Since I've had it, I've continued to bottle as many batches as I keg. While kegging is not without it's time consuming elements, I disagree with Michael Tonsmiere's quote that Jack mentions. I believe I save time when I keg. But maybe I'm not being as meticulous about cleaning my keg set-up as I am about bottles.

    Although I let my kegs carbonate slowly over a few weeks, it's possible to speed that process up considerably. In this sense, you can serve your beer sooner, and that's an advantage over bottles.

    Another advantage kegging has over bottles is that - get ready for the obvious - there are no bottles. When I drink bottled beer, there is this cycle. Drink beer, rinse bottle, run empties down to the basement out of my wifes's view. I have a room in the cellar that has a mess of bottles in it. It's kind of silly to devote space in the house to storing bottles. I probably could have invested in some system to keep them all neat and tidy, but I never did. This is a problem that has no kegging parallel.

    I figure I learned how to bottle and it's worth having. I tend to keg lower gravity beers and bottle higher gravity beers. I also bottle sours and brett beers. This has to do with turnover rate and concerns (some would say misplaced) about infections.
     
  7. pointyskull

    pointyskull Zealot (651) Mar 17, 2010 Illinois
    Trader

    I bottle and don't mind it one bit (plus I love to make labels). I don't mind the process I have in place, and StarSan sure makes like easy. Sure, I would like to keg but logistically for now it would be problematic. I'm working on that.

    My suggestion - if you go with bottles - is go with 22 oz and not 12 oz.
     
  8. spointon

    spointon Pooh-Bah (2,072) Nov 25, 2007 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Certainly not a bad way to go at all...but I would hate to tie up one of my kegs for two years :-)
     
  9. rocdoc1

    rocdoc1 Savant (1,191) Jan 13, 2006 New Mexico

    I have about 20 kegs so one or 2 in the closet is not a big deal.
     
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  10. brewsader

    brewsader Initiate (0) Dec 7, 2012 New York

    as someone who just switched to kegging, i find that the biggest advantage is that the beer often tastes better. I found carbonating a beer properly and making sure it poured gently enough into the bottle to avoid noticeable oxidation was something I never really mastered, while kegging makes it easy to purge the container with co2 (thus avoiding exposure to oxygen) and dial in the perfect amount of carbonation.
     
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