A buddy and I made a barley wine a few weeks back and I’m torn if i should bottle or keg my half? I’m leaning towards bottling for 2 reasons. first I’ll free up a spot in my Keezer to drink other beer and secondly if it is on tap I’ll be temped to have a drink more often then not to taste it. If i bottle I can stick it in a corner and rely on the out of sight out of mind rule to keep it around for a while.
Are there any advantages to keeping it in a keg over bottling?
Thanks for your input,
Barley Wines (and a number of other high gravity styles) can benefit from extended aging or cellaring. If you want to age your bwine, you won’t tie up a keg long term. Aging is also most effective when bottle conditioned, with the live yeast active in the bottle, rather than kegged.
I’d bottle it as well if I were you, provided the ABV isn’t too high. 12-13% or so are probably as high as I’d go personally. Definitely add some additional yeast at bottling time and plan on giving it some time in the bottle to properly carb up.
Bottle, but counter pressure fill if it is really big as that will eliminate carbonation issues.
Fred
Bottle it. I’m trying to finish a keg of BW and it’s hard slow work.
Bottle. Then you can still find one in ten years time 
thanks for the input guys i think i’ll bottle it 
Slacker…(j/k ;D)
I will bottle most of my bwine, but put about a gal or so on tap using a 3 gal keg.
Those who have done it - what’s the preference for long term storage?
gasketed flip top, crown cap,cork, cap and cork?
Crown cap has been fine.
I’ve usually seen cork & crown only on meads. And even there it’s not necessary. A well crimped crown cap will last a loooong time.
Bottle all the way with cap crown. But the cork does look nice.
Good suggestion. But, I wouldn’t necessarily worry about counterpressure filling it. The BEST barley wine I’ve ever had was a homebrewed BW that was in the bottle for 5 years, that another brewer made. All of the carbonation was gone, but the beer was incredible. For a really well aged and excellent barelywine, I don’t think carbonation is too important.
You could keg it, carbonate it, and bottle it from the keg on the cheap. That’s what I’d do, see!
With anything over about 8% in kegs, I find that my productivity on other work around the house suffers.
Bottle it.
I am planning on bottling for all the reasons above…
[quote]You could keg it, carbonate it, and bottle it from the keg on the cheap. That’s what I’d do, see!
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Hmmmmm, interesting. How good an idea is this?
It’s not a bad idea and I’ll be considering it for the barleywine I have aging right now. But I’ll also be strongly considering bottling it since it’ll be aging for a good long while in the bottles (provided I can keep my greedy little fingers off of it) and I think I’d like to referment a bit in the bottle.
Plus the aforementioned issues with having an 11% beer on tap.
I’ve read before that a bottling wand fits snugly into a cobra tap, and I think I’ve seen it mentioned where you can vent the keg until there’s just enough pressure to push the beer out into cold bottles without much loss of carbonation. I’ve got a BW on tap, and its taking far too long to finish, using up valuable faucet space…
I’ve done that and it works. Now I just put the bottling wand (with the 2" long piece of 3/8" tubing that adapts it to the bucket otherwise) right in the Perlick faucet, drop the pressure & fill that way. Basically the same deal just less work. What I found though is to “flush” the line first to keep the foam down. Just run out a half pint before bottling. Cold bottles (same temp as the beer) work best for me. I tried the freezer approach & had more foam. Another point I should make. Clean the inside of the faucet spout with starsan & a piece of paper towel or something first to get those nasties outa there before inserting the bottling wand. Cheers!!!
To the OP’s question. I generally just bottle strong beers (10%+). An exception would be “hoppy” beers. IMO, those need to be consumed quicker to enjoy the hops, and dry hopping in the keg is easier for me. Cheers!!!
wow, thanks for all the info guys. From the comments I’m going to keep it simple and bottle the batch. I have room in the spare fridge to keep it at a nice temperature for long term aging after natural carbonation.