Keg or Bottle?

Systems, Gear, & DIY
1

When did you make the jump from bottling to kegging?

Did it make a significant difference in the quality of your beers?

Any insights are appreciated!

Do you keg or bottle?
  • Primarily Keg
  • Primarily Bottle
  • 50/50
0 voters
2

I started out kegging, didn’t bottle at all for almost a year. I remember when my dad used to brew how much of a pain it was dealing with bottles all the time, so I just went straight for kegs. I bottle on occasion, usually when I know it’s a beer I’m going to want to share.

I’ve got 7 or 8 cases of old pry-off miller lite bottles, all empty at the moment. I’ve got four kegs, looking to get more soon. Eventually I’d like to lager in them.

I find my kegged and bottles beers to have about the same level of quality. One thing to note: my bottled beers have tended to be more clear, probably because the age more/get consumed more slowly than my kegged beers.

3

I didn’t get into kegging to make better beer, only to get away from bottling.  Started about a year and a half after I began brewing.

4

I went about three years before kegging. I still bottle a handful of batches every year. Big beers and Saisons mostly

5

“Vote Jonathan Fuller for AHA Governing Committee. For every yes vote, Jonathan will send you a can of Heady Topper.”

That’s hilarious…I have to admit I thought about this almost immediately after I heard he was moving to VT. Shame on me.

6

My disability made bottling really difficult, especially if I had no help. Kegging is much easier for me to accomplish.

7

For most beers you can hands down say draft is better. The beer is simply preserved better. Also you can dial in co2 vol much better. for some beer an argument can be made for bottling. Easier to age (not taking up entire keg), wanted micro oxidation (barley wines where oxidation may be somewhat beneficial to aging), and higher co2 vol such as some belgian styles or hefe weizen.

If you are interested in getting into kegging: Do it. It is the best way to serve most beers. No argument there.

8

I started kegging a few years ago simply based of my laziness.  I strongly dislike cleaning bottles, filling bottles and capping bottles.  Kegging is a big time saver, but it isn’t automatic.  You still have sanitation and prep like you would with a bottle, you just have to do it once instead of 30 times.  That said, I plan on bottling 3 batches this summer.

Why the Saisons Steve?

9

I just like saisons bottle conditioned. I normally brew 10 gallons of saison and bottle half.

Kegging can also be a total PIA with all the little issues that pop up from time to time.

10

Yeah, I mostly keg, but it is really frustrating to find a few gallons of beer at the bottom of the kegerator because of a leaky poppet or loose hose clamp.

11

That certainly is true. The first kegs I bought were brand new ball-lock ones from a company I won’t mention. Bought taps from the same company. Couldn’t get gas in or beer out of them. Turns out these “new” kegs had universal poppet valves where the springs were too strong. Figured out what poppet valve to replace them with, and they work great now.

One of those kegs also had a batch of discoloration on the dip tube, several of my early beers had a harsh metallic flavor that I eventually traced to that dip tube. Replaced that, and no metallic flavors since.

I should mention I tried contacting the company several times, but they never helped me out. But I learned a lot about kegs, so I’ve got that going for me…

12

My thoughts, too.

13

I started kegging about 6 months after I started brewing, mostly because of convenience.  It’s just easier.  Almost 20 years later, and I usually only bottle with a beer gun for competitions.  Every few years, I might bottle a batch the old fashioned way to remind myself why I don’t bottle anymore.

14

Perhaps the irony is that with a kegging set up bottling is a lot easier and more sanitary and better results. Rack beer into a keg, add priming sugar. Purge head space with co2. Shake or roll keg to distribute sugar. Insert bottling wand firmly into the spout on the cobra tap (it fits perfectly) and bottle standing up via co2 pressure rather than hunkering down on the floor. Much faster, easier and better!

15

kegged from day one. i only bottle specific styles of beer-hefeweizens and similar.

16

I brew small 1.7-gallon batches so I always bottle.  I still bottle even when I make the occasional 5-gallon batch for festivals because I never bought proper kegging equipment.  I have experimented with the 5-liter mini-kegs and they work great; however, on my last batch, the old steel keg must have begun to rust as the beer tasted like metal, so that kind of turned me off for a while.  One of these days I’ll have to get a new mini-keg and try it again.  I remember I liked kegging a lot since it was so dang easy.  But what I don’t like about it is that I can’t just have a bottle every once in a while, no, I need to keep the keg cold and drink it all in a month or two.  I’m more lazy than that.  I like to keep a few bottles around for many months or even a year sometimes, and you can’t really do that with kegs.  There’s certainly advantages/disadvantages both ways.  For a guy who doesn’t drink heavily like me, bottling is really the best way for me to go.

17

I bottle for a number of reasons:

  1. I brew a lot of small batches and it’s just not cost effective to buy one gallon kegs and a whole draft set up when bottles are readily available.

  2. I brew a lot of saisons and sours that benefit from higher carbonation than what a draft system is designed to provide.

  3. Many of the styles I brew benefit from aging and sometimes aging under carbonation (i.e. brett beers) and there’s just no way to have that many beers aging in kegs (at least not for me).

  4. I don’t have the room in my house right now for a draft system.

I am not anti-kegging though. It’s just not as good of an option for the beers I brew, the batch size I brew (right now) and my space limitations. I have four corny kegs that will eventually go into a draft system and I rig up a mobile set up to take beers to parties but for now I am comfortable just using the pile of bottles at my disposal. I have a couple party pigs that I use off and on with some of the pieces removed that emulates cask dispensing but that’s not quite the same thing. My next house will have more brewing space and that will give me room for a bar with a draft system…

18

+100, This is how I bottle now.  So much easier than the bucket I used for years.

19

Same here, this is what I do whenever I bottle now. I seems like a very professional brewery way to bottle.

20

I have been going back and forth on this. I’m about to put on an addition which will give me more kitchen space. I was thinking of putting a tap system in the kitchen. I decided (I think) its too dangerous. I might still get a keg system but put it somewhere else.