Why do YOU keg?

[dudesbrews]

I tend to keg my session beers. That way when I say “just another half a glass” (usually more than once) I can’t get myself into too much trouble.

[jrdunne (Joe Sr.)]

@davidgzach

And I’m not crouched on the floor with a leaky bottle wand spraying beer all over the place.

I heard that can happen as you get older, but you might want to get it checked out.

[thebigbaker]

For me, kegging is quicker.  I’ve only bottled a couple of times, so my bottling process may not be the best.  I do intend on bottling a few batches for the fall and winter.

[davidgzach]

@davidgzach

And I’m not crouched on the floor with a leaky bottle wand spraying beer all over the place.

I heard that can happen as you get older, but you might want to get it checked out.

OK, two leaky bottle wands…

[system]

Craft beer tastes better from the keg.  Always on the hunt for Aroma Coma.  For homebrew, bottled conditioned tastes better (and is more visceral).  Kinda like there’s a 9-times-out-of-10 off-flavor with kegging that I can only describe as “force carbonated”.  Any ROT to get beyond that?

p.s.  happy baseball season.

[majorvices]

@""

Craft beer tastes better from the keg.  Always on the hunt for Aroma Coma.  For homebrew, bottled conditioned tastes better (and is more visceral).  Kinda like there’s a 9-times-out-of-10 off-flavor with kegging that I can only describe as “force carbonated”.  Any ROT to get beyond that?

p.s.  happy baseball season.

Can you please explain how bottle conditioned taste better for homebrew and not craft? That is making about zero sense to me.

Draft beer in every instance stays fresh longer, is easier to dial in Co2 volumes, and has better protection from light and o2 than bottles, both homebrew and craft.

[jeffgolf1]

I wasn’t very good at cleaning and sanitizing bottles.  It is a lot easier to clean one giant stainless steel bottle.

[system]

@majorvices

@""

Craft beer tastes better from the keg.  Always on the hunt for Aroma Coma.  For homebrew, bottled conditioned tastes better (and is more visceral).  Kinda like there’s a 9-times-out-of-10 off-flavor with kegging that I can only describe as “force carbonated”.  Any ROT to get beyond that?

p.s.  happy baseball season.

Can you please explain how bottle conditioned taste better for homebrew and not craft? That is making about zero sense to me.

Draft beer in every instance stays fresh longer, is easier to dial in Co2 volumes, and has better protection from light and o2 than bottles, both homebrew and craft.

It’s an opinion.  There’s a number of beers on tap that for me simply have a certain characteristic that’s unappealing.  I’ll pass.

[stevo155 (theDarkSide)]

@davidgzach

I like to bottle high gravity beers so it doesn’t sit on tap for 2 months and I can enjoy them at my leisure.

Same here but I will keg it first to get the carbonation set and and age it a bit, but then bottle the batch with the beergun for long term aging.

[beersk]

Thanks for you input, guys! Always interesting to see what others think and why they do the things they do. I really agree with most reasons why people keg and they’re the reasons I want to keep kegging. I like to have hefes in bottles though for the yeast. I don’t do many higher gravity beers, none more than about 7%, so I don’t bottle for that reason really.
I’m in the process of figuring out why all my IPA’s are turning to butterscotch a week or so into the keg and I’m thinking it’s from infection of some kind, because it gets worse over time. So I’m thinking a good thorough cleaning of kegs and replacing of tap lines is in order.

[bluesman]

1. kegs are easier to manage (one vessel vs 50 bottles)
2. more shelf stable (less oxidation) longer shelf-life when kept cold
3. serving via kegerater is preferable
4. less cleaning/sanitizing
5. beer lines are easy to clean (I use BLC)
6. force carbonation is faster/easily controlled
7. kegs are cool

[mugwort]

@a10t2

All good reasons given so far, but I didn’t see anyone mention oxidation. A standard crown cap lets in about 200-500 ppb O2 per month, and 500 or so is pretty much the maximum allowable level for long-term storage.

C’mon now.  You can’t just roll stats like that without sharing a source.  I’m staring at some precious bottled HB approaching the four year mark now with visions of oxygen ingress dancing in my head.

[stevo155 (theDarkSide)]

@bluesman

7. kegs are cool

[klickitat_jim]

I’ve found that the black top kegs are the coolest and the blue top ones lower my efficiency by as much as a  half a percentage point. Maybe they are for lite beers only.

Does anyone polish their kegs for a more tricked out, sexy, look?

“Freedom is temporary unless you are also Brave!” - Patriot

[jrdunne (Joe Sr.)]

@klickitat_jim

Does anyone polish their kegs for a more tricked out, sexy, look?

I have actually thought about cleaning them up with some BKF so they don’t look so beat up.  But ain’t nobody got time for that.

[theprofessor]

I started doing it because of #7 (the cool factor) …but in the end it also allows for convenient bulk aging/conditioning. 
And when I do elect to bottle (either a few bottles or most of a batch) I can bottle bright, properly aged, perfectly conditioned beer without producing any bottle sediment.

[brewsumore]

I just like to see the disappointed look on a friend’s face when the keg holding their favorite beer kicks, and the same face lights up a minute or two later when they realize that they actually enjoy one of the other remaining beers, possibly a style which they didn’t think they liked!

Kinda like weaning them off of BMC!

[a10t2]

@mugwort

@a10t2

All good reasons given so far, but I didn’t see anyone mention oxidation. A standard crown cap lets in about 200-500 ppb O2 per month, and 500 or so is pretty much the maximum allowable level for long-term storage.

C’mon now.  You can’t just roll stats like that without sharing a source.  I’m staring at some precious bottled HB approaching the four year mark now with visions of oxygen ingress dancing in my head.

Sorry, the 500 number is just a rule of thumb that I’ve picked up. The numbers for O2 ingress I got from the manual for our Meheen Merlin. They cite: Proceedings of the European Brewing Congress, Oslo 1993, p 654. That isn’t online, but I found a pretty interesting paper on staling that does have some data. They did find lower diffusion rates (0-850 ppb over 180 days). http://dfadel.ferasoft.com.br/homebrew/livros/artigos/flavor_stability_8p.pdf

[euge]

I quit a short homebrewing endeavor in 93-94. When I started back up in 2007 it was straight to kegs. I knew already that it was easier and less messy than dealing with bottles so enjoyed my very first batch of SNPA clone on draft.

Also, I don’t mind breaking a keg down to clean since it only takes a few minutes. I reach into the keg and feel around for any slime building up- which can happen. Then it needs a scrub with a sponge instead of just an oxyclean soak.

Bottles tend to build up on the counter by the sink. Don’t like that… Even so, I tend to bottle hefeweizens but this year I’ll be kegging them.

[beersk]

@euge

I quit a short homebrewing endeavor in 93-94. When I started back up in 2007 it was straight to kegs. I knew already that it was easier and less messy than dealing with bottles so enjoyed my very first batch of SNPA clone on draft.

Also, I don’t mind breaking a keg down to clean since it only takes a few minutes. I reach into the keg and feel around for any slime building up- which can happen. Then it needs a scrub with a sponge instead of just an oxyclean soak.

Bottles tend to build up on the counter by the sink. Don’t like that… Even so, I tend to bottle hefeweizens but this year I’ll be kegging them.

Hefes are a style where I like having that sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Perhaps the issue I’ve been having is slime/whatever building up in my dip tubes.  Since I’ve only recently bought a dip tube brush, I hope this issue goes away.