I keg because I’m too lazy to bottle. Bottling takes way too much time and effort. I can keg a beer, including sanitizing time (walk away and let the keg soak for 10 minutes), in less than 15-20 minutes (rinsing keg - 1-2 minutes, siphoning beer into keg - a couple of minutes). Washing 50+ bottles, rinsing them, filling them, and capping them takes way more time. I don’t clean the lines and taps between beers - the new beer flushes the old out, never had a problem with the old beer affecting new beer flavor (although I do change hoses and rubber when going from root beer to beer). My fridge has 5 taps so I keep a good variety on hand all the time.
Having said all of that, some of the best brewing times I’ve ever had was bottling with several friends helping.
I bottled my beer until I started brewing 10 or 15 gallon batches. Bottling wouldn’t even be feasible for those batches. Bottle storage alone would have been a major issue.
Another huge advantage to kegs is that in the morning there’s just one glass to clean, and not a pile of empty bottles my wife can point at and ask if I really thought drinking that many beers was a good idea.
I can come home for lunch, run Starsan through 2 kegs, make a sandwich, fill the kegs and be back to work on time.
I was a nothing but bottles guy until I switched to keg. Now I’m stuck. Though I will soon be trying to bottle a half rack of every keg with a cobra tap and bottle filler
The keg vs bottle debate thread has been resurrected! Of course we won’t really change the minds of those dead-set on either side, but it’s fun to hear the pros and cons, with perspectives sometimes really pushed to the extremes.
I’m contrasting the people who clean their lines every week or two to those people who when a keg blows just hook up another keg and let it flow. We can be as precise or relaxed as we want in this hobby/obsession.
That’s not to say there are no consequences. But since we’re the creators of the brew (at least up until we pitch the yeast), we feel the success and occasional failure personally. While we can be bombarded with information on what is the “best” way to brew–a decent amount of it conflicting–we demonstrate by our actions what we believe. Brewing and debating brewing is sometimes governed more by emotion than logic or science.
As for my bottling and kegging habits, the merits of kegging have grown on me. I’ve never minded bottling, but I really like the fact that if I want, I can pull a keg off tap and tinker with the brew if I get inspired. You know, applying the unplanned dry-hop or the rubber-mallet-cracked coffee bean addition.
Not having a bunch of bottle bombs after incorrectly measuring priming sugar was a big reason! I also feel its more convenient. Cleaning the keg after use doesn’t take too much time for me. Maybe a half hour, then I sanitize and pressurize so it’s ready to be filled right away. I find sanitizing all those bottles takes about the same time, but I’m using a 5 gallon buck, so I only let 10 or so soak for about 5 min or so at a time.
I’m a bottler and that’s fine with me. I only brew small batches, so the time investment in bottling isn’t that bad for me. I have a workflow that works into my lifestyle pretty well. The main pros that would have me interested in kegging are the cool factor and the lack of sediment when serving my homebrew to friends. But since that generally only happens a couple of times a year, that’s not enough to justify the initial expense to either myself or the wife. I’m eyeing a tap-a-draft system, though. Seems like a reasonable way to meet my needs.
I me because I was tired if also of the bottles laying around and takin up space. I also like the fact I can carbonate a beer in two days as opposed to four weeks though I will keep bottle conditioning my Belgian styles.
I cannot agree more. Ask any brewer and they will probably have their own unique process, but they all (or most) work just fine. For instance: I was once chided at a meeting for using bleach to sanitize my equipment, I was told it was evil and would ruin my beers. Well, guess what: I’ve brewed 130+ beers now sanitizing with bleach with no problems. I rinse thoroughly. That person’s sanitizing method works for him, mine works for me. He spends more money on sanitizer than I do.
Kegging just fits the whole brewing process. I REALLY enjoy brewing. I brew two to three times a month. I would brew more but this by far surpasses my consumption and sharing levels so bottles are working their way back into the process. I use the kegs as secondaries to dry hop in, as bright tanks, aging and conditioning, etc. They are easier to work with and store once you get past the primary fermentation in a carboy or bucket. And then the best part, which is serving awesome homebrew from them! I have started utilizing three gallon kegs and bottling the remainder of a five gallon cornie with some brews. Both are easier to transport for sharing and enjoying away from home. It just depends on the situation. I have to say the reaction and cool factor when showing up with a keg to share is always awesome!
Whether your kegging or bottling, the cleaning process in brewing is I think the biggest challenge. While I think I can always improve on in my brewing processes, I have started to spend more time on making the “clean and sterilized” processes better as well.