Howdy,
I think I’m ready to start brewing beer again. I like to brew, have more time these days, want to brew a lower octane (say 3-4% alcohol range) yet tasty beer, and don’t want to deal with bottling. Of course, if someone has a great bottling option, please do share. Maybe 1 liter swing top brown reusable bottles might be tolerable. Maybe these are even about a wash in terms of filling/sanitizing/using versus a keg system?
I probably want to brew in 5 gallon carboys but could do 6.5 gallons if that makes more sense.
What is a practical set up? I have a spare fridge that has room to put in a soda keg or 5 ish gallon keg. I don’t want a separate keg fridge, not looking to impress and just looking for a set up that would be “better” than a big bottle/PET option.
I just have a 5# co2 bottle with a dual regulator and a couple of picnic taps. With 4 cornie kegs to cycle through that keeps me in beer. Mine is in a chest freezer, but I used to use an old fridge with no problems. Keep meaning to make a kegerator out if it, but it works fine as is. Kegging is a huge upgrade from bottling, the least fun part imho of brewing.
I went the route of buying a prebuilt kegerator, because I’m starting to lose faith in some aspects of my DIY skills and was absolutely sure I’d drill a hole through a coolant line while doing the conversion. I mention this only as a point to consider if you’re going to put the taps outside the fridge; if you’re going to use a picnic tap, don’t worry about it. I bought a three-tap kegerator to have plenty of variety available.
The prebuilt kegerator lasted just under a year before I had to contact the company to replace it because, of course, one of the coolant lines developed a leak. Luckily, it was still within warranty (by about three days).
Anyway, I haven’t bottled any homebrew in about two years and I don’t miss it at all. In addition to the time saved in bottling, the beer is carbonated and ready to drink much faster. It’s also nice to be able to have a short pour of something without wasting the rest of the bottle. If I want to share some with friends, I just fill up a growler or two from one of the taps.
If I ever make a barleywine or something else that’s worth cellaring, I’ll bottle it; otherwise, I don’t see myself bottling ever again.
I know you said you were probably going to bottle in your other thread, but kegging is much easier than filling bottles no matter what the size. If you want to go cheap, just put a corny keg in your spare fridge and use a picnic tap. For a little upgrade, you can get a mounted tap so you don’t have to open the door every time. I’ve put in both door- and top-mounted taps, and the door ones are easier because you don’t have to worry about drilling through a coolant line. If you go with a top mount, try to find a schematic for the fridge so you know where the lines are (then cross your fingers).
Think about where you want your CO2 canister too. My latest kegerator has room inside for the CO2, which is easier. In my old one, I had it next to the fridge and ran the line through the door.
I have two kegs in mine, but didn’t want the expense of two regulators, so I just put a splitter in after the regulator and it works fine. The pin valve at the end seals it well enough that it doesn’t leak if I have only one keg attached.
I built my two-keg system from scratch, and I doubt I saved much money over buying a prebuilt kegerator. And if you factor in the time it took to obtain all the parts and assemble it, it’s not even close. Unless you have access to a lot of cheap used parts, want something really custom, or just like building things, I think prebuilt is the way to go.
I hear you. Over time, I have realized that my DIY skilz were probably never all that great, I’m waaaaay out of practice, don’t have the tools and don’t do it on a frequent basis. Time to accept that I make decent money and should pay someone that actually has the DIY chops, or just buy the fucking thing off the shelf.
I’m probably going to go with 1 liter swing top bottles as I first get back into home brewing. Filling 20 bottles from a spout, and washing said bottles in the dishwasher isn’t the onerous chore that capping 2 1/2 cases of beer is. Although after a few rounds, and I’m back in the full homebrew mojo, I will probably come around on a kegging system.
I’m thinking one probably *needs *a minimum of 3 kegs. One for tapping, and then the other two for various stages of being the next on tap. Or do you tend two have two different beers tapped, with one as a backup? Or should I plan on having more than 3 kegs?
I hear you. Over time, I have realized that my DIY skilz were probably never all that great, I’m waaaaay out of practice, don’t have the tools and don’t do it on a frequent basis. Time to accept that I make decent money and should pay someone that actually has the DIY chops, or just buy the fucking thing off the shelf.
I’m probably going to go with 1 liter swing top bottles as I first get back into home brewing. Filling 20 bottles from a spout, and washing said bottles in the dishwasher isn’t the onerous chore that capping 2 1/2 cases of beer is. Although after a few rounds, and I’m back in the full homebrew mojo, I will probably come around on a kegging system.
I’m thinking one probably *needs *a minimum of 3 kegs. One for tapping, and then the other two for various stages of being the next on tap. Or do you tend two have two different beers tapped, with one as a backup? Or should I plan on having more than 3 kegs?
I stick to ales so that I can brew in the basement’s room temperature.
I’m an extract brewer, not full grain.
5 gallon glass carboy for primary fermentation, and I’ll do secondary in a Pepsi-style cornie, in the fridge.
If necessary I force-carbonate with a 20 lb. CO2 tank.
I do have a home made kegerator, so the CO2 tank also feeds my dual dispenser setup. I also keep a smaller, 3 gallon cornie filled with sanitizer to make cleaning the lines easier.
I also use a commercial carbonator cap to make 1.5 litres of soda water whenever I want it. Although I usually prefer plain soda water, I’ll sometimes add sucralose, flavoring, and sometimes citric acid so that I can offer guests home made soda.
To cool the wort I have a coil of copper ice-machine line that I connect to the sink, and use this as an immersion cooler. It’s fast!
To clean the glass carboy, letting it sit filled with water and bleach is amazing effective. Any residue seems to self clean. Although a lot of people use plastic buckets, I worry about scratching them during cleaning (scratches can harbour nasties).
When I repatriate I might consider going all grain and building an actual all grain “system”; it will depend on my money, interest, and time. Sadly although I have all of the equipment purchased here on the road (except the refrigerator), I’ve never used it, so I can’t wait to get it home and add it to my gear.
(Snipped for brevity.) Yes. If you are in the position to purchase a prebuilt system and don’t have the inclination to build one, just buy one. I understand that there are a lot of home brewing folks that like to be DYIers; I’m not one of them. I figured that the skills needed to build a kegerator/keezer would be used once or twice; after a quick CBA, I decided to just buy a kegerator.
As to your second question, I have four kegs. One is filled with pressurized StarSans all the time; the other three rotate between homebrew and an iodine/PBW pressurized solution to clean the lines. I run the iodine/PBW keg through the lines after a keg is emptied, then I run the StarSans keg through the lines before connecting the keg containing the beer.
I have four kegs for my two-keg system: two on tap, and one or two waiting. I could probably get away with only one spare. I carbonate by krausening, so it takes about a week before it’s ready to tap. You don’t want it sitting unrefrigerated for much longer than that, so having a lot of spares means unused kegs or stale beer.
If you don’t have spares, you can also pressure-carbonate a keg in a day: chill for one day in the fridge, then hit it with CO2 at 40 psi while you roll the keg back and forth for 15 minutes.
I think you’ll definitely want at least two beers on tap once you get into it. It’s nice to have a little variety, both for yourself and for visitors.