Poll: Are you a kegger or bottler?

[kombat]

I'm just curious what the breakdown is. I had assumed most folks kegged their beers, but I'm seeing a lot of people posting about bottle bombs, priming sugar, and other bottling issues. So I figured a poll might be handy to actually quantify users' packaging methods.

For clarification, "bottling" in this context means bottle-conditioning. If you occassionally bottle some beer off your keg to store/give away/bring somewhere, that doesn't count. That would be a "kegging" vote.

 

[unionrdr]

I still bottle all of my beers. I had such a big stack of boxed bottles-12 pack & case boxes-that I had to thin the heard a bit. I weeded out 8 12 pack boxes of Sam Adam's bottles. I have a couple boxes of plain craft bottles I rinsed & dried but need to de-label for future use.

 

[Hello]

I bottle because I only began brewing in August 2013. I know some folks went right to kegs and that is awesome, but I wasn't looking for that financial commitment just yet.
I will keg very soon and likely just bottle bigger beers. Unless of course I start finding out that I can fill kegs and leave them at room temp to condition. That of course means I need more kegs.

I will say that I am not the one who finds bottling fun. I did swap to bombers for my last batch and that was actually perfect. As soon as I bottle up this swill I have (that is the true name) I'll only use bombers mostly for the rest until I have kegs.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,I've got enough gadgets,including a bottle tree & vinator to make bottling day fairly quick & easy. It's just easier & less work/expense for me.

 

[Ilan34]

I bottle... Been brewing for just over a year. I had the choice between a kegerater and a temp controlled ferm chamber, and I chose the ferm chamber. No room for kegging at the moment - we live in an apartment.

Incidentally, am I the only person who bottles who finds that the worst part isn't the amount of bottles to fill and cap, but the cleanup afterwards? That's what eats up the most amount of time. Am I doing it wrong? Lol

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[jcoxen]

I mostly keg my beer but it really depends on what I brew. For instance, I'm not going to keg a Barley Wine. There are some others that I routinely bottle as well because I don't drink them regularly or want to pass them out to friends.

The Sweet Stout I did last weekend will get split between bottles and keg, the Bitter will be keg only. The Cider I have working will be bottle only. You get the idea.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I bottle. I like sitting down with a bomber and now have to worry about
A: overdoing it
and B: I don't have to keep getting up to refill.

Also I dont have the space or money for a kegging set up.

 

[unionrdr]

That's what wives & kids are for!

 

[bman1056]

I started brewing this past October. It bottled twice, and that was enough for me. Started buying kegging equipment in December and kegged a bourbon barrel porter just after Christmas. Much faster/easier/cleaner. I like force carbonation better than priming. I spent more $$$ to get set-up for kegging, than I did to get set-up for brewing. No looking back.

Blanchard

 

[Beer-lord]

I'm a kegger. If I need to send some out, I just grab the beer gun and bottle up what I need.
Easy peasy for me.Such a time saver. I really think I'd brew less beer if I had to bottle every batch.

 

[ianw58]

I started brewing this past October. It bottled twice, and that was enough for me. Started buying kegging equipment in December and kegged a bourbon barrel porter just after Christmas. Much faster/easier/cleaner. I like force carbonation better than priming. I spent more $$$ to get set-up for kegging, than I did to get set-up for brewing. No looking back.

Blanchard

Gotta ask...

What's with the jug if Soy Sauce? Some special brewing tip you can share?

 

[andrhamm]

kegger for sure


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[geoffm33]

I'm a kegger. If I need to send some out, I just grab the beer gun and bottle up what I need.
Easy peasy for me.Such a time saver. I really think I'd brew less beer if I had to bottle every batch.

I kegged my first batch last night. Wow was it fast. I'm hooked.

 

[Kirkwooder]

I bottle. A case of bottles comes pretty cheap compared to a kegarator and kegs, taps, tanks, and what not.

I hope that will change soon though! lol

 

[BShuler]

I bottle all mine. Maybe one of these days I'll have some spare cash to start kegging

 

[CervezaMaLa]

Can't vote - even split...all based off of empty keg space. I'll eventually move to 90% kegging, but can't fit a huge keezer in my apartment...someday

 

[bleme]

I'm a bottler although I will be kegging a batch this weekend. Too bad I don't get to keep it. It's being donated to the Lion's Club Irishfest.

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

I mostly keg but I do bottle at times

 

[Scubadude918]

Just bottled my APA and will be kegging my St Patrick's day stout. Equally both.


____________________________
Primary: DFH 90 Clone
Secondary: Empteh
Secondary: Cider

 

[masonsjax]

I'm a kegger, but that's what we call ourselves, you bottlers can't say that word. Im gonna let you say kegga cause you're my boy though.

 

[NivekD]

Need a "both" option. I do both. I have two taps and lots of bottled beer too.

Cheers...

 

[runkelia]

I bottle, but not by choice.
My job usually changes states every couple years.
I do have 5 corny kegs for the day I can settle down.

 

[unionrdr]

Don't particularly wanna say the "K" word. I have enough stuff to easily bottle my beers & the patience to wait. Even kegged beers need time to condition a bit. You can't cheat that part by much. Besides,it's too much expense,upkeep & extra cleaning for me. Besides,I've gotten to like bottling as a part of the brewing process. It'd be interesting to do a time study on cleaning kegs & all their parts,lines & taps included,vs bottling stuff. I'd like to see some numbers on which takes longer on average to clean & fill/clean up after. Not to prove which is better,just to see some more cpmparitive information.

 

[evanmars]

Started bottling way back, built a kegerator and kegged for about 6 years. Had to move about a year ago. Had to sell the kegerator and now don't have space for it where I'm staying. So I bottle for now, but will likely go back to kegging as soon as I can get a place with some room.

 

[CooperBrew]

The first year or so I bottled since then it's been kegs all the way. For me it's a lot easier, faster, takes less space. Bottling days used to take some time. Sanitize the bottles, transfer to the bottling bucket, fill, cap and stack the crates in the closet for a few weeks to carb. Now I siphon the beer from the primary to the keg, put in the keezer, attach the gas line, purge a couple of times to make sure there is no O2 in there and done.
It was a bit of a financial investment but worth the time saving and space saving for me. That being said I kept my bottling equipment (gave away all but a case of bottles) so that I can bottle some summer drinking concoctions like Skeeter Pee to share with the neighbors. I also have a bunch of bombers that I use for my less than 5 gals batches of things like Meads which I usually do in 1 gallon batches.

 

[beersk]

I keg. Bottled for the first year and 3 months of brewing, then bought a kegerator. First batch was gone in about a week, I was so excited to have beer on tap. Then I had gas line issues for a couple years because I think I backed beer up in my lines once and didn't know it happened. Contaminated co2, no good. But that's all resolved now.
Been kegging for 4 years, but wouldn't be opposed to bottling again someday. I wouldn't use a plastic bottling bucket though. I'd use a keg with a picnic tap and a bottle wand and push the beer into bottles with co2 and let them naturally carbonate. I've done that before and it works great. Bottling isn't so bad, just need to find a solid routine and you can get a batch bottled in an hour or so. No big deal.
Having said that, kegging is f*cking awesome though.

 

[Beer_Eugenics]

Bottle beers such as sours, saisons, barleywines, smoked ales, RIS and quadruples. Keg everything else.

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[dog_gone]

Keg. I have a homemade beer gun and a few boxes of bottles just in case, but I rarely use them.

 

[TonyG]

I started with kegs from my first batch, as bottling just didn't sound like to much fun. A couple of good deals came up for kegs and for the kegerator while my first batch was still fermenting.

 

[beergolf]

You definitely need to add the both option.

I have two taps. One CO2 and one nitro. So I keep something like an IPA on tap and then the nitro tap is for Stouts or Irish Reds.

I brew a lot of Belgians and saisons so those always get bottled. I also bottle a lot of my beers because I really like variety. I rarely drink two of the same beers in one night.

 

[rattyboh]

Kegs for me. I bottled for about 2 years until I found a great deal on a kegging setup on Craigslist($180 for two tap kegorator and two kegs). So much faster and simpler, I've brewed more batches in the last 6 months than those first two years


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