Thinking about switching to kegging...

[shaynsawchuk]

I've been brewing for about six months now and started with a bottling setup. I recently moved to a new place and it's a bit smaller than the old one. I no longer have a laundry sink to wash bottles in and don't really have the room to store all the beer! The bottling process and fiddling with carbonation levels holds very little appeal to me, but I do it out of necessity. I live in Canada so buying/building a kegerator is a bit of an expense. A convertible fridge would run me around $250, and a conversion kit (including a CO2 tank, 2 used cornies, cleaning supplies and a growler filler) about $600. I largely brew largely session ales for personal consumption but do a few high gravity beers every now and again and I feel like I would still want to bottle those. Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides and was hoping for some members opinions to see if I missed anything!

 

[DrunkleJon]

Lets see.

Cooling source - Check
Kegs - Check
Conversion Kit (hoses, regulator, CO2 tank, QD's) - Check
Cleaning supplies - Check
Growler filler - bonus

Yeah, you have all you need for a setup there. My only advice is get minimal 10-12 foot beer lines (on a homebrew scale it seems to give the best pour) and in my opinion the set and forget carbonation method is best.

 

[hennesse]

Once you start kegging, you'll never go back.

You will have only 1 bottle to wash instead of 48. Opening a bottle of homebrew is cool, but there's no better feeling than flicking the tap handle and watching your glass fill while admiring the nice creamy head.

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I use Corny kegs as my secondary fermenters - I simply bent the liquid-out tube up a little so it wouldn't suck up any trub. I transfer from the 2ary to my serving keg using 10 psig carbon dioxide pressure.

I use secondary fermenters mostly because I want to free up my glass carboy primaries as soon as possible for the next batch. They also help if I want to dry-hop my APAs or IPAs.

Corny Kegs - don't cheap out, get good ones. I've gotten mine from McEver Distributors. There are several other good vendors. What you don't want to do is get those "real deal" $20 kegs that have been beat to death...

CO2 gas - besides purchasing a bottle and regulator, you have to get the cylinder refilled periodically - and sometimes when it's most inconvenient. Do you have an industrial gas store nearby? Think welding supply store. This can be a big concern if the nearest one is 100 km away.

Growler / bottle filler - the Blichmann Beer Gun - around $75 - it works very well and is easy to use. I use one to bottle beer from my kegs to give to some of my friends.

Dave

 

[Demus]

Are you doing taps? If so go with Perlicks. My standard ones kept getting sticky so I tried one out. Wish I had just spent the money in the first place. Waaaay better. And now they have them in chrome plated so they're not that expensive. I think I paid $27...

 

[BigFloyd]

I both keg (for my 3-tap keezer) and bottle. The only reason I'll bottle a batch is to make it easier to give some to co-workers, etc. Compared to kegging, bottling is something of a PITA.

Figure on buying twice as many corny kegs as you have spots in your keezer/kegerator. You'll have to shell out some dough to get set up correctly, but it's worth it in the long run.

 

[Jordo_nb]

Whoah whoah whoah.... unless you're up deep in the Yukon, your projected cost is really high.

First of all, to save lots of cash- stick with picnic taps for now.

Fridge - Any $100 (or less!) fridge on kijiji would work for you

Keg Setup - Ontario Beer Kegs sells super cheap starter kits. This Kit has everything you need for $225. All you need to do is fill the CO2 tank.

*EDIT* Just noticed the tank is separate, but still a good deal. You can probably find a better option locally for the tank, especially since most gas places swap tanks or only fill their own.

OBK is a great vendor! Kegging is great, I'm so glad I made the jump!

 

[Homercidal]

If you can get a good deal on a 20# tank, you may consider starting with it. 5# tanks are ok, but where I live I can get a 5# tank filled for about $15 and a 20# tank costs about $20.

 

[BansheeRider]

Kegging is nice but don't forget some beer styles benefit from bottling, such as Belgians, barley wines, and big stouts. When I started kegging I still kept all my bottling equipment.

 

[reverendj1]

Just to act as a counterpoint, I bottle and keg. Even when I keg, I bottle half of it. I wish there were used 2.5 gal kegs. I like having a wide variety of beer available, which is hard to do with kegging unless you drop tons of cash. I think my first kegged beer (we kegged the whole batch) was an imperial maple brown. That was a mistake. It was too good to have on tap, and too high gravity. I also find that often (maybe 1/4 of the time) I like my bottled beers better than my kegged ones when I split the batch. I think it's because when you keg, you basically stop/slow the aging process. I've never had a batch where I preferred the kegged one, just where they are equal.

Also, Homercidal is spot on. Get a 20# tank if you can.

 

[hennesse]

Just as a data point on the price

I bought a used kegerator fridge which has 4 taps, a 4-way gas manifold with shutoffs (with internal check valves), all the hoses, ball lock connectors, and a 5# CO2 tank - everything in great shape - for $400 from Craigslist. It holds 5 Cornys. I probably could have built it myself from parts for the same price, but all I had to do was plug it in!

Add the Cornys and a bottle filler to the price. Yes, it's an investment.

Keep looking at Craigslist - sometimes you find someone who is moving and needs to make their kegerator go away in a hurry, and you can get a real deal.

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One little tip. I built a plywood shelf with 2x4 supports to make the bottom of the fridge level. Painted it with exterior paint. Condensation made the bottoms of my Cornys stick to the shelf and pull off the paint.

I covered the shelf with a piece of galvanized sheetmetal, and that solved the sticking problem.

 

[shaynsawchuk]

Thanks for all the help. I recently found someone nearby on kijiji trying to offload a converted fridge with lines (sanke fitted unfortunately), a 5# tank, regulator and one pass through faucet for $200. If everything looks good it will make a good starting point with room for expansion. A pair of cornies/fittings, maintainence supplies and a growler filler should put my final cost in around $400.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Just as a data point on the price

I bought a used kegerator fridge which has 4 taps, a 4-way gas manifold with shutoffs (with internal check valves), all the hoses, ball lock connectors, and a 5# CO2 tank - everything in great shape - for $400 from Craigslist. It holds 5 Cornys. I probably could have built it myself from parts for the same price, but all I had to do was plug it in!

Add the Cornys and a bottle filler to the price. Yes, it's an investment.

Keep looking at Craigslist - sometimes you find someone who is moving and needs to make their kegerator go away in a hurry, and you can get a real deal.

-----------

One little tip. I built a plywood shelf with 2x4 supports to make the bottom of the fridge level. Painted it with exterior paint. Condensation made the bottoms of my Cornys stick to the shelf and pull off the paint.

I covered the shelf with a piece of galvanized sheetmetal, and that solved the sticking problem.

Shelf paper(or drawer liners) work too.

 

[hennesse]

I recently found someone nearby on kijiji trying to offload a converted fridge with lines (sanke fitted unfortunately), a 5# tank, regulator and one pass through faucet for $200.

Good find! Figure the Fridge at $100, CO2 tank $70-80, Regulator $60-$70. So you're already ahead of the game, and it's mostly assembled already.

One final suggestion since you have to convert from Sanke to Corny: make all your hose fittings with flare connections, not crimp. Much easier to disassemble for cleaning.