[AmandaK]

How about - red/orange/green coolers work as well as blue 

Orange ones are the best, obvi. 

[AmandaK]

Of course, in reality I'm not doing this for the cost savings on beer. And some batches (i.e., my IIPA's) are definitely more expensive than craft beers. But as hobbies go, my return on investment is much greater in homebrewing than other hobbies I've taken up over the years.

I think the same way you do, in this regard. While my day job as a cost analyst almost forces me to track & analyze all the money I spend on the hobby, it really doesn't matter in the long run. I spend what I do on the hobby because I love it - and that's worth more than whatever I paid for it. 

[weithman5]

.  Supposedly a jet burner can melt a hole in a stainless pot full of water.

i can boil water in a paper cup on a camp fire though

[Jimmy K]

How about - red/orange/green coolers work as well as blue 

Orange ones are the best, obvi. 

Whenever I use my orange cooler, my friends come over and my net beer gain for the day is negative.

[HoosierBrew]

Minus the understood expense of equipment, the cost of an all-grain batch is fairly low for average gravity styles.  But the ability to control the end result, and blend science together with creativity,makes the payoff so much bigger than a financial argument.

[bluesman]

Bottling is a real PITA for me. I have two keezers and a beer fridge that keep me busy, but I would much rather package one vessel than 50 vessels. 

I always break down my kegs and give them the once over. I use PBW then Starsan with a CO2 purge so they're ready for the next fill. I've never accounted for all of the time to maintain the keezer and fill/clean kegs, but it really doesn't matter for me because I really despise bottling. Just my way. 

[erockrph]

Just to chime in on the bottling thing, I typically brew 3-gallon batches, so bottling isn't that big of a deal. I have a good system down, and the actual bottle filling/capping process takes me less than 20 minutes for about a case or so of beer. I generally reuse my homebrew bottles, so I only bother with label peeling every few months. Even then, a soak in Oxyclean and hot water makes it pretty simple. I sanitize my bottles in the dishwasher, so that is minimal effort as well.

I rather enjoy bottling, but if I was brewing 10 gallon batches I would certainly think that kegging would make life a lot easier.

[beersk]

Well, kegging is much faster than bottling. Especially as the amount of beer increases.

I think his point is that if you take into account ALL the tasks involved with kegging, not just the wracking part, it's comparable.

I don't know if that's true for everyone though. for instance, I don't have tap lines to take a apart and clean all the time. Mostly I put some hot PBW in the empty rinsed keg and run it off through my cobra taps, follow with hot water rinse and sanitizer. but I bet each time a keg kicks I spend ~.5 hours dealing with it, another .25-.5 actually wracking beer to the keg. Then once in a while I have to take the keg and taps apart to clean deeply. every once in a while I have to drive ~1 hour round trip to get co2, etc.

bottling takes ~1 hours on the day but I have to spend maybe another hour delabeling and rinsing bottles. so I bet it's pretty close.

Agreed. I've been bottling again lately, and it's really not that big of a deal.

[majorvices]

Except: You aren't factoring in your labor let alone your equipment. Homebrew is some of the most expensive beer in the world.

i guess i shouldn't be mowing my own lawn either, because the amount of money i could earn during that time is way more than what i pay the kid down the street. ,  not many hobbies are cheap. this one can be expensive or not.  my lbhs has a huge ss blichman kettle for 700 bucks.  my kettle bought at a goodwill store for three bucks.  add another 20 tops for the electric element not so much.

Time is money my friend. Just because you enjoy doing it doesn't mean you are spending it ... or even spending it wisely.

[weithman5]

i understand. but i don't consider how expensive my time is when i am out for a bike ride, growing tomatoes etc.  infact, i have installed my own hardwood floors, resided my house, built my own shed, when i could have probably been working and made more than what i would have paid someone to do it for me, but i need a change of scenery from the normal work i do, the labor is theraputic for me, and there is always the "ha, i can do that" factor. 

[majorvices]

i understand. but i don't consider how expensive my time is when i am out for a bike ride, growing tomatoes etc.  infact, i have installed my own hardwood floors, resided my house, built my own shed, when i could have probably been working and made more than what i would have paid someone to do it for me, but i need a change of scenery from the normal work i do, the labor is theraputic for me, and there is always the "ha, i can do that" factor.

I know what you are saying but if you have a friend come over and drink 12 big pints of your czech lager that you have been hanging onto for 3 months and he blows the keg or you have a leak in your poppet and you leak an entire keg of Belgian Quad into your keggerator what is it that hurts the most? Is it the cost of ingredients or the time you put into it?

[denny]

There's a tremendous amount of myth out there. It seems like every time a few get knocked down and everybody agrees they are not based in fact a couple new ones pop up. It's like a hydra of stupid. 

I've only bottled my beers and I don't see it as that big of a pain. Like anything else in homebrewing there's ways to trim time if you really want (e.g. leaving the damn labels on the bottles). I'm not anti-kegging by any means but I'd say I could probably prep and bottle beer almost as quickly as you could clean a keg, sanitize, fill and pressurize. I don't think the time saving is immense. That's what I took his point to be but I might have undersold it to myself. I dunno, I'm not anti-kegging in the least. I own a couple cornys I bought cheaply a couple years ago I'm still using as fermentors because I don't have the space for a tap set up right now.

With all due respect, you say you've only bottled so you really don't have a comparison.  Kegging is MUCH faster than bottling.  I can have a keg sanitized and filled in 20 min.  It takes me at least that long just to sanitize enough bottles for a 5gal. batch.

[beersk]

There's a tremendous amount of myth out there. It seems like every time a few get knocked down and everybody agrees they are not based in fact a couple new ones pop up. It's like a hydra of stupid. 

I've only bottled my beers and I don't see it as that big of a pain. Like anything else in homebrewing there's ways to trim time if you really want (e.g. leaving the damn labels on the bottles). I'm not anti-kegging by any means but I'd say I could probably prep and bottle beer almost as quickly as you could clean a keg, sanitize, fill and pressurize. I don't think the time saving is immense. That's what I took his point to be but I might have undersold it to myself. I dunno, I'm not anti-kegging in the least. I own a couple cornys I bought cheaply a couple years ago I'm still using as fermentors because I don't have the space for a tap set up right now.

With all due respect, you say you've only bottled so you really don't have a comparison.  Kegging is MUCH faster than bottling.  I can have a keg sanitized and filled in 20 min.  It takes me at least that long just to sanitize enough bottles for a 5gal. batch.

Well do what you want, but I keg and bottle these days. It's nice to have the option to do both, have more beer around, thus more brewing.

[majorvices]

I keg and bottle, too. Always have. Doesn't make the bottling any faster.

[denny]

Well do what you want, but I keg and bottle these days. It's nice to have the option to do both, have more beer around, thus more brewing.

I don't know why you'd assume I don't do both.  If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to make the comparison.